A different post-war balance after Anglo-Japanese victory

What might the Cold War look like after a powerful British-Japanese alliance wins the Second World War?

Much depends on the war's outcome, but Japan could become a more acceptable non-communist partner than the Soviet Union and join Britain and America in a radically different great-power settlement.

Japan would remain a hybrid of parliamentary forms and military rule rather than a liberal democracy. Yet anti-communist strategy could make it useful to Britain and the United States against Moscow and a potentially communist China. The permanent membership of the post-war security system might therefore privilege Japan while diminishing China's role. Territorial settlements in northeast Asia and access to ports would become central sources of tension in the new order.