FWIW
A number of years ago I ran across a Japanese air combat tactics manual from the early-war period (ie China and the opening stages of WWII). In my opinion, the Japanese tactics were as advanced as those taught/used in the West - although they were a bit different in some areas. I do not remember all the details but there were various tactics and maneuvers that come to mind. Examples:
Gain a height advantage before the engagement if possible
Make initial attacks from up-sun if possible
High and Low Yo-Yo
Near stall turns
Diving attacks - ie boom & zoom - both as an individual maneuver and as a unit tactic
Dogfighting over extended periods was to be avoided if possible
The tactics were to be adjusted by the squadron leaders based on whether they were on the offensive or defensive. IIRC the description of offensive could be defined by the mission type and/or the tactical situation. Ie if you significantly outnumbered the enemy you would most likely use offensive tactics. Also position advantage (ie a useful height advantage, or when they enemy was unaware of your approach) would dictate what you would do next.
The 3-plane tactical unit (Shotai?) on the offense. When using the 3-plane formation the forward pilot was usually the most experienced and also the flight leader. The 2 other pilots were generally less experienced, and operated in a form of wandering trail - ie they tended to ~randomly weave back and forth and up and down at a significant distance behind the leader - often crossing each other's tail. The intent of the trailing aircraft was to make it harder for the enemy to sneak up on the flight, harder to get a surprise kill on the trailing aircraft, and harder to make a clean attack on the flight leader. In effect, this was a variant of the Thatch Weave being performed by the trailing pair at a tactically advantageous trailing distance, both in mutual support of each other and in support of the flight leader.
re
What I find interesting is that the Japanese Navy would sometimes allocate victories to the entire flight of aircraft rather than give individual victories. A lot of the victories were individually awarded as well of course but the fact that there were so many shared victories means that pilots would probably have official scores with decimals. So it's a bit confusing why the official scores of Japanese pilots never have decimals since they probably should do.
When on the offensive (as defined above) the 3-plane formation would tend to all attack the same enemy aircraft during the first diving or surprise attack - making firing passes one after the other over a very short interval of time. This would give a greater chance of scoring a hit and/or preventing the target aircraft from getting away, while thinning the herd (if successful) and give the attackers better odds during the continued encounter. Often this would result in multiple aircraft getting hits on the same target in very short order, making it difficult to determine who made the killing shot. In these cases - when it was not clear who made the killing shot - a full kill was often attributed to more than one pilot.