Actually, history shows time and again that while quantity helps, quality and logistics are what matters much more. Germany had some superior technology...but the Soviets had the best medium tank of the war - and LOTS of them. In fact, Hitler told Heinz Guderian that if he had known that German intel had indeed been accurate about how many tanks the Soviets had, he would have thought twice about invading.
Commonly told fable, worthless however.
Yes, the Soviet tanks outnumbered their German counterparts in 1941 by around 4 to 1.
However, this meant nothing since the T-34 did not start rolling off the lines in any considerable numbers until mid 1942. For almost a complete year, the Germans badly mauled Soviet armored forces.
The majority of the tanks the Soviets had were almost worthless, like the T-27. Not even a "light tank", this was based upon a mid 1920's British design. Or the BT series of light tanks. Large numbers, but they could not stand against the more modern designs.
In the first 2 years of the war, Germany averaged 7 tank kills for every Soviet tank kill. When Operation Barbarossa started, the Soviets had over 22,000 tanks. By January 1942, they had 7,700 left.
So as you can see, quantity means absolutely nothing unless there is quality to back it up.
When it came to Japan, they also had some qualitative advantages...but their failure to have self-sealing fuel tanks in their aircraft, their tactical decision to land and refuel on the flight decks just before the Americans happened to show up with dive bombers at Midway (a great example of the effect of blind luck in war), and their massive logistical disadvantage (which Admiral Yamamoto pointed out to the government before Pearl Harbor) are all examples of how much more there is to the story.
Actually, the largest advantage Japan had was that they did not have the same kind of traditions.
The Japanese Army as fought in WWII had only existed for around 50 years. By catapulting themselves straight from a Medieval Feudal society to an industrialized modern one in a single generation, they were able to take instant advantage of all the modern advances, without the "old guard" fighting them because of traditions.
Heck, one interesting bit of trivia I love is the infamous Polish cavalry charge against German tanks. However, that was not the last actual Cavalry Charge.
On 16 January 1942, the 26th US Cavalry Regiment charged Japanese forces on horseback during the Philippine Campaign. They were largely slaughtered going against Japanese machine guns and withdrew, slaughtering their horses for food during the seige.
History abounds with examples of quality overcoming quality - take Germany's victory over Russia in WWI and this retired sailor's personal favorite, Trafalgar. Genghis Khan built the greatest land empire in all human history using far, far inferior numbers - but no one could compete with his 'Keshiks' - what we would today call 'Cossacks'.
But Germany did not win a victory over Russia in WWI, Russia fell into revolution and withdrew on it's own.
And Genghis Khan hardly had "inferior numbers". The Mongol Empire had over 70,000 trained warriors. Then you had conscripts, mercenaries, and pledged troops. And they would take on one country at a time and conquer them before moving on. And they took as tribute from the newly conquered territory more soldiers.
In an era when most nations might have 4-5,000 soldiers, this was a massive and overwhelming force.
