The Japan Project: The beginning of a new Japanese Era
By Yu Narakami of the National Unity League
-As tensions with the PRC heated up, Japan no longer saw the need to commit to pacifism. With huge amounts of popular and political support, Japans constitution was amended to the point where it could hardly be called the same document. The key provisions that were removed were that Japan would only have an alliance with the United States, and that Japan would no longer have a military. With the amendments it was quite clear that Japan was departing for its decade long stance of pacifism and standing by, and to more of a proactive foreign and military policy.
Education-Currently Japanese education at the Primary level is the top of the world, so there are no complaints there. However, our universities are known as Four Year Vacations, and this MUST change. We will be reforming the University system to ensure it, like our primary schools, are the best of the best. To start with, we will encouraging foreign professors to teach at Japanese schools in small numbers, but we will allow them to stay. In the meantime, we will enforce a more rigorous curriculum to ensure that our colleges do not cause students to lose focus. We will be encouraging for all non-science and technology related majors to spend at least one year abroad as a part of their education.
Politics-Japanese nationalism became significantly more attractive, especially as the constitution was reworked that saw the end of Japans commitment to pacifism. However, the Emperor found the provocative positions of the Sunrise and other Japanese nationalist parties to be troublesome. Instead, with the Emperors encouragement, a new coalition party known simply as The National Unity League came to dominate Japanese politics for decades with a right wing policy. While challenges from liberals and ultra-nationalists existed, League politicians enjoyed massive amounts of mainstream support for their efforts and monopolized the Diet and the Prime Minister position for decades. The main challengers to the League are The Japanese Democracy Alliance (Center-Left), which advocates a return to a more pacifistic stance, a decrease in government power, and a better human rights record, while the Japanese Restoration Front (Far Right) encourages even further expansion of the Japanese military.
Climate Change- We will continue to abide by, and encourage others to follow, the Kyoto Protocol. Japan has excellent natural disaster response facilities, so we will continue to fund those to maintain them, as well as ensuring all new structures are Earthquake resistant and such. In an effort to help combat rising sea levels, and in an effort to secure a water future, Japan will employ the use of Desalination plants. In the meantime, we will also be focusing on switching away from oil and more towards alternative clean energy in an effort to lessen our carbon footprint. We will give incentives to encourage businesses and buildings to at the minimum be carbon neutral
Population Demographics-Japan continues to grow older and older and our population looks to shrink with a decline in birthrates. As such, the Japanese government is going to begin offering incentives to Japanese youths to reproduce. Tax incentives to have children, free daycare centers for children, subsidzed housing, and more will encourage Japanese men and women to reproduce at higher rates. We will even use video games and anime to encourage our youth to simply have sex. In the meantime, the development of robots to help in manufacturing and other hard manual labor should make it so that Japans populace can age without having to let immigrants into Japan.
Governmental power- Japan will continue to remain a democracy in practice, however the government will continue to step in to ensure the continuation of the high Japanese standard of living that they have become accustomed to; high incomes, low crime rates and stability. As our military expands, so too will our state security apparatus, and we will continue to ensure that Japan is defended from all threats, foreign and domestic.
Technology:
Development: Japan is a leader in high technology, and we must always remember to play to that strength. Rocketry, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, and Alternative Energy are all goals for Japan to reach for.
Implementation: With the continued North Korean, and potentially Chinese, threat, Japan wanted to develop its own missile defense system, independent of the Americans, for self defense purposes only. Existing systems such as the Aegis Combat System will be improved for this purpose. With the understanding that its labor pool was shrinking, robotics were used not only in the military as drones, but also as aids in industry. Medicine we are going for a two pronged assault. The first will be into longevity, to ensure that the Japanese continue to have the longest lifespan in the world, and are still healthy as they enter their twilight years. The second will be for limb replacement and eventually augmentation with robotic parts. More durable, stronger bones, fixing eyesight, implanted computers, the possibilities are endless. The final stage is rocketry. Japan is interested in what lies in space, and will fund manned missions to the Moon and potentially even Mars if possible, and in general increasing our satellite presence in space.
Foreign Relations:
The United States of America- The United States of America is Japans closest ally, and despite Japans seeking out of new partnerships, it would remain as the most important ally of Japan. Technological and defense cooperation between the United States and Japan continued, especially with the tacit approval of Japans new military build up and their efforts to build up anti PRC sentiment. Strong ties continued between the worlds two largest economies, with Japan continuing to purchase US companies and debt, as well as cooperate with them in the development of defense technologies. The US-Japan relation would shift from the dominance of America over Japan and into one where Japan and the United States were partners, which in turn led to a higher opinion of the United States in Japan, and brought the countries far closer together. While there would be disputes between the two, on the whole the relationship was stronger than ever.
The Peoples Republic of China-With crisis along the Pacific Rim islands, and Japan hotly contesting PRC efforts to claim them, relations between Tokyo and Beijing hit an all time low. Tokyo preferred to negotiate when possible, but was stalwart in their refusal to give up their islands, and would use military force to ensure their islands remained Japanese. Relations dove even further as Japan worked with neighboring countries to influence them away from China and into a more welcoming stance towards Japan. Chinas continued threat led to a decline in Japanese exportation of manufacturing jobs to China and caused them to seek out other areas for the work, such as Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as an increase in domestic manufacturing.
South East Asia-This is our primary concern diplomatically, and we want to build excellent relations. Already, Japan is Indonesias largest export partner, sizable investment is put into Cambodia and Vietnam, and we are one Thailands biggest economic partners. Using these contacts already, we would like to develop even closer ties between our nations, increasing our investment in these nations, cooperating with them with joint military exercises, and even selling them military equipment. Politically, we want to show East Asia that American intervention is unneeded and unwanted, but that aggression by the Peoples Republic of China will not be tolerated by the nations of Asia.
Southern Asia-Japan has provided equipment to the Afghani communication industry, including televisions, cameras, use of satellites, ect. to rebuild Afghan television. Were the Fourth largest investor in Bangladeshs economy. Continue light investment into these countries and increase them if they continue to show signs of stability. We already do joint naval exercises with India, look to do army exercises with them as well as developing closer economic ties.
Diplomats-Traditionally, Japanese Diplomats have been given instructions directly from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with specific points that could not be negotiated on. This would make diplomacy with Japan and other countries quite difficult, and in an effort to change this, Japan will be implementing new training for its Diplomats. Diplomats will be given instead of specific negotiation terms, a set of objectives to achieve in negotiations with other countries in an effort to ensure that Japan will be able to foster better working relations with other countries
Military
Navy: With the second largest Navy in the world, Japan was in a prime position to enforce its position in disputes with the Peoples Republic of China. Our anti-submarine capabilities and numerical superiority should allow us to win most engagements against them. Long term though, our main focus is the development of Drone Aircraft Carriers. We would like to develop 3 to 5 of these to act as mobile units to allow for the rapid deployment of Japanese Drone Aircraft
Army-Less of a focus than our navy, but still important, the Army is in desperate need of reform. (I could list numerous existing issues with current Japanese doctrine, but in all honesty with the new Japanese government and attitude in place, a lot of those problems will be self addressed). Our biggest focus will be the development of special forces, in an effort to apply pressure at critical junctures. In the main army, see about developing robots for their use; automated turrets, for example. Maybe even Drone tanks?
Air Force-Japan recognizes that drones are the way of the future for air force, and will focus their efforts on making one of the largest drone fleets in the world. It will be used in strategic cooperation with the Army and Navy to protect Japanese interests and project Japanese power.
Intelligence-Currently Japan has no spy agency-no CIA, no FBI, nothing. As Japans global role increases, we will be developing not only a state security apparatus, but also an intelligence gathering community as well. Primarily this will be focused on offensive and defensive cyber warfare, aided by Japanese advances in Artificial Intelligence.
