Japan (WOIOCG)

Imperial State of Japan
大日本帝国
*Dainipponteikoku*

OTE: Japan and all of Sakhalin
Imperial State of Japan; 大日本帝国; Dainipponteikoku; ; OTE: Japan and all of Sakhalin
	Motto: ; 回復力、強さ、天国; "Kaifuku-ryoku, tsuyo-sa, tengoku"; ("Resilience, Strength, Heaven")
	Royal anthem: ; "北の帝国の栄光"; "Kita no teikoku no eikō"; ("Imperial Glory in the North")
Capital	Tokyo
Official language	Japanese
Ethnic groups	Japanese (80%); Koreans (5%); Other Asians (4%); Others (1%)
Demonym	Japanese
Government	Constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy
Legislature	National Diet
Population
GDP (nominal)	estimate
Currency	Yen (¥)

The Imperial State of Japan (Japanese: 大日本帝国, Dainipponteikoku) or just Japan, or the Empire of Japan, is an island country in East Asia. It is in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and China in the south, Russia and Korea to the northwest. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Japan has over 125 million inhabitants and is the 11th most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its highly urbanized population on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Japan has the world's highest life expectancy, though it is experiencing a population decline due to its very low birth rate.

Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the fourth and ninth centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation. It was divided into a North Japan, controlled as a satellite state of the Russian Empire, and a Republic of Japan, or South Japan, a satellite state of the United States. It-reunited in 1992. After remaining a nuetral state in the 1990s, in the year 2000, Japan began a transition to orbiting around China, the superpower of East Asia, although Japan didn't sign the Shanghai Pact, considers itself a China-friendly state, and has allowed Chinese military forces to station in Japan. At the same time, Japan became a secondary superpower in its own right, reaching some point of parity with Russia as the third superpower of the world.

Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. Japan is a developed country and a great power, with one of the largest economies by nominal GDP. Japan maintains a military force that ranks as one of the world's strongest militaries. A global leader in the automotive, robotics, and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology, and is one of the world's largest exporters and importers. It is part of multiple major international and intergovernmental institutions.

Japan is considered a cultural superpower as the culture of Japan is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent manga, anime, and video game industries. It is considered one of the superpowers of Asia, often going neck-in-neck with Russia in its world power rankings.

History[]

Feudal Era[]

Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai. In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura. After Yoritomo's death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōgun. The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 but was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimyō) and a civil war began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States").

During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyō; his consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period. After the death of Nobunaga in 1582, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, unified the nation in the early 1590s and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597.

Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son Toyotomi Hideyori and used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. He was appointed shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern Tokyo). The shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto, as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyō, and in 1639 the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period (1603–1868). Modern Japan's economic growth began in this period, resulting in roads and water transportation routes, as well as financial instruments such as futures contracts, banking and insurance of the Osaka rice brokers. The study of Western sciences (rangaku) continued through contact with the Dutch enclave in Nagasaki. The Edo period gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"), the study of Japan by the Japanese.

Tokugawa shogunate 1603-1868[]

Same as our timeline

Meiji era 1868-1912[]

Same as our timeline

Interwar period - growth as a superpower 1921-1945[]

During the Russian Civil War, Japanese troops stayed in Transbaikal (unlike our OTE where they left), causing the first of friction between Japan and the League of Nations. The Buryat State, or Buryatokuo was established in Buryatia, and the Japanese exploited the rich mineral resources of Lake Baikal. Additionally, Lake Baikal was also popular as a tourist winter getaway for Japanese.

By the time the Second World War began, Japan fielded the world's third-largest navy.

World War II[]

In this World War II, there isn't really an "Axis alliance" between the Empire of Japan and German Empire. As FDR never becomes U.S. president, Japan successfully destroys the U.S. naval fleet, and bombards the western coasts of the United States, nearly knocks out the British Empire in the Asia-Pacific War. Along with it, Japanese immigrants start to flow in what is in OTL: Oregon and Washington. The new southern war of independence also erupts, thereby, weakening the United States in the battle of the west coasts.

Since China was the rising power from the ashes of World War I, the Asia-Pacific War is mainly a showdown between Japan and China, in a manner resembling the German-Soviet war of OTL. However, Japan's wars in the western coasts of the United States, were pyrrhic and came at the cost of overstretching and thinning out its forces, allowing China, Russian Empire and the British Empire to defeat Japan in the Asia-Pacific. Additionally, the Japanese migrants chose to stay and create new lives in the west coast, contributing the the democratization of these Japanese - who used their wealth, position and power to team up with German and Russian immigrants in creating a new democratic republic, using the principles of George Washington, Wu Peifu and Alexander Kerensky.

Additionally, Japan is invaded by China, and the war ends with Chinese forces invading Tokyo and fighting bloody battles in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan is partitioned between the Chinese Empire and the Russian Empire, with the Russians holding on to the island of Hokkaido, and with China controlling the rest.

Cold War[]

During the Cold War, Chinese leaders were careful not repeat the same atrocities that the Japanese had imposed on them during their invasion of China. Therefore, while Chinese and Russian, was never co-officiated alongside Japanese - it remained taught in schools as second languages in the respective zones of influence. However, Chinese influence once again, re-penetrated Japanese life, the State Shinto religion now proclaiming the Chaoxiang Emperor as the Asashō Emperor (a direct translations from Chaoxiang), and the Chinese Calendar once again, became the Japanese Standard Calendar.

Meanwhile in Hokkaido, Czar Vladimir I was proclaimed as the Omoheiwa Emperor (a direct translation from the name Vladimir). The reality is however, that both the Asashō Emperor Omoheiwa Emperor were constitutional figureheads in their respective zones of influence.

Japanese Re-Unification[]

In the late 1980s, as part of the Russian detente, and in order take care of the internal conflicts within Russia, - Russian forces withdrew from Hokkaido, as did Chinese troops from most of the other parts of Japan. In 1989, the Prince Tsugu, the Heir Apparent of the previous ruling family, and the fifth child of the Showa Emperor, was crowned the Emperor of Japan, putting an ethnic Japanese back on the throne.

Although this era in Japanese history, the country claimed to be neutral against both the Chinese and Russian blocs, however, Chinese forces kept it under tight watch, and the treaties that Japan had signed with China, Russia and Britain remained in-tact up until the 21st century.

The modern history of Japan at this point is identical to our's - namely in the fact that it becomes a "cultural superpower" of anime and manga, as well as the video game industry. Nintendo and Sega still exists in this timeline. Even long after Japan's defeat, its cultural influence in Oceania remained strong, with Japanese being an official languages in Hawaii and Cascadia.

Rise back to superpowerdom[]

In the 21st century, Japan signed a series of treaties with China (2000), Korea (2004) and Russia (2005). Afterwards, the three countries in 2007 - lifted the World War II-era restrictions on Japan, in which the country was finally allowed to once-more, produce its own military supplies and have its own military industry. Britain however, opposed these and considered them null, but had little power to actually stop it, Britain enacted sanctions against Japan, which did absolutely little damage to Japan's economy, as Japan had now the backing of almost every superpower.

Japan finally began established overseas military basis, and once-again, becoming a technology hub.

Economy[]

The Japanese economy is currently one of the "Top Three" economies of East Asia. Although its nominal GDP, $7.1 trillion, falls second to China's nominal GDP, however its GDP per capita is the highest in East Asia as a whole country. A great majority of Japanese wealth comes from its cultural influence in anime and pop culture, and outside of those: machinery industry, tourism, mining and food exports. Additionally, because Japan is a global economy, much of Japanese wealth also comes from the technological industry - where the country is a "superpower" in exporting technology, such as cars and machinery, to which it exports not only to the neighboring countries, but also Europe. Japan is the third biggest producer of automobiles in the world. Toyota is currently the world's largest car maker, and the Japanese car makers Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, and Mazda also count for some of the largest car makers in the world. By number, Japan is the world's largest exporter of cars as of 2021.

Tourism is also an important part of the Japanese economy. In 2012, Japan was the fifth most visited country in Asia and the Pacific, with over 8.3 million tourists. In 2013, due to the weaker yen and easier visa requirements for southwest Asian countries, Japan received a record 11.25 million visitors, which was higher than the government's projected goal of 10 million visitors. The government hopes to attract 40 million visitors a year by the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Some of the most popular visited places include the Shinjuku, Ginza, Shibuya and Asakusa areas in Tokyo, and the cities of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, as well as Himeji Castle. Hokkaido is also a popular winter destination for visitors with several ski resorts and luxury hotels being built there.

Military[]

The Imperial Japanese Forces (大日本帝国軍) are the official fighting force of Japan. They consists of the Imperial Army (大日本帝国陸軍), Imperial Navy (大日本帝国海軍), Imperial Aerial and Rocket Forces (大日本帝国航空軍およびロケット軍) and the Imperial Space Force (帝国宇宙軍).

The Japanese military is a superpower, and ever since 2004, has reached a comeback. When the Imperial Japanese Forces were first resurrected in 2004, the country had relied on Chinese and Russian military exports, but have since-now, developed its own indigenous military production. Japan now has the second-largest navy in Asia, and the world's third-largest navy as before. Additionally, Japan has revived its own indigenous arms system, and now produces the majority of its military equipment at home. Possessing a total of 3 aircraft carriers, namely the Hiryu-2 class carriers, Japan is also one of the countries to field nuclear-powered carriers.

Japan also has the Sairentosandā Sa-13 stealth bomber, as it is one of the top operators of indigenous stealth bombers, developed in 2013. The Sandābādo Sa-5 series are Japan's own counterpart to the Chinese Chengdu J-35, Russian Sukhoi Su-35 and American Lockheed Martin F-35 multi-role, twin-engine combat aircraft.

In addition, Japan is the 2nd military in the world to wield a Space Force. Additionally, Japan is also an operated of WMDs, possessing a known total of 105 warheads with heavy capabilities - it is the newest country to join the list of countries possessing WMDs.

Politics[]

Politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary constitutional monarchy, in which the Emperor is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government and the head of the Cabinet, which directs the executive branch.

Legislative power is vested in the National Diet, which consists of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. The House of Representatives has eighteen standing committees ranging in size from 20 to 50 members and The House of Councillors has sixteen ranging from 10 to 45 members.

Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court and lower courts, and sovereignty is vested in the people of Japan by the 1947 Constitution, which was written during the Occupation of Japan primarily by American officials and had replaced the previous Meiji Constitution. Japan is considered a constitutional monarchy with a system of civil law.

Politics in Japan in the post-war period has largely been dominated by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has been in power almost continuously since its foundation in 1955, a phenomenon known as the 1955 System. Of the 31 prime ministers since the end of the country's occupation, 24 as well as the longest serving ones have been members of the LDP. Consequently, Japan has been described as a de facto one-party state. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices, Japan was the 23rd most electoral democratic country in the world as of 2023.

Random facts[]

Sushi and maki are considered two different foods in Japan, and only sushi bars serve sushi, "sushi platters" do not exist in Japan
Japan is considered one of the gun-friendlier countries in Asia. Although still very strict than the United States, the Japanese have adopted a policy similar to Switzerland in allowing organized government paramilitaries to keep firearms in the home, however even these firearms are under strict surveillance. Outside of paramilitary, citizens are still allowed to own firearms, with the exception of any military-style, which are limited to the Home Guard.