The Japanese government also welcomed fiscal restraint, but as a way to improve its economy and strategic position while rivals remained constrained. The desired 7:10 ratio followed Japan's 4-4, 6-6, and 8-8 fleet plans and their underlying goal of making coercion expensive. The lower Washington Treaty ratio and termination of the Anglo-Japanese alliance are presented as repeated blows that reinforced Japanese suspicion rather than resolving it. One counterfactual offered here would let Britain and America each retain twenty capital ships while Japan held fourteen, preserving a six-ship margin without imposing the more humiliating 5:3 ratio.
Chapter · 23:47-28:39
Japan's 7:10 ratio as a deterrent strategy
Japan sought enough fleet strength to make an attack prohibitively costly, while treaty ratios and the end of the Anglo-Japanese alliance deepened insecurity.