Japan's army took control of the government in Tokyo in late nineteen thirty-one. The army was fearful of the growing threat to Japan's control of Manchuria.
They used the weakness of Beijing to their advantage, pushing for trade concessions and leases on land in Manchuria, a resource-rich province relatively close to Japan.
Japan had defeated Russia in a war in nineteen five. This victory gave Japan control over the economy of the southern part of what was then called Manchuria, in northeastern China.
During this period the attention of military staffs around the world were drawn to Manchuria, where the Russian and Japanese empires fought over control of northeast China and the Korean peninsula.
I’d say no - it actually started when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, or at the very latest when the Japanese invaded China in 1937, because they didn’t stop fighting until 1945.