When Japanese commanders saw the war was lost

At what point did Japanese realists recognize that the war was lost?

Yamamoto may have regarded the war as lost before April 1943; later commanders inherited the task of executing plans despite the worsening strategic reality.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto may have concluded before his death in April 1943 that Japan would lose. Admiral Mineichi Koga died in March 1944, leaving Soemu Toyoda to activate the later operation. The answer distinguishes private strategic recognition from the institutional ability to abandon a war plan or end the conflict.