It’s become obvious in the past few months that the armed forces of Imperial Japan cannot hope to survive a stand-up fight against the United States. And given the resources available to both powers even at the beginning of the war, this is no surprise. Japan had no business trying to take us on.
Japan lost the war with the first bomb at Pearl Harbor. Arguably, they lost the war when the idea of attacking the Southern Resource Area came up.
Heck, they probably lost it at the Marco Polo bridge...
The grim economic realities:
Nearly twice the population of Japan.
Seventeen time’s Japan’s national income.
Five times more steel production.
Seven times more coal production.
Eighty (80) times the automobile production.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm
At the point they reached in 1941, Japan had to take us on or accept a sudden and substantial decline in their regional power. On the other hand, if they’d thought ahead and waited until the mid 40s to pursue their takeover of China, it would have been a whole different ballgame.