[Ingtar]

Mostly, the Japanese lost the pilots - who were irreplaceable.

[M1903A1]

Yes. Even the Japanese recognized this later on...one Japanese admiral (I want to say either Kurita or Ugaki) likened the aerial disaster of Saipan—which went down in American history as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot—to throwing eggs against a stone wall.

[rmlew]

Mostly, the Japanese lost the pilots - who were irreplaceable.
1942 was a very bad year for their navy. At Coral Sea, the IJN lost quite a few pilots. That is why Zuikaku was not at Midway, even though she was undamaged. Midway was a disaster and was followed up by the Guadalcanal Campaign, which was a meat grinder for both sides. We held off the Japanese navy and killed hundreds of their pilots, at the cost of two of our aircraft carriers. Fortunately, the Japanese were too weakened to take advantage of the fact that our only remaining carrier was the USS Enterprise.

The Imperial Japanese Navy believed in washing out 90% of pilot trainees. All well and good for a short war, but murder in a long war. Paired with the callous lack of concern for pilot safety in aircraft design, the results were disaster.