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Before WW2, Japan built two super battleships of the Yamato class, plus an aircraft carrier conversion. All these ships ended up at the bottom of the sea.
Now these were pretty wasteful, but lets presume that the Japanese went Quantity not Quality. Instead, they build three 16 inch fast battleships similar to the Iowa class, and because some steel and manpower has been freed up, they build another carrier, in the place of the Nisshin (Detailed on the chart above.) The IJN would need to cancel or delay one of the Hiyo cruise liners, but I'm sure they would do that for an proper aircraft carrier. Another advantage would be that these smaller ships would take far less time to build, and therefore the slipways would be available sooner for new production, though finding the materials is an different matter.
So would this been an better aproach for the IJN? Can anyone else suggest where the Japanese could go from here?