There are a few things to remember, when comparing Japanese combat records to those of other countries:
1) The Japanese military set a very high standard of ability that it's pilots had to achieve before they were able to fly in combat. This required almost three times the training of every other military but, at the same time, it limited the number of pilots the Japanese flying schools could produce
2) Japanese fighters were optimized for dogfighting and aerobatic performance. To achieve the required performance, the designers didn't install any armor or self sealing fuel tanks, a weakness that would become exploited by Allied fighter pilots in WWII
3) Japan, like Germany, didn't rotate their pilots back home to rest and train new pilots. This resulted in almost all of the elite prewar pilots being killed in combat by the end of 1943. The last great carrier battle, fought off the Mariana Islands in 1944, had Japanese pilots flying with less than half the training of the prewar pilots