Most countries had the same tehnology until Me 262, so the real question were design, use and pilots tactics/training.
In a fighter you need speed, manouverability, range, armor and fire power. You can not have all of them maxed so you need to balance them.
Numers and crew quality are maybe as important as the airplane performance.
A later example is that of soviet vs. american planes. In theory soviet airplanes were as good as the others, in reality they were beaten in all conflicts.
So I think that japanese pilots were later in the war less trained then the americans and not fighting on low quality airplanes.
Me 109 was used throught the war with less modifications then Spitfire. So, I wonder how Zero was the best plane in early 1942 and a no good piece of scrap 2 years later. It is true they were fighting new types of american planes, but they still met Hurricanes in Burma.
My dream fighter of ww 2 is a Me 262 with improved engines and a revolver 30 mm canon.