The Empire of Japan

**Currency** | * Imperial Yen

## History

With the arrival of the Vannai and their Puppets, the ensuing Two Week War found Japan in tight binds. The awakening of the second-wave pilots and the campaign of reconquest enacted by ACC afterwards brought salvation to the land of the rising sun, and with it the establishment of the science-dedicated ACC faction, the Engineers. The Engineers would go on to select Japan as their preferred area of responsibility, leading to an irrevocable entwining of the fate of the two entities.

Although Japan benefited from the occupation of their relative ACC faction in a similar fashion to New Zealand by way of protection from the alien marauders, there were stark differences in the conduct of their respective guests, for while the 'Civil War' of 2015 led to the rearrangement of AC and by extension ACC Command to be lead primarily by civilians and be at least someone more beholden to their actions, the Engineers gradually acted more and more unhinged and with less and less oversight as ACC dominance became more assured. The Japanese found their circumstances becoming less a case of protection and more one of imprisonment, their culture being perverted rather than preserved. The Engineers, in their quest to "help", quickly uprooted and forced Japanese economic dependency on them, adding another sword of damocles to be held over the head of the country by threat of the Engineer's sponsored company, Kantoku Corporation, pulling out of and subsequently crashing the Japanese market.

Many Japanese were unhappy with this, but in typical Japanese fashion most were content to simply put up with it, and the silence Tommy encountered only convinced him that they loved what he'd done with the place. Editi, in her neverending quest to make sure the Tommy was protected from every conceivable danger, enacted further measures of control even behind Tommy's back, infiltrating the population with fanatically loyal, incredibly industrious clones as observers and creating the Special Solutions Division in response to the resistance movements that began to crop up, and instilled Tommy with the idea that the government would see him as such as "Public Power of Good" that they would feel compelled to approach the Engineers for consultation with their laws, rather than the reality being that they were essentially forced to capitulate all but the ceremony of their roles in the democratic process of their government.

The government that eventually arose from this arrangement was thus. The wards of the Tokyo supercity were allowed to form democratically elected committees which would discuss policies to put in place. The results of these discussions would be presented to the Engineers, nominally for their concurrence should the topic affect their ongoing projects. The Engineer representative would relay these discussions to Tommy, who would pass them off to Editi if they hadn't already been intercepted before reaching him. Although not explicitly stated anywhere, in actuality the Engineers and Editi in particular held complete power over the new Japanese government, and rather than being a courtesy notice, the results of these assemblies were in effect appeals for permission from their Engineer overlords to execute their elected roles. By fulfilling every role in Japanese society, from communications, to power, to transportation and any and all other basic needs, the Engineers and the Kantoku Corporation controlled everything, and this control became only more complete when Editi began filling party cabinets and general population with clones unquestionably loyal to her. The democratic process became little more than a formality, though in Editi's eyes this was simply fostering an environment for wholly positive communication between the government and the Engineers.

Although a faux government with limited actual influence, distinct political factions did form. The four largest of them were the Tōseiha ( 統制派) - Control Faction, Dokuritsuha (独立派) - Independence Faction, Kōdōha (皇道派) - Imperialist Faction, and Kaifukuha (回復派) - Recovery Faction.
The Tōseiha were political moderates who sought to lessen TE influence through existing channels, essentially relying on appeals to the Engineers. Conversely, the Dokuritsuha were extremists most outspoken against the Engineers, and were continuously linked to resistance cells, some peaceful but persistent, and others armed and aggressive. The Kōdōha were insistent that the state of the world meant that Japan should be focusing on extending its borders rather than retreating into the supercity, while the Kaifukuha were staunch TE loyalists to the point of being accused of being a controlled by them - a prophetic declaration when it was revealed later that the party was almost entirely made up of clones.

Between the years of 2015-2018, the face of the faux Japanese government, retroactively known as the "Occupational Government", was the Kaifukuha, the TE-approved political faction. It wasn't until political elections were held at the beginning of 2019 that the Kaifukuha control was challenged by a coalition of the other political parties spearheaded by the new Dokuritsuha. The Kaifukuha party narrowly held the committee majority, but with the announcement that many of the older members would be retiring from politics soon, the Dokuritsuha seemed to be poised for a committee takeover by the next bi-annual elections. This was coupled with spikes in underground resistance movement activities as independent groups took this as a sign that the tide was finally turning their way. Between the months of January to March of 2019, Japan found itself mired in protests, attacks against TE personnel, and bombings of TE facilities, and the resulting purges and clampdowns only emboldened the resistance.

By mid April 2019, the tension finally boiled over with the destruction of the Nekonomimi Express tunnel route. This seemingly innocuous act collapsed the primary smuggling route Dokuritsuha-sponsored rebellion groups used, and with the recent crackdowns, many took this as the sign that the Engineers had finally grown tired of simply putting up with the rising tide of resentment towards them and were now moving to stamp them out. The ensuing rebellion, known as the Dokuritsu Insurrection, occurred over the course of several days, made all the worse by the fact that Tommy and Editi Wilder's remains were never properly identified and news of their deaths slow to be made widespread and never fully confirmed. The end result was the ousting of the Engineers from Japan and seizure of all of their facilities.

The next two months saw a stringent internal purge undertaken to exterminate all signs of TE influence over Japanese economics and culture. Wilder loyalists came almost solely from the clones and other artificial beings that had been created by Editi and secreted throughout all levels of TE-Japan society. As these clones were intentionally created to be almost impossible to discover among ordinary humans, this led to a great deal of paranoia and strife once the mob executions began, and it is impossible to tell how many of the accused were in fact of TE-engineered species and who were simply ordinary and extremely unfortunate humans.

Not all of Editi's children were so difficult to target, however. The distinctive characteristics of Catgirls and Gernadders in particular made their nature difficult to go overlooked, and while a majority of the Domestic Catgirls were able to escape before the purges began in earnest thanks to the efforts of the Catgirl Resistance members, the Nekommando and Gernadder regiments created to defend Engineer personnel and property did so to the last, with the only surviving members of each Engineer Species in Japan either being kept in captivity or slavery. Unsurprisingly, many within the Kaifukuha proved to be clones or had had their loyalty purchased with clones, and in both cases were summarily executed for their degeneracy.

During this time, as more and more of the Engineers crimes were brought to public light, the collective outrage permeated Japanese society, solidifying into a burning hatred for the foreigners that had made a mockery of them, and a desire for a strong, independent, pure and true Japan took to the forefront. The Dokuritsuha, their purpose in ridding Japan of the Engineers fulfilled, lost their raison d'état and melted away, while the Kōdōha imperialists surged in popularity and power when the bi-annual elections were held in June. The Kōdōha abolished the Occupational Government system and rebranded Japan as the "Second Empire of Great Japan" (大日本の第二帝国/Dai Nihon no dainiteikoku), installing a distant relative of the previous Emperor of Japan as the supreme ruler of the country.

The current new Japan bears as little resemblance to TE-Japan as TE-Japan bore to pre-war Japan. It is a fiercely xenophobic nation with an extremely hostile view towards ACC meddling in international affairs. Examples of Engineer technology that weren't destroyed or deemed useless have been retained, allowing the Japanese to maintain a high technological standard relative to many other countries of the post-war world. The degeneracy of the foreign Engineers has galvanized Japanese society as a whole and shocked it from its resigned pre- and post-war attitude into a highly martial, highly patriotic society eager to keep its land free from toxic Gaijin influence.

## Government

With the removal of the Engineers, and Editi in particular, much of the impetus of the Occupational Government was lost, but the general structure remained. A stringent examination of remaining members of government ensued to ensure they were normal humans and not Wilder loyalist clone plants, and new officials were put into place to replace those that did not pass muster. Tellingly, positions of decision-making power are now filled by those who were most outspoken or resistant to Engineer rule and averse to ACC in general.

In the end, however, a staggering amount of the Occupational Government required replacement, a fact which shook public confidence in the democratic process. Caught in a wave of nationalistic sentiment, it was decided that a system of government headed by an individual that would embody the ideals and spirit of the country, rather than a delusional manchild, would be best - that is to say, there was public desire for a new emperor to take control. The Kōdōha faction was, with great difficulty, eventually able to locate a suitable, if distant, relative of the late emperor, and with their ultimate figurehead in place, were able to enact sweeping changes to the governmental system with the aim of restoring the trampled Japanese nationalistic spirit, which would later be known as the “Reiji Restoration”.

### The Imperial Diet

The Imperial Diet was reestablished, with the Kōdōha faction leader, a man by the name of Tabata, installed as Prime Minister of the Empire of Japan and head of the government cabinet. A lower house in the form of the House of Representatives was created, while the House of Peers was created to act as the upper house. The House of Representatives members are popularly elected from a candidacy of the top 1% taxpayers of the populace. Positions on the House of Peers are currently considered hereditary, and have been given over to heroes and figureheads of the Dokuritsu Insurrection.

### The Emperor

The current Emperor of Japan, Emperor Reiji, is a distant relative of the previous one, who perished during the Human-Vannai War. The exact root of lineage is unclear, but commonly believed to be through a mistress of the Emperor from the Edo period. In any case, the Emperor's role is nominally a spiritual one as highest authority of the Shinto religion. Most Japanese do not believe the Emperor to be a subject of divinity, however, and the general acceptance of the Emperor is a more secular "model citizen" approach, in which the Emperor embodies all the aspects that Japanese society seeks to attain. The Emperor holds authority above the Prime Minister and the Shogun, but typically only steps in as a mediator between the two. In actuality, the Emperor is simply a puppet through which the Immortal Assembly can directly influence the government.

### The Shogun

Shogun Nakagawa was appointed by the Emperor shortly after the nuclear attack on Beijing, a move that officially put the Empire of Japan onto a war footing. The Shogun holds absolute military power as a sort of commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, but does not hold administrative power and is still beholden to the will of the Emperor.

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