When to attack with Japan?

[todd77]

Whats a good time to attack with Japan?
Do you attack China, Russia, India, Australia, island hop, Pearl harbor?

Once you attack any brittish territory, they are unfrozen.
Ive found that I cant even attack pearl harbor. All of their battleships and destroyers are safe in the dock so I dont know what to do..

Germany seems weak, all those partisan attacks, they need huge garrisons in all the atlantic coast zones and controlled zones. My ships in the baltic get attacked even though I have 3 artillery in norway and denmark.

[trsj]

There are a lot of posts on Japan. Search beyond the 180 day limit to read some great ideas. That being said, Japan is best served by expanding no later than Fall 1941. At that time Japan has lost its three free resource points from the US; therefore, it's time to attack Russia or take the resource rich Pacific. If Japan does not expand then it's stuck producing no more than 12 units/resources/research per turn. Yuck. I think it's better to get the US or USSR involved than have Japan limp along at such a low production rate.

[Majere]

With Japan you have several rules that I follow...
 
1. Always attack Russia with japan the same turn Germany attacks them. Never BEFORE.
2. NEVER take inland china. Just the coastal provinces
3. Move your fleet south, prepare to attack all the resource rich islands below and transport your men to bunny hop from island to island. You should be able to take all those islands there in 1 turn.
4. Make sure to keep a large airgroup of 8 or 10 planes. Use them to bomb china in to submission. Most games, china has literally NO units on the map. I do not take inland china because of the high population costs to maintain, however I know they can not attack Japan in any way either.
5. You are best served attacking Russia. If you do this right with Germany helping out, Russia will fall before the US can even begin to mobilize its units.
6. Do not forget to put arty, AA and units on as many islands as you can. This causes the US attack to stall fast as they have to deal with this threat constantly
7. Never forget the chance to grab alaska if the US players gets fat and lazy. Dropping arty and AA there with 4 or 5 Infantry will get the US attention away from the pacific fleets and give japan more time to horde resources!