having played as other nations, i've noticed a trend in japan AI that makes Japan very strong and almost unbeatable at some point.
it puppets nat china, nat china produces 300+ divisions, japan sends it all to india, not even using any of their own divs. by 1942, dowing of US leads to overrun of philippines and most pacific islands within a month. eventually it all ends in a stalemate though because USA catches up on diivisions and they both end up havng like 200+ divisions on these opposing island in the pacific or somewhere and just stare at each other for 5-6 years.
but the morale of this story is that puppeting nat china majorly improves japanese capabilities. instead of building any divisions, you can spend your building IC on either more factories, eventually making japan have like 300+ IC by 1945 (I did it once, since you're not in war with anyone anymore, unless you declare on the allies of course, you can turn japan into a superpower pretty quickly) or build tons and tons of carriers and prepare for some major USA bashing. unfortunately i wasn't able to get that far yet and I noticed a trend with game slowing down after us builds like 300 divisions (realism you say? I laugh at you) and puts them along the west pacific so tht I cant even land anywhere...but yeah, puppeting nat china is the best
