If Japan had continued developing overseas commerce, it might have become prominent earlier. Its trading position and distance from other powers provide the basis for the suggestion. Infrastructure could then have accumulated over a longer period. That might have reduced the later pressure to build many capabilities at once. These are possible consequences of an alternative policy, not claims about the course Japan actually followed.
Notable Point · 1:04:06-1:04:50
What continued commercial openness might have changed
A counterfactual asks whether continued overseas trade could have allowed Japan to accumulate infrastructure more gradually.