Why a Yamato-like answer becomes less attractive

The proposal changes the benchmark against which Japan must plan: a 27-knot super-battleship can no longer comfortably outmaneuver battle lines built around 28-knot ships. Enemy sixteen-inch vessels would also be numerous enough to challenge a heavier-gunned ship through numbers and mobility. At the same time, Japan has already been permitted visible naval renewal and could later build within both capital-ship categories, reducing the political pressure to compensate for cancelled construction through an exceptional design. The scenario still expects Japanese expansion in China, and a naval treaty alone would not prevent the Second World War. Greater security could nevertheless alter Japanese policy toward Britain and the United States and reduce some of the confidence, fear, and mutual misunderstanding that shaped escalation.