The correct answer is "B".
At the end of the 19th century, the Japanese Empire had adopted an aggressive industrialization policy which caused the countries economy to rapidly grow and the society to develop. However, the Japanese knew that they would not be able to sustain this growth through the 20th century due to their lack of natural resources such as oil. This resource was present in South-Eastern Asian Countries, therefore they decided to execute their strategy of gaining control of these territories to get the necessary resources to sustain their growth.