Tell me this Veeky Forums:

This is the only japanese bubble I know, sorry.

Doesn't look like it's gonna burst.

Whatever happened to companies reinvesting in themselves or providing big employee bonuses for a good quarter?

The company is already growing, as it's doing well, and unlike google (and a few others) most companies - especially those in traditional industries - don't have a "do research on whatever" division, so what would they reinvest in?
Most of the time they're not going to strike out into totally new business areas, that's a ridiculously huge risk, losing them value (for taking said risk) with no guarantee that the expansion will work, so they put their money in a "safe" bet like property that should bring modest returns.

Big employee bonuses are pocket change, those happen anyway, and you can't give too big a bonus to those working at the bottom - it sets up bad expectations

Even more on steroids. Imagine Akira-level and Artmic overanimated stuff far more often.

And of course glorious five-tone shading. The bubble would mean budgets would make Kabaneri-looking tier stuff happen far more often.

Toha Heavy Industries would be all over the place and experimenting on new technology for mechanical transplants.

Let's make a setting out of this. A few facts to outline:
>The Japanese business model either changed or was altered in some way so that the bubble doesn't exist/exists in a state of indefinite stability or growth
>Japan is a major economic superpower, dominating industries like automobiles, electronics, and robotics
>Various international Japanese corporations
Anything I'm missing?

Can't the anime industry be used as a propaganda machine? Kinda like Hollywood minimizing Red Army casualties and contribution to the victory at ww, something along the lines of "Japan did nothing wrong".

Maybe anime portraying how terrible the Americans were during the occupation? Anti-imperial sentiment in the thirty/forty years after the war still pretty high, even during the 80s and 90s. So I imagine not many nationalistic/propaganda anime would be made about the Japanese Empire (although thinly veiled stuff like KanColle and Gate might still be made), just nothing overt.

>Let's make a setting out of this. A few facts to outline:
>The Japanese business model either changed or was altered in some way so that the bubble doesn't exist/exists in a state of indefinite stability or growth
>Japan is a major economic superpower, dominating industries like automobiles, electronics, and robotics
>Various international Japanese corporations
>Anything I'm missing?

>Germany dominates European industry, Japan would dominate American industry

They lost the war but won anyway...

I forget, what sort of industries/businesses did German companies dominate?

What Industries does Germany dominate?
> Heavy Machinery
> Engineering in General
> Craftsmanship
> Cars
> Panzers
> Trains
> Weapons

If we were to go full sci fi/futuristic I could imagine Japanese electronics teaming up with German trains/cars/tanks (maybe some sort military contract for the last one). Combining weapons with robotics would make for some smart guns. Further down the line maybe exos.

>I could imagine Japanese electronics teaming up with German trains/cars/tanks
That actually seems really reasonable. Japanese electronics with German mechanics.

KanColle isn't strictly a nationalistic franchise/anime but I get what you mean. A resurgence of pride in the military as well as the strength of the economy and portraying the healthy work ethic of the salaryman as well as them working together in a sort of shared effort. Maybe not specifically nationalistic but highlighting the strengths of a non-individualist workforce.

The only question remains of what would happen in the rest of East Asia during all of this. If Japanese electronics/robotics companies are joining forces with German heavy machinery/engineering companies, then maybe the Chinese might be looking to get in on it as well? I would also imagine Korea would start to get a lot of trade and tourism, with its proximity to Japan and everything.

>then maybe the Chinese might be looking to get in on it as well?
Well, that would probably depend on how Russia/Soviet Union fares as PRoC China has always been very closely tied to them regarding economy and military materiel.

...or you go the route that the PRoC lost the civil war and actually "modern" China is descended from the RoC. WOuld also be very interesting.

China would find ways of shitting all over Japan, as China hates the Japs. Probably through cheaper imitation of quality Japanese products like now. Instead of China owning American debt, they'd own Japanese debt and start fucking with them.

>Reinvestment
GROWTH. I.E Nintendo & Sony
>Big BONUS
Whatever. I.E SEGA

A lot of Jap companies is also structured to be a lot of smaller things in the same sector, they are not like Google which is spreading its tentacles everywhere because they don't know what is profitable.

I don't know much about the RoC. What would've they looked like?

Also if you go with Japan: Electronics, Germany: Engineering/Mechanics, then the main "selling point" for China would be: Pure manpower. I mean the thing China is best at is simply pure size of workforce, plus production capacity and knock-off/reproduction talent. Granted that causes a suffering in quality, but that could be remedied.

Also thinking back to the WW2 talents, Germany was good at tanks and infantry, fighters and fast-bombers but lacked tactical bombing and naval wise they had subs but no regular battleships or carriers. Meanwhile Japan was good at the whole carrier/battleship fleet thing (plus the interesting airplane carrier-sub concept), bad at tanks and had far more developed plans for strategic bombing and very nimble fighters. They'd both complement each other quite well actually, plus joint development in subs or fighters would have been interesting.

I could imagine China making counterfiet Japanese goods and turning it into cheap shit. Might make for an intresting black market with Chinese markets selling their counterfiet shit to the highest bidder that (ie people/companies/countries that can't afford/get the Japanese originals)

>I don't know much about the RoC. What would've they looked like?
Well, the biggest "remainder" of the original Republic of China is Taiwan. So, if they had won, modern China probably would look a lot more like Taipei and Hong Kong.

I deleted my post because I mixed domestic propaganda and foreign one.

>A resurgence of pride in the military as well as the strength of the economy and portraying the healthy work ethic of the salaryman as well as them working together in a sort of shared effort. Maybe not specifically nationalistic but highlighting the strengths of a non-individualist workforce.
That is the "Japanese Way of Life" I was thinking of.

Ok so stuff we have so far:
>The Japanese business model either changed or was altered in some way so that the bubble doesn't exist/exists in a state of indefinite stability or growth
>Japan is a major economic superpower, dominating industries like automobiles, electronics, and robotics
>Germany has various big companies that dominate the heavy machinery, tanks, trains, and weapons industries
>Japanese visual media is used as nationalistic propaganda outlet
>Japanese corps team up with German ones (Japanese electronics and German tanks/trains/weapons)
>China has lots of manpower and makes counterfeits/cheap versions of Japanese goods

Some questions:
>Where is Korea in all of this? What about Russia?
>What is the Japanese-American relationship like?
>Is the Japanese military purely a defensive JSDF or have they regained a national military capable of invasion and offense?
Any other questions/points I missed?

>Japan is a major economic superpower, dominating industries like automobiles
I'm no expert on cars, but I'd say German cars are mostly high-end/luxury or work (trucks etc.) while Japanese cars fill the low-medium gap, plus especially dominant in motorcycles.

Korea is still an Asian Tiger, but their national companies (ie LG, Samsung, Hyundai) is just a branch of the Japanese conglomerates?
As far as I know Taiwan and Japan has good relationship, maybe it could be kind of Asian Canada.

>What is the Japanese-American relationship like?

That makes sense, especially considering how Germany is a powerhouse in heavy machinery/industry. Would both make the same amount of money (Germany makes a lot because their cars are expensive, Japan makes a lot because they sell a lot to a vast array of people) or would one be above the other?
>Samsung and Hyundai as Japanese branches
I can dig that. Especially with Hyundai being a child company of a larger Japanese car company. I don't know my Japanese phone companies so I don't know about Samsung though. I can see places like Taiwan and Hong Kong being major tourist attractions for the Japanese. Especially if someone is fleeing from Japan they could go to Taiwan or the Chinese mainland (but that's dependent on what the political landscape in China is like)

>Korea is still an Asian Tiger, but their national companies (ie LG, Samsung, Hyundai) is just a branch of the Japanese conglomerates?
>As far as I know Taiwan and Japan has good relationship, maybe it could be kind of Asian Canada.

Plus if China never went communist, then the whole North-Korea debacle would barely exist and the Korean War would turn out as a decisive victory for the Southern Side uniting it.

Shit, accidentally posted it before finishing.

>What is the Japanese-American relationship like?
>Is the Japanese military purely a defensive JSDF or have they regained a national military capable of invasion and offense?
US still holds political sway over Japan as their economy grow more and more reliant on each other it starts to weaken.
Japan military is still defensive JSDF but with bigger budget and probably technology too.

>What about Russia?
Given that we have now two superpowers encircling it, I think Russia could use some boost too. Attach China and North Korea, apply some STALKER like badassery.

>Japan military is still defensive JSDF but with bigger budget and probably technology too.
I'd imagine a "Japanese Bundesweer".

So is Korea north and south or one Korea at this point? Because the outcome of the war majorly effects Russian communism. I like the idea of a Russian-Chinese (possibly North Korean if the war splits the country) alliance though.

Another question we need to answer is how far in the future this is.

So....a military that is part civil service and part armed forces?

Pic is DIB-200, one of the Japanese Bubble dreams.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIB-200

Honestly I prefer unified South Korea, makes it simpler and no need to deal with Kim shenanigans.

>how far in the future this is.
2077? Refers to the rpg, future enough to have believable cyberpunk techs but close enough to still be projectable.

This is going to be A E S T H E T H I C setting right?

Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, another japanese pipe dream.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid

A unified Korea would lead to a destruction of communism in Korea and would most likely end the spread of communism in East Asia I think. Which would make a Russian-Chinese alliance all the more necessary for the two nations. I agree though, a couple decades after 2050 makes just close enough to be realistic and just far away enough to be sci fi. What sorta cyberpunk techs were you thinking though?

another benefit of japanese superpower would be the presence of sweet sweet japanese snacks all over the globe.

...

What are my tastebuds looking at here?

Delicious chocolate mushrooms
What is this?

>What sorta cyberpunk techs were you thinking though?
I was thinking something along the line of Deus Ex Human Revolution, Binary Domain, Ghost In The Shell and Kikokugai. Not overly grim but also no teens in giant robots. Very advanced mechanical transplants and power suits but organic stuff is still out of reach (maybe vat-grown meat, but no clones). A person's mind can be put into a artificial brain but for some reason it can't be copied/backuped so death is death.
Okay, maybe some minor robots for the children and teens (pic).

youtube.com/watch?v=Ki-fATpXa00

>What is this?
Chinese Civil War between PRC and ROC ends in a stalemate/truce and South Korea wins the the Korean War.

Basically switching them, with a unified Korea and a demilitarized zone now spanning northern and southern China.

Just to clarify, those are toys called Medabots (Medarots in original).

Chocolate mushroom/bamboo shoots with cookie stems, simple but quite tasty.
Name is Takenoko no Sato and Kinoko no Yama.

Maybe augs aren't as widespread as in Deus Ex and mass produced augs are still experimental. Medical transplants, vat-grown meats, Exos/powered suits, maybe some drones/robots for recreational usage as well as scouting/heavy labor robots for the military. I like the idea of an artificial brain for disabled people but it seems a bit subject to bioethics.

Hang on, is that the chick from Labyrinth?

I like this idea. Puts communist China closer to Russia while still allowing for a more capitalist China to emerge. Korea is unified and has close ties with China/Japan assumingly. Only problem I can see happening is what sort of relationship the RoC would have with Japan economically because what I gathered from the OP was that the PoC was a hotbed for cheap knockoffs of Japanese goods.

yeah, the japs had a thing for her apparently.
youtube.com/watch?v=JjrmLtlzlO0

Nothing, japan has never done or created anything even remotely useful.

>the japs had a thing for her apparently.
>Germans love Hasselhoff, Japan loves Connelly

Is there some weird obscure foreigner the USA adored in the 80-90s?

A landlocked Communist China is at a massive disavantadge though , they wouldn't settle for that.

>what is a walkman

Not the user you are talking to, but if PoC allied with Russia, a major economic and military power, they wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

do not feed the troll

>that cockpit
literally why?

First thing I thought of when I read OP.

Of course, economics isn't the only thing standing in the way of these types of superstructures. The whole reason they were envisioned in the first place was to deal with potential overpopulation but with Japan's birthrate crashing and burning that future seems all but out of the question now.

>A landlocked Communist China is at a massive disavantadge though , they wouldn't settle for that.
They wouldn't be landlocked though, they'd still have shorelines and important harbors.

Still you got a point, they'd settle for a bit more.

I would imagine with the Korean and Japanese (and possibly American) governments backing them up though, the PRC would have a hard time taking back the RoC.

I'm honestly more interested in knowing how the Korean War turned in the south's favor as well as how the Chinese Revolution became a stalemate.

Maybe more of these types of buildings would be built, especially with more and more people that would be attracted to Japan as their economy grows. Don't know how sustainable it would be for the Japanese economy though.

Because it's cool, particularly so because all the high speed wind.

Updated some stuff (note: none of these are final):
>The Japanese business model either changed or was altered in some way so that the bubble doesn't exist/exists in a state of indefinite stability or growth
>Japan is a major economic superpower, dominating industries like automobiles, electronics, and robotics
>Germany has various big companies that dominate the heavy machinery, tanks, trains, and weapons industries
>Japanese visual media is used as nationalistic propaganda outlet
>Japanese corps team up with German ones (Japanese electronics and German tanks/trains/weapons)
>China is split into PRC and RoC after the Chinese Civil War ends in a stalemate
>DMZ spans northern and southern China
>Korea is a unified South Korea
>Korean companies (LG, Samsung, Hyundai) are branches of Japanese corps
>Taiwan is like Asian Canada
>US-Japanese relationship is more even
>JSDF holds a stronger military role but is still ultimately a defensive force (think Japanese Bundesweer)
>PRC-Russian Alliance
>Japanese megastructures to counter overpopulation
>Present day is around 2077
>Experimental augmentations, exos/powered suits, vat-grown meats, and helper robots

More questions:
>What is America doing?
>What is happening in the Middle East?
>What about the Philippines?
>Is Russia in a strong or weak position?
>Are augs a thing? What about artificial brain transplants?
>Are drones/robots widespread?
>How advanced is military technology?

Well, in the case of a split China, plus (South) Korea and RoC being heavily backed by the US, plus the Japanese-American co-operation, I'd agree that the PRoC would be heavily involved in their negotiations with the Soviets and ComIntern and Warsaw Pact deals, way more than they did in reality.

I mean they would have two heavily democratic/US-sympathizers directly on their doorstep, a somewhat reversed Cuban Crisis maybe?

A threat of all-out war between the two Chinas with Russia and their allies/satellite states is an interesting idea. Especially when you consider China's place as an economic power in East Asia. China might be pressured into unfair economic deals with the Japanese and Americans, possibly the Koreans with Japanese backing. Maybe a sort of backdoor dealings with the Soviets/Russians?

Bumping for intrest

>A threat of all-out war between the two Chinas with Russia and their allies/satellite states is an interesting idea.
It's a curious variant, as the Cold War was simply east vs west, but in this case you'd have the Soviet states in the middle, with the NATO on their west border and America and their backed countries to their east.

The idea of a communist vs capitalist East Asia with Soviet countries trying to re-establish communist rule in the region is one that hasn't been done yet. A Cold War between the RoC and PRC with Japanese-backed Korea being a major player in the conflict. I think the Japanese government might want to profit off of the stalemate as well, while at the same time pushing for the RoC to retake China and push back communist influence in East Asia, as well as Asia as a whole. They just can't act because of the nature of the JSDF and everything. I would imagine the Americans would be a distant supporter of the Asian Cold War, supporting the Koreans and Chinese in funds while the Japanese give them the weapons and infrastructure to maintain the DMZ.

>What is America doing?
>What is happening in the Middle East?
>What about the Philippines?
Will have to think about it some more.

>>Is Russia in a strong or weak position?
Given that there are now two "western" superpowers, I'm pretty sure Russia should also be one. Now the question is if it should stay USSR/Communist or post perestroika/capitalist.

>Are augs a thing? What about artificial brain transplants?
Augs should be a thing but I'm not sure about brain transplant, it's an interesting thing but also rises many questions.

>Are drones/robots widespread?
>How advanced is military technology?
idea sounds nice.
Superpower Japan using the the main land conflict as a test bed for new military grade drones/robots.
Although I'm not sure if it would be useful, I like the idea of a new era of battleships armed with powerful point defense system based on lasers and precise and heavy railguns, being the japanese Yamato the most famous.

I wouldn't be surprised if communist china pushed for India and influenced them to become a communist state. Also, south-east Asia? would ASEAN be even formed? IIRC it was spearheaded by five countries. What I see is that both RoC and PRC would push to influence other countries there. Greater co-prosperity sphere by the japs? influencing the Philippines and/or Indonesia and such?

I like the idea of USSR/communist Russia and it makes sense not only historically but it makes for an interesting relationship with Korea, as said above by another user. I like augs as well but I was never a big fan of brain transplants. It works for stuff like Shadowrun, but I don't think it might work for this setting.
>Superpower Japan using the the main land conflict as a test bed for new military grade drones/robots.
This sounds super cool, as does railgun cannons on JMSDF battleships. The idea of a Japanese military-industrial complex in a Cold War China is a new and interesting idea that would be a new and novel one.

I don't think ASEAN would be formed, especially if a Korean War left a unified Korea. This would mean there would be no Vietnam War since communism would not spread to Vietnam. Most likely there would be a larger effort by Korea, the RoC, and Japan to support the region. It might be called a Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere by Japanese nationalists domestically but more likely than not would be something along the lines of an East Asian Prosperity Alliance or the Association of Asian Nations.

Hmmm, so less democratic problems then? IIRC those countries received their own share of problems due to communist china. So the political situation would be what we are experiencing right now, though with more 'we are brothers and shit' Also, one vital part of this is the south china sea, which according to some holds valuable resources. I can see them saying shit like, 'this sandbars are ours, dare move in, your dead'.

What do you plan to do with the answer to this question?

>I can see them saying shit like, 'this sandbars are ours, dare move in, your dead'.
Reclaim Chinese sand.

So Japan still follows the article 9 so it's military is "defensive" and the maritime branch is the most notorious one. Battleship Yamato, the symbol of the military, is the first of a new generation of battleships carrying powerful and precise lasers that can neutralize multiple missiles with ease and high-speed railcannons.

My idea, although maybe too artificial, would be to have Japan as dominating the seas, US dominating the air and USSR dominating the land.

What do you mean?

I think Japan could quite easily take those as either part of a governmental relocation project or as a Japanese company uses them for facilities.

I'm asking about OPs reason for asking the question, what Veeky Forums-related activity does he intend to use the answer for?

I think Germany would dominate the land, especially with joint Japanese-German projects on tanks and weaponry. The US might likely be confined, since they never really spread their influence throughout the world (since the Vietnam War never happened since Korea was never split in two)

OP here. I thought it might be a good idea to build an AltHist setting with other fa/tg/uys.

World building? Planning to run a game in such scenarios?

The only issue I have with that is that you put some of the most anti-communist areas (Tibet) into communist territory and vice-versa, but otherwise this seems fine and a logical conclusion of a frozen PRoC-RoC civil war shortly after the win against Japan.

I'm not a huge history buff. Would this be the map of East/Southeast Asia circa 1960s or earlier?

>What is happening in the Middle East
What if the German and Japanes economy was so grand because the middle east is largely communist, taking away almost all of the strategic circle full of oil and resources from the western world; This would prevent the Western allies from forcing the German/Japanes artificial oil/rubber industries to be closed or make them reopen them again. In RL, they had them closed down because they were a potential risk to the allied oil industries.

The Germans and the Japanese invented multiple ways to turn coal, of which they (and in this world, importantly, also the RoC) had a lot, into oil and other synthetics (The Japanese would be reliant on Chinese and Korean coal for this without controll of Manchuria tho). Both of them had bans placed on them to stop all of it after the war.

Faced with a more devastating/earlier oil crisis, they might repeal their bans, catapulting those German/Japanese companies that owned those production plans to the top of the most powerful and rich companies in the world, fueling the economy that we are talking about here.

What kind of game? What system?

Not everything has to be for a game. Settings have been done before on Veeky Forums that weren't made in the intention of creating a setting for a game. Stop being so uptight.

So Japan would still be reliant on coal and fossil fuels? I get that they would import coal and oil from China and Korea, but once the 21st century rolls around, I imagine countries like Japan and Germany might look towards sustainable energy, especially hydro and nuclear (possibly wind in Germany). I do imagine an earlier (and thus more devastating) energy crisis happening as the German and Japanese markets expand across Europe and Asia respectively. I imagine America might try to stockpile its own resources as this happens in order to counteract this.

Wouldn't Japan and Germany be able to circumvent that through synthesizing and/or looking to alternate sources of fuel?

Also, to expand on this, if Russia would be less sucessful in spreading communism in Asia, they would likely try to spread more into the middle east. The Russians, even the communists, had a weird obsession with aquiring istanbul to receive a warm water port. They even posed it as a claim in peace negotiations. In RL, they were not able to convince the rest of the allies, but were content with grabbing a lot of european puppets.

But what if they had not only been less successful in asia, but more diretly in Europe? My favorite strategy in WW2 strategy games as the allies is to take the sound to enable baltic acess for me and land in East Prussia behind the German lines while I land in France as well, so the soviets can't just plow through to Berlin so easily. What if all of/most of Germany had been taken by the western allies while the Soviets plowed through Poland? Either by doing as I outlined or by the German military just being more successful in doing so; Their plan was to hold of the Soviets for as long as they could so more land would fall the the western allies. Had this worked, I am 99% certain a dissatisfied Stalin would have come down on Turkey, and from there on it could have escalated quickly via invasions, revolutions and "revolutions" all over the middle east. A Soviet Union without East Germany (probably even without the Czech Republic, leaving them with the wall in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary) would be focused far more southwards. At this point, Greece is pretty surounded and also with some genuine communist revolutionaries, if you know what I mean.

With this scenario, we could explain both the situation of Japan,East Asia and Germany without making the Soviets weak.They would actually be even stronger, with access to warm water ports both in the persian gulf and the mediteranean and a dangerous proximity to imperialistically oppressed Africa and India. Also, they would later find they not only have a lot of sand,but 2/3 of all resources

Later on, sure, but it would explain their strength that helped them over the bubble before technology permits such things.

Yeah. Either the western world goes heavy on atomic stuff or they develop alternative energies.

Both seem very possible seeing as those are the ways Japan and Germany handle that shit nowadays.

This could actually be very good for the climate lol

Imagine what Germany is doing today happend 10 years earlier and in Japan as well, and was exported into all the world. That could turn their own energy crisis into a new, gigantic part of their industry. The Chinese would replicate a lot of that of course, as they do today actually.

If you want to get really hard sci-fi about it, you could make some hypothetical methods of storing the fluctuating engery spikes of alternative energies into a reality. Gigantic artificial plateaus with artificial lakes up top to store energy in a kinetic way. My favorite completely serious and real aproach (not kiddig by the way) is to saw out a hundred meter tall and kilometer wide cylinder out of a mountain massive with geologically stable stone, install a ginormous watertight rind and just pump wate in there. a circlic ring of mountain just lifts itself up several dozen meters; in times of need you just open the vents and run that high pressure water through water turbines again. That's about as sci-fi as real modern science planning gets.

So after the Korean War ends in the Japanese/American's favor and the Chinese Civil War ends in a stalemate, the USSR turns its focus to the Middle East? I would imagine they would try to spread communism and establish more puppet states in that area. Greece is a major target, as is Turkey (although this might be subject to more straightforward military aggression) as well as places like Saudi Arabi, Egypt, and places like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This would put the Russians at an advantage and have the PRC try to make a deal with the Russians so that they could give them support in order to take back China or at the very least project pressure onto the southern Chinese government. A Russian Constantinople is a good one though.