Could Imperial Japanese service rivalry have produced civil war?

If Imperial Japan's armed services had continued without the Second World War, how might their rivalry have developed?

Their hostility might have escalated into civil war before administrative questions such as air-force naming were resolved.

The naming of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and Navy Air Force was secondary to a deeper institutional problem. Army and Navy factions had become intensely antagonistic and were already damaging one another's interests. Had Japan not entered the Second World War when it did, this rivalry might have escalated toward civil war. Interservice competition could therefore become a threat to the state itself, rather than merely an inefficient way to divide aircraft and procurement.