I think a better way to regard the Japanese Army is that, of all the participants in World War II, they were the only one that had not learned the lessons of World War I. On many levels, from their rifles to their uniforms and tactics, they were reminiscent of a pre-1914 European army.
“I think a better way to regard the Japanese Army is that, of all the participants in World War II, they were the only one that had not learned the lessons of World War I.”
The early success against the Americans in the Philippines and the British in Singapore indicate that they had evolved since WWI, but they just “plateaued” in 1941. Few new weapons or tactics, just more of the same; they’d been fighting in China for years at that point, and decided to stick with what worked in 1937.