The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept, created and promulgated during the Sh wa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan, to represent the desire to create a self-sufficient block of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers. The Sphere was initiated by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, in an attempt to create a Great East Asia, comprising Japan, Manchukuo, China, and parts of Southeast Asia, that would, according to imperial propaganda, estab ...