Sapphire Empire of Japan

The **Sapphire Imperial Japan**, also known as the **Empire of Sapphire** or just the **Empire**, is a Parliamentary Empire ruled by the Empress Ryōki I which govern the regions of Chūbu, Kanto, Tohoku and Hokkaido where the capital city, Yukime, is located. It has globally a steampunk-like society.

The Empire was founded after the Battle of Tokyo, when the Emperor of Japan Nahurito gave Ryōki and Henry each a half of Japan.

## System

### Constitution

At its foundation, the Empire is organized by a constitution which imposes a set of laws and rights inherent to the regime under the Kurokuin and Karūsuten codes as well as how it works, who rules it and what powers does it can exercice and how.

#### Ruler and Nobility

The Empire is governed only by an Empress, always female who inherit her power from her parents chosen between her siblings by decision of the Imperial Assembly. She reunites all powers, serves as the supreme leader, and have priority above the Nobility in term of rule, but however her political decisions have to be approved by the Imperial Assembly, and are limited to what the constitution allow. Resignation and destitution are possible, destitution being voted by the Assembly.

Besides the Empress exists an unique class, the Nobility, which is a closed place represented by only the Empress's family, her spouses being called Archdukes/Archduchesses and her descendants Princes/Princesses, and the traditional Japanese imperial family. They form a privileged class formed for war, management, and ruling the Empire along the Empress is their duty. They benefit for a lifetime monthly salary that makes them extremely wealthy in exchange, their only privilege besides ruling and having the possibility to become empress. The privileges are reserved to the "direct" members of the Imperial Family, other members being considered lesser nobility that is equal to the people at the difference of having the possibility of someday becoming part of the Imperial family.

#### Imperial Assembly

The Imperial Assembly is the second main ruling power after the Empress. If the Empress has all powers in a sense, the Assembly is the institution that allows or forbid their exercice. Composed of 4 Chambers, it is where are proposed and voted every decisions. Vote are made by Chamber and done by the majority. There is no right for veto nor instituted time where a Chamber can have and exercice all powers without further opinion of the Assembly.

The first Chamber, the Consulate or Chamber of Consuls, reunites the 3 Consuls and their Prefects. Consuls each direct a region of the Empire, regions that are separated in the same prefectures as prior it that are ruled by Prefects. Both Prefects and Consuls are elected by  universal direct vote by the population of the region or prefecture they propose to rule. The Consulate thus is the representative of the Japanese people at the Imperial Assembly to defend their interests and proposes the reforms they want.

The second Chamber, the Defense or Chamber of Marshals, reunites the 26 Marshals of the Grande Armée. They represent the Military Forces of the Empire and are specialized in what relate to Military technologies, structures, logistics, and thus propose and vote depending on how these matters are affected. Along the legislative power they have the executive power.

The third Chamber, the Ministerial Chamber or Chamber of Ministers, reunites all the Imperial Ministers that each manage an aspect of the Empire, such as the Economy or the Education. However, the Ministers are apolitical, appointed by the Assembly to manage objectively aspects only depending on the politics the Assembly chose. Thus, the Ministerial Chamber just serves to find and propose reforms and measures to arrange an aspect of the Empire that falls off the line of how it should be.

The fourth Chamber is obviously the Imperial Nobility earlier presented.

The Empire is thus ruled through the collaboration of each of the 4 chambers together even if the Nobility dominates. The importance of the Assembly makes that they can prevent an irresponsible Empress to mess the Empire up, while giving the People the power of deciding the future of the regime, mixing finally a democratic regime with a traditional imperial one.

#### Codes

##### Kurokuin Code

The Kurokuin Code is the Civil and Penal Code of the constitution where are defined all the rights and major judiciary works of the Empire, applied universally throughout it without any distinction.

The Judiciary workings are thus that laws and rights are the only form of rule that can be imposed on an individual except those in particular cases such as work, and that the Justice is exerced exclusively by the Empire's Judges and Clerks in their courts that depend on the Minister of Justice, and that only officials such as Gendarmes and Police can enforce laws legitimately. Thus, "Popular Justice" and other justice initiatives by the people are considered illegitimate and illegal, as they rely more on the morals and subjectivity of the people rather than objectivity and thus can lead to unfairness. The Supreme Court, directly managed by the Minister of Justice, deals with the most important cases, while Courts exist in every cities.

Cases are treated with some specifity in the Empire. Cases are only allowed between citizens and recognized entities, such as enterprises, depending on the case in question, an entity is forbidden to pursuit at the place of an individual unless directly implied, thus cases must imply only their main actors and not third parties, like supposed Communities. Then, trials are public by default but a party can request it to be in closed door, a wish that has to be respected whether the reason behind, as parties deserve the right to have their arguments with Justice kept private. Cases that are decided at closed door are forbidden to be published and considered confidential in a way. If a case is opened, the suspect if put into custody the necessary time depending on the law it might have violated, but the presumption of innocence prevents any other measure before the case has been judged and closed.
The fundamental rights recognized by this Code are the individual freedoms such as freedom of speech, of property, consciousness, religion, identity, sexuality, etc... These rights are moderated only according to the law under the logic "the freedom of some stops when the freedom of others start", guaranteeing to all the inhabitants the exercice of their rights without fearing unfair sentences dealt to them by the Government or the People itself. Everyone is put equal and no any kind of people among the citizens can take power over the rest, while everyone can have the lifestyle they want, laws being the only rules that are supposed to maintain brotherhood and sisterhood.

The code also recognizes acts as crimes that can't be ignored and have to be prosecuted, except if exerced under the right conditions such as a recognized role and context, for example a Military or Noble for who murder is in sorts officially part of the job (Hitmen don't count as a role that justify murder), that can excuse them to a point, where it will be considered criminal without consideration anymore. Examples of these acts are torture, arbitray sentences, rape, slavery, murder, slaughter and genocide, slaughter and genocide being treated directly by the Supreme Court and considered as the most important crimes as well as war crimes. Self-defence is recognized as a mitigating circumstance that can exonerate the accused of murder (and only murder) if proved.

The Kurokuin code also abolish and forbids death row and reserves the Right to Arms to the Nobility, the Military and hunters for who violence is a component of the work, allowing civilians to train with weapons only in specific zones. Recreational hunting is also prohibited. Law Enforcement is organized under the Police and the Gendarmerie that each serve to represent the Empire and deal with infractions, with negociations priorized on violence that has to be used at last resort. Law Enforcement is overseen by the Imperial Law Enforcement Overseer that the Imperial Assembly directly manages, and that is charged to prevent police abuses such as police violence and forbids authority from excessive measures.

##### Karūsuten Code

The Karūsuten Code is the Labor and Social Code that fixes the Empire's economic system to guarantee prosperity while trying to achieve a certain social justice economically. It thus creates a meritocratic economy that still allows people to fulfill their needs, by mixing liberalism and interventionism under the logic "Allow everyone to do business in peace not at the expense of the others".  The imperial money is the Crown, which has the same value as the Yen but its own coins, and is managed at the Bank of Hokkaido.

Thus, privates can do what they want with their enterprises as long as the law is respected, fraud being disallowed for example. The Government can intervene and imposes decisions and rules to directly influence the economy, and to close an enterprise that disrespects laws.

Among rules, there is the maximum work hours of 35 hours in 6 days per week, days depending on the job in question, and the minimum salary is of 190 000 Crowns at bare minimum, as it actually varies to always keep the same defined purchasing power everywhere. The unemployed is given enough Crowns to live in a decent place and to have what it needs, in order to prevent slums from having to be created. However, the Empire leaves the enterprises to recruit who they want without requirement, refusing quotas, considered as Tokenism, and leaving them manage themselves as long as the law is respected.

It also set education mandatory from 3 to 18 years and every cities must have enough public gradeschools, middle schools and high schools for their whole population, schools follow the same program at the same time taught to students by qualified teachers whatever the place and hosts all students whatever their identity, except their age that define in which school they are relevant to be in. Special schools exist to give an education to uneducated adults, and it's possible to have or give education at home even if exams have still to be passed. The program priorizes Arts (Fine Arts and Music), Mathematics and Human Sciences (History, Geography, Geopolitics), while Physical Education is secondary. Several Universities that give a specialized curriculum exist in several places of the Empire and there is at least three Universities for each discipline with even more qualified teachers. Education, like Health, is considered a public matter and private schools are forbidden.

Health, on its side, is free and most medications are only obtained at pharmacies through prescription of the doctor, those that are considered necessary like antibiotics and vaccines. Medication that are not under medication are thus those that don't serve to deal with a disease or health problem, such as age creams, and are sold. Vaccination is mandatory and dealt with upmost transparency, like Health in general. To compensate that doctors and necessary medications are free, the Governments pay them directly through tax money.

##### Annex Code

The Annex Code is a tertiary code that doesn't define any major matter, rather dealing with visual setting of the Empire. It imposes in the Empire a certain architectural style that has to define most of the Empire's buildings except the landmarks and consecrated "free building" areas. The Architecture imposed mixes traditional Japanese and European Neo-Classical modernized to keep its esthetics while being comfy and practical. It thus forbids  the contemporary and modern styles that are despised for their lack of esthetical value and accused of being cheap frauds.

The Annex Code also imposes certain outfits and decorations as well for the various officials' outfits and the official ceremonies and celebrations.

Blue wide ermine dresses with a cape, white furry trims and gold-black decorative pattern near the trims. Feet-length skirt, black boots with golden lines, white thighs, ,white collar and black lace jabot.
 Marshal
 Consul
 Prefect
 Minister
 Police
Blue coat, black bicorn, white thighs, short skirt, black boots.
Blue variant of the Minister Uniform.
Riot Uniform :
Same as the officer uniform but with a cuirass and a helmet.

## Society

The Sapphire Empire has a steampunk-like society where old-fashion clothing and machines such as steam engines, clockwork and primitive electrical devices as well as brass, copper and steel dominate the environment. Such through archaic technologies are against all odds developed so well they overtake modern tech in term of efficiency and liability. A flawless open medicine is practiced with special machinery for this, and comms are both assured by screens, speakers and microphones and by pressurized air pipes to send letters. Smartphones and similar modern technologies are replaced by ones that respect their styles, and trains and zeppelins serve as the major transportation methods, whereas planes and cars are still experimented.

The Empire has an endless and unlimited plenty of materials that thanks to Arts are "reset", recreated from nothing, each day to be used for the development of technologies and the fabrication of machines.

People wear traditional clothing from the late XVIIIth to the early XXth centuries, through their outfits, mostly females', are often chestless and/or very revealing due to that the society is favorable to nudity, as the Empress does. This is manifested by the use of old-fashioned clothing in official uniforms, and their large dominance in the empire's fashion.