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Evangeline Anovilis

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The Prme Minister's official residence

 

The Disappearance of Akiyama Kagami

 

A mystery seems to occupy the minds of the nation these days - Where is the Prime Minister? Prime Minister Akiyama Kagami was last seen in public about a week ago, when meeting with Korean President Park Ki So in Tsushima, Nagasaki Pefecture. Ever since, the Prime Minister has gone missing. Adding to public concerns is the fact that during this week two scheduled appearances of the Prime Minister have been cancelled, including one meeting of the National Diet and the commissioning of several new warships in Yokosuka Naval Base, occasions Prime Minister Akiyama would normally not miss. While the Kantei states that there is no reason to worry as Akiyama-san is merely very busy and has thus seen it as prudent to cancel certain scheduled events, the public is already speculating as to what happened to the Prime Minister to cause her to skip such important events.

 

Rumors range from a secret crash of the Prime Minister's plane on the way back from Tsushima, to the Prime Minister having fallen victim to party-internal struggles, all the way to more absurd theories of her being abducted by aliens, her being a magical girl on long-term mission or her being currently on a journey to find herself, as has been suggested in discussions on an anonymous message board on the internet. While the nature of such rumours is indicative that most in Japan are not too worried as to why the Prime Minister has gone missing, it still shows the importance Akiyama's person occupies in Japan's political scenery.

 

Inquiries by the NHK into the whereabouts of Prime Minister Akiyama sadly have been answered in an obscure matter, similar to how the situation seems to be handled overall, but we have been reassured that the Prime Minister is alive and within the country. While the nation however keeps wondering, many are looking forward to the Hanami season starting later this month in the Kantō region and for which an invitation has been extented even towards the Emperor of Tianxia, making it an event Prime Minister Akiyama is hardly going to miss.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Recession prognosed to continue

 

Despite post-war hopes for a recovery, the Japanese economy has now been prognosed to shrink this year by a whole two percent, with even worse performance feared for the coming year. The consequences of the economic down-turn also are increasingly felt by the common citizens, as increasing consumer prices rise and unemployment is on the rise.

 

Economic experts of the METI explain this return into recession as a consequence of the rather sluggish development of the Americas, compounding with other factors, such as the Southeast Asian Crisis and the Athenian Civil War. These circumstances have over the years steadily eroded potential markets for Japanese goods, which are in low demand, causing many industries to lay off workers. In addition, the increased ressource prices and food prices drive up prices for most consumer goods, including such staple foodstuffs as rice. C

 

ombined with increased competition by Tianxia and Korea, Japanese businesses are under a lot of pressure. Official numbers only state a recession in the dimension of two percent overall, but many are worried that this will not be felt the same way by the Japanese middle and lower classes. "These numbers may look bad, but they still include profits made by ''Japanese companies investing abroad. Investments that are not employing people at home and wealth that will hardly trickle down to the ones who are out on the street", Minister Amahara states.

 

According to the Minister, the earlier State Intervention Act has not failed to work, but it was too small in scope and got countered by the unexpected or underestimated instability of the global market. Minister Amahara has stated that the matter is being debated and a new policy will be worked out together with Prime Minister Akiyama. The Prime Minister is hoping that the cabinet can work together and present an encompassing action plan to deal with the recession and accompanying societal issues.

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Rice paddies in Aizu

 

Diet approves Import Security Act

 

Decades of trade liberalisation come to an end, as the National Diet today passed a proposal by the cabinet called the Import Security Act. While the Japanese nation had been firmly integrated into the East Asian trade network and had not instituted many barriers to free trade post-independence, the recent rice crisis has prompted the Akiyama administration to review this trade policy and a return of agricultural tariffs, import quotas and an outright ban on the importation of unprocessed rice.

 

"Japan has for decades been self-sufficient in rice production and it should be self-sufficient once again. Maybe prices will rise, but I am sure that the guaranteed food quality and the security of the food supply are worth it for our people.", Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Soga Keijiro stated. The Liberal Party has protested the decision, calling it a "neomercantilist practice that will harm Japanese consumers", however the Prime Minister herself dismissed such an accusation, stating that "security goes over convenience and there's little point in entrusting food supply to a system that is wrecking itself."

 

While the Import Security Act most visibly affects the food supply of Japan, it also addresses the energy and mineral imports. Here, reserves are to be deepened and supply lines diversified, to increase security. As Japan itself is lacking in ressources, the government saw little point in restricting trade further than necessary beyond agricultural production. The Prime Minister has however stated that the Import Security Act will not stand alone, but pave the way for both a new National Energy Policy and a National Rural Development Policy to be presented within the coming weeks and to be implemented over the coming decades.

 

Public reaction to the announcements have been quite passive among urban populations where the majority seem to take the changes in the face of already risen food prices, while rural areas welcome the renaissance of Japanese national agriculture.

Edited by Evangeline Anovilis
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Wakkanai Station, currently the northernmost station of the contigious Japanese railway system

 

Japan National Railways plans on new tunnel beneath the Sōya Strait

 

The President of the JNR announced today that following approval by the Diet for funding, Kokutetsu is planning on constructing a new railway tunnel underneath the Sōya Strait, connecting the prefectures of Hokkaidō and Karafuto. Plans for such a tunnel existed already for some time and have been discussed before among measures to develop the North, but have not been pursued - up to now.

 

The cost of the tunnel is prognosed at ¥8.150 trillion and the plan for the tunnel foresees its completion in 10 years. While surveys already were made in the past, the exorbitant cost and the great effort that is needed to construct such a tunnel have caused the government to reconsider the risky investment. Now, however, the project has received approval and funding, following a lengthy debate in the National Diet. According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nakamichi, the tunnel is not just going to boost the development of Karafuto Prefecture by finally connecting it properly to the national railway network as a full part of Japan, but following talks with the Russian Empire, there is a real chance that a railway link from Northern Sakhalin to the continent may eventually allow a continuous connection from Tokyo to Moscow and Sankt Petersburg via the Transsiberian Railway.

 

Prime Minister Akiyama herself meanwhile stated that "it is still to be seen whether the eventual connection can happen, but if it fails it won't be due to us. Whichever way the situation develops though, the Chiryū Tunnel will be a monument of Japanese engineering and hopefully pave the way for development of Karafuto." The Prime Minister also pointed out that the tunnel should serve as a symbol for the future of the Japanese railway, a means of transportation the government deems to have a greater role in the future.

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Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in all of Japan

 

Japan to go even more nuclear?

 

While an ongoing crisis over nuclear weaponry is developing elsewhere on the globe, Minister Amahara has unveiled plans for more peaceful nuclear developments at home. According to plans by the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry in cooperation with the nuclear industry, the nation is to increase the share of nuclear power in the total energy mix to about 30%, up from the current 15%. This move, the Minister exclaims, is aimed at reducing the national dependency on fossil fuels and the CO² output of Japan.

 

To meet this objective, METI is planning on the modernisation of the nuclear infrastructure for greater efficiency, output and safety. "I understand that people do not like living near a nuclear power plant. But we need to look at the facts. If we look at the statistics, nuclear power has far less pollution and is far healthier than exhaust-producing oil, gas or coal-powered plants, it is better for our beautiful environment and is not dependent on a volatile oil price. And we are taking into account the concerns of the people about safety, establishing new standards in that regard by deploying much safer and more powerful reactors in existing plants to replace aging ones.", Minister Amahara is quoted. It is planned that existing Generation II boiling water reactors (BWRs) reactors be decommissioned and replaced by more modern designs such as the advanced Generation III Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) or the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor-II (ABWR-II).

 

This is aimed to bridge the time for the development of Generation IV reactors and the construction of a Japanese fusion reactor. It is scheduled that within the next three years, all reactors in Japan older than Generation III be brought to todays standard, before within the decade new reactors be deployed to replace older Generation III reactors. Most promising candidates for the next generation nuclear reactors seem to be Mitsubishi FBR and Hitachi-GE, which are focusing especially on sodium-cooled fast reactors, although designs based on the ABWR seem to also be promising.

 

In addition, the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency's (JAEA) Naka Fusion Research Institute has begun the start of the construction of Japan's first economic fusion reactor, the Japan National Fusion Reactor. Derrived from the JT-60SA, it will be Japan's first fusion reactor to generate energy at an economic level to be used by the Japanese people. The tokamak-design reactor is to be constructed at Shirosato, Ibaraki and will form the core of the Shirosato Fusion Plant. A spokesperson from the Naka Fusion Research Institute stated that the operation of the JNFR will allow for refinement of the design for future fusion reactors producing commercial energy for Japan. The reactor built time is scheduled at three years and the initial energy output will be around 500 MWe, a number that is to be increased as further fusion reactors may be added.

 

According to Minister Amahara, the these plans will demonstrate "the prowess of Japanese research and technology in the areas of nuclear fission and fusion, while making energy cheap, clean and sustainable for future generations. Japan may not have a lot of ressources, but through education, effort and ingenuity, our nation prospers."

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Parade of the Nihongun

 

Discussion over introduction of conscription causes tensions within the Diet

 

Debate in the National Diet got heated yesterday, when the National Conservative Party seemingly shifted their position on conscription. While the proponents of conscription were up to now limited to the nationalist right, it seems that it now is considered even by more moderate conservatives, as the Minister of Defense Kato Akira suggested reintroduction, finding no minor approval by his party colleagues.

 

The notion of conscription has been called outrageous by most opposition parties and several intelectuals. The idea of conscription, while not new, has always been a controversial one, colliding with Japanese popular pacifism. Already the regular military had seen several vocal critics and a reintroduction of mandatory military service will no doubt be quite unpopular.

 

Still, Prime Minister Akiyama backs the suggestion of Minister Kato, stating that while maybe unpopular and harsh, it may be the best course of action with a lack of alternatives. "We are living in a volatile time with many potential threats to our nation. The military will require further expansion to allow for adequate security of our nation. But it is unlikely that these needs for incresed manpower will be able to be met by a volunteer force. The Japanese government is listening to its people, but we also are determined to our national security, which may very well demand that every Japanese citizen do their duty towards the Empire."

 

Overall, it seems that the government is not yet completely decided on the issue. The cabinet and party representatives stay secretive, both about how to implement such a conscription, but also why.

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Nakhodka, Outer Manchuria

 

Russia turns towards the East again!

 

After starting negotiations with Tianxia over the strengthening of the Russian Pacific Fleet, the Russian Empire now has started a surprise incursion into Outer Manchuria, to establish once again a presence in the Sea of Japan and to strengthen their regional influence even further. While no official statement from Tianxia was yet released, Prime Minister Akiyama has condemned the incursion sharply and has warned that any incursion into Japan's northern territories would be answered with all-out war.

 

The incursion follows three-party negotiations between Tianxia, Russia and Japan in Marscuria, where tensions flared up as Russia used the negotiations for purchasing of Tianxia ships, despite the principal agreement of a non-aggression pact and according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nakamichi, "with this [the incursion into Outer Manchuria], the Russians have crossed a line. They have made undoubtedly clear that they are not here out of interest in peaceful cooperation, but to challenge our nation." Prime Minister Akiyama too has declared that "the Imperial peace is over. Japan needs to be prepared that Russia will not stop at Outer Manchuria. We shouldn't lull ourselves in a sense of false security any longer."

 

While the Prime Minister did not announce yet any measures to counter the incursion directly, apart from that coordination with Tianxia would be necessary, plans were made for a strengthening of defensive measures in Karafuto, Hokkaidō, the Northern Territories and Chishima. Additionally, Minister of the Navy Date has proclaimed that any naval build-up of the Russian Pacific Fleet will be responded to in kind by the Japanese Navy.

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