Japan (Peak Oil 1996)

Japan's situation is an interesting one. Both hugely reliant on imports for energy needs, as well as having one of the world's best public transportation systems (including an excellent network of electrified trains), Japan is not yet in shambles, though it is unknown how long in can hold on with continuing depletion.

Pre-Peak
Japan built up a modern society after the devastation of the Second World War. With a far-removed though still felt brush with annihilation, Japan in 1945 was in a much worse position than it finds itself in today. Coping with a lack of resources, Japan built huge nation-wide networks of electrified trains. On the automobile front, its passion was for fuel-efficient machines instead of gas guzzlers. People in large cities would often take trains to work, as they do to this day. Tokyo, in particular, is a city where almost any place of significance can be reached via train or subway. Internally, Tokyo was in a good position for the peak. Externally, with its reliance on imports, it wasn't.

Post-Peak
After the idea of Peak Oil had sunk in, there was a lot of foot dragging. The Japanese government is notorious for not trying anything new. Thankfully, Japanese businesses did not share the government's feelings, and immediately began further improving the infrastructure through increased building of train lines and implementing hybrid technology on most of their car models. Thus far, China has not interfered with Japanese access to oil, but even so, the amount of oil imported to Japan by 2006 had decreased to only 54% of the amount it had been able to import 10 years prior. With a society accustomed to behaving, Japan has been spared the riots which have elsewhere brought anarchy.