What started World War II? Why is Japan allied with Germany?
Greed, desire for land and power started WWII. Japan had a desire to increase their influence in China. A Tripartite Pact was established in 1940 between Japan, Italy and Germany, which made it so that any attacks against the one of the three was an attack against all three. The countries had strong desire to increase in power and influence, making them strongly inclined to join forces to pursue a common goal.
They had similar objectives, which was the expansion of their own empire. They were allied partly in order to keep the US out of the war. Japan was worried about possible US interference with their expansion in Asia, and Germany would have their hands full dealing with the rest of Europe. By allying, the US would be threatened with a two-front war should it decide to enter the war against any of them, which could deter it from entering. In the end, though, Japan decided that the US were probably going to get involved anyway, so they decided to strike first…
