Franco's government is difficult to define as fascist. It contained fascist elements, but its reliance on traditional power structures (the military, the monarchy, and the Catholic Church) made it different from German and Italian iterations of fascism. This really isn't exculpatory, as Franco's regime was brutal, murderous, and "barbarous" (to use Jose M. Sanchez's apt description).
That being said, Franco had the ambition but not the means to expand territorially. When in negotiations with Hitler to possibly enter WWII, expansion into Gibraltar and North Africa (at the expense of Britain and France respectively) were discussed, but Franco wanted more to join the war than Hitler was willing to offer. Given Spain's weakness after its bloody civil war (1936-39) Franco knew that he could not unilaterally undertake territorial expansion with any real hope of success. There were no real opportunities to do so after WWII either (especially given Franco's desire to ingratiate himself with the West, using his anticommunist credentials to do so).
Japan's government was also not fascist. It was explicitly conservative with a militarist bent. The Japanese fascist movement was essentially crushed after a failed coup attempt in 1936.
Portugal fascist government was not as fascist as Germany's, Italy's ou Japan's.
That said, it's not true that they didn't value territorial expansion. Government propaganda (involving maps and exhibitions) always reminded the people that we were a small country in Europe, but a big one worldwide, because of our colonies.
Also, in the 60's and beginning of the 70's, the government applied a great military effort in fighting independence movements in the colonies, mostly Guinea and Angola.
Just reading through the (very well-written) comments so far in this thread... it seems like a lot of them revolve around what is or isn't fascist. Would anyone knowledgeable in the subject be willing to just give a quick primer as to what exactly are the the features of a government that would be described as "fascist" so that we can better understand the other comments?
