In 1940, in order to put a warm glow over their war efforts, the Japanese Imperial Army announced that the reason they were hacking their way through Asia was the pursuit of a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The Imperial Army were not demolishing local governments and murdering people, they were simply chasing out Western imperialists and promoting regional economic union.

The reason this was a complete failure was that “union” - either political or economic - requires that the parties to that union actually want to be together.  A shotgun wedding works as well as a shotgun economy.