The Japanese had learned a lot of “wrong lessons” from their campaigns in Manchuria and China, where local food supplies were fairly plentiful, and supply lines were short and easy to defend.
Extending their reach into the southwest Pacific and east central Asia meant an environment where local food wasn’t available (compared to China, they might as well have been in the desert), their supply lines were far too long to defend (especially with airpower), and they didn’t have nearly the amount of shipping capacity to do it anyway. And as was noted elsewhere, “non-martial” duties like logistics and supply were not highly regarded or prioritized in the Imperial Japanese Army.
Hence, the victorious armies that had run wild across East Asia in 1941-42 were starving to death in the jungles of Guadalcanal and Burma a year later.
As I read about the Nanking Massacre, I gained a greater appreciation of the evil and ruthlessness the Japanese brought to China and other nations of Asia.
The Japanese have never publicly atoned for their atrocities during World War II. A scholarly discussion of this is on Quora.