Except that most of China is united against the Japanese in the first place. No amount of puppet states is gonna get people not to resist the Japanese in a major way.
Not quit sure what you are saying here. The Japanese leaders who led the charge into China did not believe any of that. What they perceived in 1937 was the basis for their actions. They were unable to predict what did happen several years later.
Manchuria did. The Sterling bloc was great for Britain up until fairly late. ...
I wonder how much Japans ongoing business investment in Manchuria in the previous decades had to do with the benefits post occupation?