It's important to note that Japan never intended to fully defeat the United States. They knew that on a long enough timeline, US industrial output and manpower would surpass their ability to keep up. Their strategy was to land one decisive knock-out blow to temporarily destroy the US Pacific Fleet (it was originally meant to be Pearl Harbor, but because the carriers were at sea on Dec 7, Midway became Plan B), consolidate their territorial gains in the Pacific, then sign a peace treaty with the United States.
There's a really, really well-made video series on YouTube that shows the Battle of Midway from the Japanese perspective which only gives you, the viewer, the same information that was available to the IJN admirals at the time. I highly recommend it if you're interested in WWII history.
Edit: Ha! Beaten by Cliche!
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