<Ul> <Li> China North Korea South Korea Taiwan Russia Palau Marshall Islands Federated States of Micronesia Northern Mariana Islands </Li> </Ul> <Li> China North Korea South Korea Taiwan Russia Palau Marshall Islands Federated States of Micronesia Northern Mariana Islands </Li> <P> The Japanese colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies established by Imperial Japan in the Western Pacific and East Asia region from 1895 . Victories over China and Russia expanded the Japanese sphere of influence, notably in Taiwan and Korea, but South Sakhalin also became a part of metropolitan Japan as Karafuto Prefecture in 1905 . </P> <P> Following seizures of German territories in 1914, the League of Nations granted Japan mandates over some former German possessions in the Western Pacific after World War I. With the Japanese expansion into Manchuria in the early 1930s, Japan adopted a policy of setting up and / or supporting puppet states in conquered regions . In this less obviously imperialist form Japan controlled many of the states of the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere which came under Japanese influence from 1943 to 1945 . Colonial control over the far - flung territories from Tokyo ended after the Allies defeated Japan in 1945: the extent of Japanese governance reverted to the four home islands, the Nanpō Islands, and the Ryukyu islands . </P>

How where and why did japan create a colonial empire