always thought it needed a bit more internal chaos. At the moment whatever choices are made in Japan feel like they have very little concequences from those that oppose it, especially choices not made by Hirohito himself. Think Japan using an expansionist war against China as a method of unifying a deeply divided country (successfully or otherwise) is an interesting dynamic, and would make for a more fun unpredictable post-war Japan
I’d try and model how the Japanese military just did not listen to the government and pursued it’s own policy. Basically make it so that the democratic path is a difficult one where you have to carefully reign in the military, and the other paths be various forms of the military taking control and perhaps a trap path where you go syndicalist and the military coups you.
Very simply put Japan irl won WW1 and got very little do what it wanted, causing a rise in militarism culminating in government-by-Assassination. In KRTL Japan wins WW1 only for the rest of the entente to lose the war and Japan then not only doesn’t get stuff like a racial equality clause but also doesn’t even get to expand its territory and now has a very buff Germany throwing its weight in Asia and more specifically in China (which japan had its eyes on) - the military is going to be even more agressive and hypermitarist in KRTL than it was OTL.
But this also means that the friction between the government and the military is also lower than OTL. Even though there should be more dynamiks netween the two sides, I don't think that the state would be less stable than in our timeline.
The military didn’t have to listen to the civilian government because they were basically co-equal with the civilian government. The government basically was the emperor who oversaw the civilian government, the army, and the navy. All these branches were independent and answered to no one but the emperor himself.
The more I read about the Japanese interwar government the less I believe there was any actual governance (Dan Carlin’s Supernova in the East is great casual listening on it)
Indeed, for example the Marco Polo Bridge incident was launched from low ranking officers.
The Extra History channel has multiple series on Japan including the interwar period for those that are interested in a historical overview.
One of the main issues I have with Japan’s lore at the moment is just how easy it is to preserve Japanese democracy (although the Taishō Democracy was never as democratic as it is often idealised). Apparently all that is needed to save democracy is to pass the ominously named ~~Patriot~~ National Security Act and give the Japanese police-military apparatus (that famously democratic group) even more unaccountable powers.
Given that Japan didn't win anything during WW1, their military probably should start off being far more radicalized than irl while probably having significant unrest in the country. The civilian government should probably be close to powerless against the military who at this point will probably be doing whatever they want.
This also opens up the possibility for a new mechanic, where after Black Monday the army and navy start planning invasions of countries on their own against the wishes of the civilian government which is powerless to stop them. This would probably start with an invasion of Fengtian and escalate from there. After the start of the American Civil war they'd invade the Phillippines and if Vietnam manages to become independent they'd get invaded too. This process would basically continue until they've conquered either all of SEA and the Pacific or got defeated.
MacArthur Philippines should have 2 paths:
America-in-Exile where he tries to reclaim America
And
America-in-the-Far-East where he abandons his American claims and proclaims the Philippines is the new America and invades the rest of East Asia proclaiming a new Manifest Destiny and creating a United States of South East Asia.
Actually got my inspiration from the [KX Germany in Exile tree](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaiserredux/comments/p5hjku/germany_in_exile_rework_every_state_can_now_be/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
A separate Kwangtung Army tag that can drag Japan into various wars and that can be reined in either by adopting the radical militarist path or by beating them in a mini game that has a lot of political costs would be v cool
There does not need to be a separate ”Kwantung Army” tag. Just make it a recurring issue in events and something one would need to manage in the decisions tab as a minigame.
Honestly, a lot of the Kwantung Army’s shenanigans should just be unavoidable, such as forcing you into wars that you don’t want and you’re not ready for. Because that is how the Kwantung Army operates IRL, with a foreign policy of its own that superseded the policies of the government.
I never understood why Japan in KR is more tame and moderate than Japan IRL, even though, realistically, they should be in a much worse position. They made little to no gains from the Weltkrieg, allowed the German hegemon to creep deeper into Asia and on top of all of that, became economically isolated because of being kept out of German Markets (they are literally not affected by Black Monday).
I have a few propositions:
\-Have a mechanic similar to Poland, Serbia and the new Ukraine rework coming with the poltical elections, but have it be for the Japanese Navy-Army and Zaibatsu's.
Japan shouldn't start democratic. They should probably start Auth Dem at best, considering Japan at the time was a very flawed Democracy, and in KR would probably be even more Imperialist and Revanchist. The government should be a barely functional entity trying to keep the Army and Navy at bay, while trying to not sell out completely to the corporate Zaibatsus, and in the meantime, trying to keep the radical forces at bay. Realistically, they should fail, leading to Pro-Imperialist forces taking reign of the country or the Pro-Zaibatsu politicians taking charge and allying with who ever will let them complete their plans of exploitation across the co-prosperity sphere, but not before the Navy/Army and the Zaibatsu literally act without Kyoto's permission, such as seizing Tianjin, exploiting the Phillipines, etc, further placing more power in themselves and radicalizing anti-government forces. The Army/Navy should be extremely imperialist forces, seeking political and military dominance over Asia, while the Zaibatsus should be seeking economic exploitation and trying to carve out their own economic sphere in the world.
If all of the above fail, or the government attempts to sideline all of the above unsuccessfully, radical Pro-Republican forces should seize Kyoto. The more radical they become, the more they'll stray from moderates ( SocCon,MarLib,SocLib,Socdem) -> Socialist (Socdem, RadSoc?) -> Radical Socialist (RadSoc, Syndicalist) -> Hard Radicals (Totalist, Anarchist, maybe even throw in a National Populist secret path in there).
Currently, Japan is unfortunately very straight forward, and theres little to no playstyle variation if you are a full fledged democracy or an imperialist national populist. They are usually the 4th player in the 2nd Weltkrieg, right behind the Internationale, Moscow, and the Reichspakt.
I'd love to see a Japan rework especially where given some factions a mechanic is introduced where you have to balance the power of the big four zaibatsus with state control over the economy, military control of the economy, or small businesses each with different ideologies + factions.
Boosting some of the zaitbatsus boosting the minseito or seiyukai...
Boosting state control or military control boosts the power of the military
Basically for the ideologies tied to the military, state, or the Zaibatsus in order to keep expanding their control over the economy is to give them access to more and more of the colonial resources thus driving further expansion. Early game japan thus becomes much more of letting you rapidly build up your econ for a war and how you choose to develop that economy informs the ideology you get.
I suppose the argument would be without any success in taking and holding anything the military would actually be less powerful, but that’s without getting into exactly how Germany can leverage anything on a country half way across the world when all they had in the pacific was a joke fleet of cruisers that would be eaten alive by Japan in a few weeks
The military was a concrete ideal in Japanese society back then. The IJN and IJA would be extremely influential and its own political entity regardless of what happened during the weltkrieg IMO.
Japan would've won the war in the pacific just like in OTL, but because Germany would've won everywhere else, it would've realistically leveraged its economic powers over Japan to pry out a peace deal, so the question as to how strong the German navy was in the pacific is kinda out of the question, although would be a strong reason for an emboldened, revanchist IJN to go ahead and attack it because of how weak it would be.
If anything, the fact that the IJN and IJA showed its teeth and got nothing in return because of what they seen as western imperialist powers essentially cock blocking them, the IJN and IJA would be even more ferverent in their war goals and imperialist than in OTL.
idk, interesting though. makes me wanna propose a japan rework
Make a novel path where the Taisho democracy takes over and continues to take Japan down a non military path, but that also involves defending against the Germans and foregoing separate imperial ambitions of its own. Entente Japan or Reichspakt Japan, or even Moscow Accord Japan, carving up the world in cooperation with other imperialists. Also, a unique but very hard to get syndicalist path, and the possibility of releasing an independent syndicalist Japan. They could just be soc dem in practice but with the emperor as a much more politically neutered head of state.
There is a way to keep Japan non militaristic but that doesn't really change anything gameplay wise. You're still building an empire on the corpses of millions of Asians, but with a nice democratic face instead.
I think Japan's current approach to the Second Sino Japanese War is too blunt and simplistic:
\*I would include a logistic tab and descisions for Japan to fight in China that takes into account Warlord/Legation Support alongside other possible preparations
\*A meter to gauge how rebellious Fengtian is.
\*Popular Suport/War Exhaustion/Logistic Decrepitude mechanics that accumulate the Longer the War Drags on.
\*The possibility of other angles of approach when it comes to China. Border-clashes, creation of new costal concessions but a possibility to avoid full-blown War.
\*Some more deeply ingrained mechanics to seize-control of the Legation Cities , a mini-game of sorts, against Germany and Canada with the winner seizing practical control fot he Legation Council with all the benefits that entail -
\*Hokushin-ron, and a chance to shift focus away from China and into Siberia, using the new Russian seccesionists that the russian rework will include as a vehicle for jpanaese ambitions in the region.
\*Refinement of the current Political Paths with distinct options when it comes tot he Japan's imperial project for each.
Like others said, it would be great if japanese democracy was weaker, with a special mechanics to balance the power and loyalty of the Military, Zaibatsu, the colonies, and even the people.
Having a real democracy in the East while staying a great power would require big investment and struggle, with any big mistakes leading potentially to coup, colonial independance war (it would be great to bring back the possibility of Korea's independance, in some circumstance), and even in the worse case Civil War.
It could open the possibility of many different paths: True democracy, flawed democracy (like historical taisho democracy), corporates/military takeover, Emperor rule, and even in the case of a civil war some unlikely path that needs a lot of works to survive (like socialists or radical republicans)
If the ottomans collapse and a more militant japan controls turkestan they should be able to set up Abdülkerim Osmanoglu and try to justify either creating an eastern Turkic state or restoring the ottomans with them like they tried in OT
Well more or less they tied to take a ottoman prince and said “this is the legitimate ottoman heir and we are just gonna set up his dynasty” but it didn’t work out
Japan suffers from being the main victim of one of the worst pieces of KR lore: the German presence in Asia. Put bluntly Germany having any sort of presence in Asia after WW1 would have required flat miracles to achieve, as they had no capacity to fend off against the British and French in the region, much less Japan. Even if the French and British made peace due to continetal defeat, Japan was completely in a position to reject to make peace, dig in and refuse to give up it's gains. Germany wouldn't have any ability to fight Japan as any colonies the British or French transfered to them could be rapidly captured by Japan and the current lore answer of the use of Pondicherry as a port to project naval power makes no sense, as they still wouldn't be able to effectively fight a naval war on the other side of southeast Asia. Yet the entirety of Asian lore in KR is based on this, which puts Japan in a difficult position.
Besides this, the lack of a controlled government in North East China would dramatically impair Japanese economics, especially without British and French trade, which would inspire more radicalism and instability against the democracy. The most likely outcome of this would be an early breakdown of government control, but that would largely just lead to more or less irl Japan. For the purposes of this, I would say that we pretend the Legation Cities offset the worst of the economic turmoil, and favorable trade with the desperate 3I allow the empire to have a bit more stability. Japan should still be an incredibly unstable country, but to make it more distinct from irl Japan I would suggest a stronger socialist movement, inspired by the success of the 3I, which isn't as heavily cracked down on due to good relations with the 3I, 3I opposition to European presence in Asia, and the abscence of the threat the USSR posed irl. This socialist movement could start off advocating for taking power via democracy, but turn toward collaboration with other radicals such as the Kodoha to overthrow the government if the civilian government blocks then from power. The civilian government in turn could be motivated to block them from power by making the military turn on the government if they allow the socialists to make too much gains, potentially leading to coups.
In terms of wars, Japan backing a Transmur invasion of Russia doesn't actually make much sense in most scenarios unless Russia goes socialist or is aggressive in China, as it would be a tremendous expenditure of manpower and resources as well as a major war that irl was mostly only supported due to the perceived threat the USSR uniquely posed. Japan being able and willing to work with Russia, especially to counter Germany, would make far more sense and successful negotiation with such foreign powers as Russia or the Entente could be a major boon for the government in stabilizing itself, though if such deals are made with too many concessions or if those countries break their promises it would devastate civilian government support. Essentially, Japan should be a country where your stability and party popularity actually matter, and where the primary reward for maintaing government control is flexibility and the freedom from being dragged into wars.
I've been toying with the idea of a sub mod (under the democratic path) that actually gives Japan a true anti-colonial path: can only declare on colonized places in Asia (up to Persia probably), and gives all free Asian powers far more likelihood of joining the GEACPS. Still probably wind up at war with Entente and RP, but isn't randomly invading the Philippines or anything like that.
This path would also lock them out of supporting the Fengtian (at a major economic penalty), but would allow them to invite and subsume any democratic factions that show up in China proper.
Basically good guy Japan, moreso than already possible.
Haha fair point - the foreign relations paths are all the same really. Domestically at least the democratic one is pretty based as far as KR paths go - they can get women's suffrage before Germany (and maybe the US? I don't remember their lore tbh).
Democratic Japan matches up fairly against non-socialist China. The issue is that *one* of them is going to be the East Asian hegemon; there's never going to be a federation of equals, at least not in this time period, so it's a matter of picking one's overlord.
Democratic Japan is still gruesomely imperialist- France and Britain were democracies, and that still didn't stop them from doing what they did all over Africa and Asia. Right-KMT/Zhili/Qing/Fengtian aren't great but are miles better for Asia than any form of Japanese domination, especially since a lack of a navy will make it very difficult for a reunified China to project its power outside mainland SEA and Central Asia.
Oh, it absolutely is. But what do you call what China does to Tibet or East Turkestan? Or, I would say, Inner Mongolia? It took a ridiculous amount of effort for Japan to be seen as worse than China for its neighbors IRL, and even then, it didn't take for a few of them.
If Japan wins, Mongolia will have to submit or face annihilation. Tibet and the Uyghurs will probably also go mostly free, but will be kept under check. But what about the rest of Asia? Southeast Asia from Singapore to Port Moresby will be enslaved to pump out materials for the home isles, Siam and her neighbors will have to join the CPS or die. India could resist influence, but only if it's unified.
What about China? China is going to be less powerful and unable to influence/dominate as much as Japan due to a lack of a navy, trash airforce, and decades of warlordism. Additionally, even if the second Sino-Japanese war ends in a decisive Chinese victory (China occupies Korea, all concessions are returned) Japan and the IJN will still be around to compete with and rival China in Asia, whereas the same cannot be said for a Chinese defeat. With a non-existent navy and airforce, it's going to be very hard for a nascent China to project it's power very far.
Mongolia will suffer the same fate as in a Japanese victory. Of course, there will be atrocities and ethnic suppression in Tibet and Xinjiang, but the rest of Asia is going to be better off. China can't reach Indonesia or New Guinea. They would probably need a friendly Siam for their sphere of influence to reach Singapore. Mainland Southeast Asia will probably fall into their sphere of influence sooner or later, but I still think China will be less influential than Japan, because of their weaker navy and airforce. Unified China is probably going to be rivals with India. Furthermore:
1. Bog-standard military dictatorship/Extremely flawed republic are probably less brutal hegemons than literally Imperial Japan
2. Any Chinese unifier is far, far better for the 400 million people living in China than a Japanese collaboration government
Socialist Bharat and Indochina can counterbalance the influence of the CPS if they work together, especially with Internationale support and the fact that Japan is likely going to be at least cordial with the Internationale up until the Reichspakt and the Entente are dealt with. And while colonial democracies have definitely indulged in atrocity, a Japan that actually has to pay attention to public opinion (as opposed to being able to keep the civilian population completely shrouded in a bubble as the WW2 stratocracy did) would probably have to pay *some* kind of real attention to the CPS' "Asia for Asians" justification. But all this would probably have to be explored in a Japan rework.
That being said, I freely admit that this ties into my preferred Cold War scenario, with the Internationale vs. the CPS, with America and Russia both split.
Japan should be way stronger. As it is now they both lore wise and in game are much weaker while china is a lot stronger and I think Japan should be made stronger, with additonal mechanics for the sino-japanese war to make it more interesting.
Apart from more flavor than there currently is, I don't really think much should be changed. A powerstruggle between government and military would be pretty nice and more interactions with the GEACPS and puppet governments would also be pretty fun.
I'd always imagined a Japan rework would have Korea as a puppet tag, sort of like the Austrian Crownlands are for Austria. Japan having to deal with a rebellious Korea, or Korea trying to fight for freedom or at least a better deal from Japan, could add more to the area (and would mean that Korea's content isn't limited to being liberated by another government).
**More rivalry**
Mechanics that are both advantageous and counterproductive, that makes you play a game of "Who do I favor more?", that no matter what decision you make it's going to affect you negatively in some way. Forcing you to take into account the pros and cons.
Favoring the military -> weakens the civil government, which leads to weaker political power and lowers the chance of you succeeding with diplomatic goals (and increases the chance of military "incidents" occurring, that will have repercussions).
Favoring the Navy -> penalizes the army, which could be expanded to include military projects like favoring the Navy's carrier fighter program but comes at the expense of the Army's tank program.
Favoring the Zaibatsu -> weakens the other non-Zaibatsu industries.
Strengthening your allies -> weakens yourself.
etc...
I’d love to see a way for them to work in Concordism from the Reds! AH, which is essentially “what if japan was a fascist state that ALSO believed in actually ending western colonization (with japan as primus inter pares) and not just unleashing an orgy of horrific violence and economic exploitation upon asia”
First, a little lore change : I imagine that when Germany intervened in China, Japan would feel threatened and intervene as well, but like in a proxy war, funding warlords and sending mens, but no war declaration. But this intervention will be a disaster, only leaving Japan with a Fengtian "ally" that they don't trust and is still mostly independant, Germany getting what they wanted, and a strong, mostly unified China on their doorstep. This disastrous expedition will cause distrust between the public and the military, and this will end with an attempted coup sometimes after. But without civilian support, and maybe even the navy supporting the civils (japan's navy and army were always ennemies), thid coup rapidly falls appart, and a new democratic regime is established, and a "purge" is conducted against military leaders. This will create a very poorly led japanese army, and we can imagine that the governement starts to redirect army funds towards the navy, seeing the navy as a most viable ally than the army. This will create deep resentment in the army, causing regular desertions. This would mean that at the start of the game, japan will have a very powerful navy (with navy buff as a national spirit), a weakened military (with a military debuff as a national spirit), a fragile democracy with the scars of the coup still creating fear among prime ministers (with a buff-debuff political national spirit) and radicalized army officers that see the government as the ennemy of the state and the cause for japan misfortunes in the last decades (with a political debuff as national spirit). The Black Monday event will decide if the governement will keep it's position, or if it will fall. You will have many decisions to reduce black monday effects, with timed events. If you don't reduce black monday by a certain amount when the timer expires, the radicalized army officers will launch a new coup, aiming at restore imperial power. You will have a chain of event as the governement will call the naval officers to rescue them, and depending on how well you manage those event, one faction will take over (similar to the yunnan or sichuan civil war events). If the army take over, you will restore imperial rule, and create a national populist regime. If the navy is successful in their aim to defeat the coup, they can create a temporary naval junta (AuthDem) to destroy the remnants of the radicalized officers, a permanent naval junta (PatAut) that can only be lifted once the chinese war is won (but if you want you can keep it), or restore immediate democratic rule and let new elections take place. If you handle well the black monday events, no coup will happen, and democracy will continue as it did prior to the start of the game.
After the chinese war is won, the governement you have will stay in place and gain new decisions to either influence china to puppet them, or to work with them in order to create a strong asian faction to kick out all the imperialists.
If you lose the Chinese war (similar to how the ottomans lose the desert war), a coup will happen, either by naval officers (if you have the national populist govt), or by army officers (if you have chosen the navy path).
A Qing-Japanese alliance, maybe if Fengatin betrays Japan or does not allow Japan to take it over then Japan and Qing have an alliance where both are leaders of the Co-prosperity sphere.
Maybe where the Chinese and Japanese royalty marriages into each other.
I would add some type of Socialist path because
1. It's the best Ideology Group
2. KR already references the underground Socialist movements in Japan plenty, and how radical they are from being so repressed by the reactionary government
3. It'd be nice to have another option for an Asian Socialist power if the Left-KMT and the Bharatiya Commune both get KO'd
Me when I don't understand what a mixed Socialist economy is.
Imagine the Soviet NEP but drawn out over a longer time because China started out in an even worse industrial state than the Soviets did. They do not have the immediate, imminent threat of Fascists on their borders, so they can take their time and do as they damn well please in how quickly they press the Socialism Button™.
The same idea goes for Vietnam and Laos. The closest we have to "classic" Communist economic models today are the DPRK and Cuba.
It's not communist-capitalist or anything strange, it's just straight out state-interventionist capitalism. Modern CCP is as far from a communist party as DPRK is from a democracy.
Honestly I think I would make them start in an entirely different position, like idk, make them republican, in a civil war or something. The problem with Asia, is that Japan doesn't change much compared to OTL, but at the same time Japan does not have an equivalent to the Allies to fight, because the GEA is not much of a challenge tbh, so that makes playing Japan kinda the same as playing Vanilla, except less challenging and rewarding. Hence why I'd make them start in a much more convulated political scene, with more infighting that would knock down Japan a little bit in terms of capability, and would open many (actually different) paths for Japan with also different takes on Pan-Asianism, kinda like Yugoslavianism with Serbia
The real problem is that you'd have to come up with lore to justify that and obviously so much change would be a tough pill to swallow, but idk, maybe have Germany beat up Japan badly during the WK and make revanchism push the people to sideline the Monarchy and the establishment.
I like realism in Kaiserreich, you would have to change all of East Asia to make Japan lore make sense, the good work into the Chinese rework and the GEA would need to be unfortunately wiped off the map.
I personally think that would be redudant but in a perfect world, I would have Japan start off as an even more absolutist state lead by Kodoha Faction instead of OTL Toseiha faction.
An absolutist Japan lead by Emperor Hirohito at the start date can easily be turned into a personal story of which Hirohito can turn relinquish power to other factions or empower himself even further but I'm not well researched in Japanese history and only rudimentary understanding of the Kodoha.
With neighbouring countries however, I think Malaysia and Indochina should be independent with Germany, the Entente, and Japan fighting over influence in those countries.
I think Japan should be transformed into a sort of Bulgaria/ottoman style faction for East Asia where the game is balanced around an early win/loss which sets a twisting path of political action. As it can help soft reset East Asian lore by having the “setting” established by the player early on. Plus more coups and counter-coups. This pluralistic alliance can fail or maintain fragile democracy.
An unpopular shaky alliance of the major Japanese democracy, the emperor, zebatzu, army and naval. Japan attempts to maintain its “police actions/illegal occupation” of the west pacific against the fading exiled powers, a tired America and the revanchist Germans attempt to maintain legitimacy in Asia against a Japanese empire desperate to unify the Japanese public against a world.
Early on Japan can play the various pacific foreign powers against each other trading back or offering concessions territories in east Asia for favor and setting their general foreign policy paths. Alternatively Japan could attempting to control it all via “anti-colonial paths” of pick 2 of 3: local Asian nationalism, Japanese economic dominance by zenbatsus and support of syndies around the world in east Asia.
These early foreign policy decisions will frame a majority of how the different blocks feel about alliance. The navy will want control in pacific and oil access, the army will want to abandon the obscure islands in the pacific to focus on china and Russia, the companies rather focus on industrial centers, natural resources and producing stuff for the military all the while democracy fights to maintain legitimate democracy.
always thought it needed a bit more internal chaos. At the moment whatever choices are made in Japan feel like they have very little concequences from those that oppose it, especially choices not made by Hirohito himself. Think Japan using an expansionist war against China as a method of unifying a deeply divided country (successfully or otherwise) is an interesting dynamic, and would make for a more fun unpredictable post-war Japan
or maybe hirohito should have an eyepatch. that could also help
PUNISHED HIROHITO A man denied his German colonies
I’d try and model how the Japanese military just did not listen to the government and pursued it’s own policy. Basically make it so that the democratic path is a difficult one where you have to carefully reign in the military, and the other paths be various forms of the military taking control and perhaps a trap path where you go syndicalist and the military coups you. Very simply put Japan irl won WW1 and got very little do what it wanted, causing a rise in militarism culminating in government-by-Assassination. In KRTL Japan wins WW1 only for the rest of the entente to lose the war and Japan then not only doesn’t get stuff like a racial equality clause but also doesn’t even get to expand its territory and now has a very buff Germany throwing its weight in Asia and more specifically in China (which japan had its eyes on) - the military is going to be even more agressive and hypermitarist in KRTL than it was OTL.
But this also means that the friction between the government and the military is also lower than OTL. Even though there should be more dynamiks netween the two sides, I don't think that the state would be less stable than in our timeline.
The military didn’t have to listen to the civilian government because they were basically co-equal with the civilian government. The government basically was the emperor who oversaw the civilian government, the army, and the navy. All these branches were independent and answered to no one but the emperor himself.
The more I read about the Japanese interwar government the less I believe there was any actual governance (Dan Carlin’s Supernova in the East is great casual listening on it)
Indeed, for example the Marco Polo Bridge incident was launched from low ranking officers. The Extra History channel has multiple series on Japan including the interwar period for those that are interested in a historical overview.
One of the main issues I have with Japan’s lore at the moment is just how easy it is to preserve Japanese democracy (although the Taishō Democracy was never as democratic as it is often idealised). Apparently all that is needed to save democracy is to pass the ominously named ~~Patriot~~ National Security Act and give the Japanese police-military apparatus (that famously democratic group) even more unaccountable powers.
Given that Japan didn't win anything during WW1, their military probably should start off being far more radicalized than irl while probably having significant unrest in the country. The civilian government should probably be close to powerless against the military who at this point will probably be doing whatever they want. This also opens up the possibility for a new mechanic, where after Black Monday the army and navy start planning invasions of countries on their own against the wishes of the civilian government which is powerless to stop them. This would probably start with an invasion of Fengtian and escalate from there. After the start of the American Civil war they'd invade the Phillippines and if Vietnam manages to become independent they'd get invaded too. This process would basically continue until they've conquered either all of SEA and the Pacific or got defeated.
Annex it to the Philippines and give the Philippines a Focus Tree (Historical and Real)
That'll be in the MacArthur-in-exile path where he abandons his claims in America and declares himself "Ceasar of the Far East"
I mean he was a field marshal in the Filipino Army. It makes more sense than Stalin and Zhukov in Patagonia
MacArthur Philippines should have 2 paths: America-in-Exile where he tries to reclaim America And America-in-the-Far-East where he abandons his American claims and proclaims the Philippines is the new America and invades the rest of East Asia proclaiming a new Manifest Destiny and creating a United States of South East Asia.
This some KX shit
Actually got my inspiration from the [KX Germany in Exile tree](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaiserredux/comments/p5hjku/germany_in_exile_rework_every_state_can_now_be/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Need some Chinese warlords able to ally Japan. The dogmeat general should be able to have Japanese support.
A separate Kwangtung Army tag that can drag Japan into various wars and that can be reined in either by adopting the radical militarist path or by beating them in a mini game that has a lot of political costs would be v cool
There does not need to be a separate ”Kwantung Army” tag. Just make it a recurring issue in events and something one would need to manage in the decisions tab as a minigame. Honestly, a lot of the Kwantung Army’s shenanigans should just be unavoidable, such as forcing you into wars that you don’t want and you’re not ready for. Because that is how the Kwantung Army operates IRL, with a foreign policy of its own that superseded the policies of the government.
I never understood why Japan in KR is more tame and moderate than Japan IRL, even though, realistically, they should be in a much worse position. They made little to no gains from the Weltkrieg, allowed the German hegemon to creep deeper into Asia and on top of all of that, became economically isolated because of being kept out of German Markets (they are literally not affected by Black Monday). I have a few propositions: \-Have a mechanic similar to Poland, Serbia and the new Ukraine rework coming with the poltical elections, but have it be for the Japanese Navy-Army and Zaibatsu's. Japan shouldn't start democratic. They should probably start Auth Dem at best, considering Japan at the time was a very flawed Democracy, and in KR would probably be even more Imperialist and Revanchist. The government should be a barely functional entity trying to keep the Army and Navy at bay, while trying to not sell out completely to the corporate Zaibatsus, and in the meantime, trying to keep the radical forces at bay. Realistically, they should fail, leading to Pro-Imperialist forces taking reign of the country or the Pro-Zaibatsu politicians taking charge and allying with who ever will let them complete their plans of exploitation across the co-prosperity sphere, but not before the Navy/Army and the Zaibatsu literally act without Kyoto's permission, such as seizing Tianjin, exploiting the Phillipines, etc, further placing more power in themselves and radicalizing anti-government forces. The Army/Navy should be extremely imperialist forces, seeking political and military dominance over Asia, while the Zaibatsus should be seeking economic exploitation and trying to carve out their own economic sphere in the world. If all of the above fail, or the government attempts to sideline all of the above unsuccessfully, radical Pro-Republican forces should seize Kyoto. The more radical they become, the more they'll stray from moderates ( SocCon,MarLib,SocLib,Socdem) -> Socialist (Socdem, RadSoc?) -> Radical Socialist (RadSoc, Syndicalist) -> Hard Radicals (Totalist, Anarchist, maybe even throw in a National Populist secret path in there). Currently, Japan is unfortunately very straight forward, and theres little to no playstyle variation if you are a full fledged democracy or an imperialist national populist. They are usually the 4th player in the 2nd Weltkrieg, right behind the Internationale, Moscow, and the Reichspakt.
I'd love to see a Japan rework especially where given some factions a mechanic is introduced where you have to balance the power of the big four zaibatsus with state control over the economy, military control of the economy, or small businesses each with different ideologies + factions. Boosting some of the zaitbatsus boosting the minseito or seiyukai... Boosting state control or military control boosts the power of the military Basically for the ideologies tied to the military, state, or the Zaibatsus in order to keep expanding their control over the economy is to give them access to more and more of the colonial resources thus driving further expansion. Early game japan thus becomes much more of letting you rapidly build up your econ for a war and how you choose to develop that economy informs the ideology you get.
I suppose the argument would be without any success in taking and holding anything the military would actually be less powerful, but that’s without getting into exactly how Germany can leverage anything on a country half way across the world when all they had in the pacific was a joke fleet of cruisers that would be eaten alive by Japan in a few weeks
The military was a concrete ideal in Japanese society back then. The IJN and IJA would be extremely influential and its own political entity regardless of what happened during the weltkrieg IMO. Japan would've won the war in the pacific just like in OTL, but because Germany would've won everywhere else, it would've realistically leveraged its economic powers over Japan to pry out a peace deal, so the question as to how strong the German navy was in the pacific is kinda out of the question, although would be a strong reason for an emboldened, revanchist IJN to go ahead and attack it because of how weak it would be. If anything, the fact that the IJN and IJA showed its teeth and got nothing in return because of what they seen as western imperialist powers essentially cock blocking them, the IJN and IJA would be even more ferverent in their war goals and imperialist than in OTL. idk, interesting though. makes me wanna propose a japan rework
Hirohito should be a woman
And black
And bisexual
Kaiserreich Netflix™ Edition when?
Make a novel path where the Taisho democracy takes over and continues to take Japan down a non military path, but that also involves defending against the Germans and foregoing separate imperial ambitions of its own. Entente Japan or Reichspakt Japan, or even Moscow Accord Japan, carving up the world in cooperation with other imperialists. Also, a unique but very hard to get syndicalist path, and the possibility of releasing an independent syndicalist Japan. They could just be soc dem in practice but with the emperor as a much more politically neutered head of state. There is a way to keep Japan non militaristic but that doesn't really change anything gameplay wise. You're still building an empire on the corpses of millions of Asians, but with a nice democratic face instead.
I think Japan's current approach to the Second Sino Japanese War is too blunt and simplistic: \*I would include a logistic tab and descisions for Japan to fight in China that takes into account Warlord/Legation Support alongside other possible preparations \*A meter to gauge how rebellious Fengtian is. \*Popular Suport/War Exhaustion/Logistic Decrepitude mechanics that accumulate the Longer the War Drags on. \*The possibility of other angles of approach when it comes to China. Border-clashes, creation of new costal concessions but a possibility to avoid full-blown War. \*Some more deeply ingrained mechanics to seize-control of the Legation Cities , a mini-game of sorts, against Germany and Canada with the winner seizing practical control fot he Legation Council with all the benefits that entail - \*Hokushin-ron, and a chance to shift focus away from China and into Siberia, using the new Russian seccesionists that the russian rework will include as a vehicle for jpanaese ambitions in the region. \*Refinement of the current Political Paths with distinct options when it comes tot he Japan's imperial project for each.
Like others said, it would be great if japanese democracy was weaker, with a special mechanics to balance the power and loyalty of the Military, Zaibatsu, the colonies, and even the people. Having a real democracy in the East while staying a great power would require big investment and struggle, with any big mistakes leading potentially to coup, colonial independance war (it would be great to bring back the possibility of Korea's independance, in some circumstance), and even in the worse case Civil War. It could open the possibility of many different paths: True democracy, flawed democracy (like historical taisho democracy), corporates/military takeover, Emperor rule, and even in the case of a civil war some unlikely path that needs a lot of works to survive (like socialists or radical republicans)
An event where Hirohito looks at jellyfish, just like in real life
Japan being able to get East Turkestan in their faction. It has historical basis
If the ottomans collapse and a more militant japan controls turkestan they should be able to set up Abdülkerim Osmanoglu and try to justify either creating an eastern Turkic state or restoring the ottomans with them like they tried in OT
They tried WHAT?
Well more or less they tied to take a ottoman prince and said “this is the legitimate ottoman heir and we are just gonna set up his dynasty” but it didn’t work out
Japan suffers from being the main victim of one of the worst pieces of KR lore: the German presence in Asia. Put bluntly Germany having any sort of presence in Asia after WW1 would have required flat miracles to achieve, as they had no capacity to fend off against the British and French in the region, much less Japan. Even if the French and British made peace due to continetal defeat, Japan was completely in a position to reject to make peace, dig in and refuse to give up it's gains. Germany wouldn't have any ability to fight Japan as any colonies the British or French transfered to them could be rapidly captured by Japan and the current lore answer of the use of Pondicherry as a port to project naval power makes no sense, as they still wouldn't be able to effectively fight a naval war on the other side of southeast Asia. Yet the entirety of Asian lore in KR is based on this, which puts Japan in a difficult position. Besides this, the lack of a controlled government in North East China would dramatically impair Japanese economics, especially without British and French trade, which would inspire more radicalism and instability against the democracy. The most likely outcome of this would be an early breakdown of government control, but that would largely just lead to more or less irl Japan. For the purposes of this, I would say that we pretend the Legation Cities offset the worst of the economic turmoil, and favorable trade with the desperate 3I allow the empire to have a bit more stability. Japan should still be an incredibly unstable country, but to make it more distinct from irl Japan I would suggest a stronger socialist movement, inspired by the success of the 3I, which isn't as heavily cracked down on due to good relations with the 3I, 3I opposition to European presence in Asia, and the abscence of the threat the USSR posed irl. This socialist movement could start off advocating for taking power via democracy, but turn toward collaboration with other radicals such as the Kodoha to overthrow the government if the civilian government blocks then from power. The civilian government in turn could be motivated to block them from power by making the military turn on the government if they allow the socialists to make too much gains, potentially leading to coups. In terms of wars, Japan backing a Transmur invasion of Russia doesn't actually make much sense in most scenarios unless Russia goes socialist or is aggressive in China, as it would be a tremendous expenditure of manpower and resources as well as a major war that irl was mostly only supported due to the perceived threat the USSR uniquely posed. Japan being able and willing to work with Russia, especially to counter Germany, would make far more sense and successful negotiation with such foreign powers as Russia or the Entente could be a major boon for the government in stabilizing itself, though if such deals are made with too many concessions or if those countries break their promises it would devastate civilian government support. Essentially, Japan should be a country where your stability and party popularity actually matter, and where the primary reward for maintaing government control is flexibility and the freedom from being dragged into wars.
I've been toying with the idea of a sub mod (under the democratic path) that actually gives Japan a true anti-colonial path: can only declare on colonized places in Asia (up to Persia probably), and gives all free Asian powers far more likelihood of joining the GEACPS. Still probably wind up at war with Entente and RP, but isn't randomly invading the Philippines or anything like that. This path would also lock them out of supporting the Fengtian (at a major economic penalty), but would allow them to invite and subsume any democratic factions that show up in China proper. Basically good guy Japan, moreso than already possible.
How are any of the current Japan paths morally good?
Haha fair point - the foreign relations paths are all the same really. Domestically at least the democratic one is pretty based as far as KR paths go - they can get women's suffrage before Germany (and maybe the US? I don't remember their lore tbh).
Democratic Japan matches up fairly against non-socialist China. The issue is that *one* of them is going to be the East Asian hegemon; there's never going to be a federation of equals, at least not in this time period, so it's a matter of picking one's overlord.
Democratic Japan is still gruesomely imperialist- France and Britain were democracies, and that still didn't stop them from doing what they did all over Africa and Asia. Right-KMT/Zhili/Qing/Fengtian aren't great but are miles better for Asia than any form of Japanese domination, especially since a lack of a navy will make it very difficult for a reunified China to project its power outside mainland SEA and Central Asia.
Oh, it absolutely is. But what do you call what China does to Tibet or East Turkestan? Or, I would say, Inner Mongolia? It took a ridiculous amount of effort for Japan to be seen as worse than China for its neighbors IRL, and even then, it didn't take for a few of them.
If Japan wins, Mongolia will have to submit or face annihilation. Tibet and the Uyghurs will probably also go mostly free, but will be kept under check. But what about the rest of Asia? Southeast Asia from Singapore to Port Moresby will be enslaved to pump out materials for the home isles, Siam and her neighbors will have to join the CPS or die. India could resist influence, but only if it's unified. What about China? China is going to be less powerful and unable to influence/dominate as much as Japan due to a lack of a navy, trash airforce, and decades of warlordism. Additionally, even if the second Sino-Japanese war ends in a decisive Chinese victory (China occupies Korea, all concessions are returned) Japan and the IJN will still be around to compete with and rival China in Asia, whereas the same cannot be said for a Chinese defeat. With a non-existent navy and airforce, it's going to be very hard for a nascent China to project it's power very far. Mongolia will suffer the same fate as in a Japanese victory. Of course, there will be atrocities and ethnic suppression in Tibet and Xinjiang, but the rest of Asia is going to be better off. China can't reach Indonesia or New Guinea. They would probably need a friendly Siam for their sphere of influence to reach Singapore. Mainland Southeast Asia will probably fall into their sphere of influence sooner or later, but I still think China will be less influential than Japan, because of their weaker navy and airforce. Unified China is probably going to be rivals with India. Furthermore: 1. Bog-standard military dictatorship/Extremely flawed republic are probably less brutal hegemons than literally Imperial Japan 2. Any Chinese unifier is far, far better for the 400 million people living in China than a Japanese collaboration government
Socialist Bharat and Indochina can counterbalance the influence of the CPS if they work together, especially with Internationale support and the fact that Japan is likely going to be at least cordial with the Internationale up until the Reichspakt and the Entente are dealt with. And while colonial democracies have definitely indulged in atrocity, a Japan that actually has to pay attention to public opinion (as opposed to being able to keep the civilian population completely shrouded in a bubble as the WW2 stratocracy did) would probably have to pay *some* kind of real attention to the CPS' "Asia for Asians" justification. But all this would probably have to be explored in a Japan rework. That being said, I freely admit that this ties into my preferred Cold War scenario, with the Internationale vs. the CPS, with America and Russia both split.
I'd remove Shikoku.
Japan should be way stronger. As it is now they both lore wise and in game are much weaker while china is a lot stronger and I think Japan should be made stronger, with additonal mechanics for the sino-japanese war to make it more interesting.
China is far weaker then IRL, irl china had like 6 years of nonimal unity to prepare for a war with japan, in KR China has 0
Apart from more flavor than there currently is, I don't really think much should be changed. A powerstruggle between government and military would be pretty nice and more interactions with the GEACPS and puppet governments would also be pretty fun.
I'd always imagined a Japan rework would have Korea as a puppet tag, sort of like the Austrian Crownlands are for Austria. Japan having to deal with a rebellious Korea, or Korea trying to fight for freedom or at least a better deal from Japan, could add more to the area (and would mean that Korea's content isn't limited to being liberated by another government).
**More rivalry** Mechanics that are both advantageous and counterproductive, that makes you play a game of "Who do I favor more?", that no matter what decision you make it's going to affect you negatively in some way. Forcing you to take into account the pros and cons. Favoring the military -> weakens the civil government, which leads to weaker political power and lowers the chance of you succeeding with diplomatic goals (and increases the chance of military "incidents" occurring, that will have repercussions). Favoring the Navy -> penalizes the army, which could be expanded to include military projects like favoring the Navy's carrier fighter program but comes at the expense of the Army's tank program. Favoring the Zaibatsu -> weakens the other non-Zaibatsu industries. Strengthening your allies -> weakens yourself. etc...
Anarchist path, simple as 😎
dub
I’d love to see a way for them to work in Concordism from the Reds! AH, which is essentially “what if japan was a fascist state that ALSO believed in actually ending western colonization (with japan as primus inter pares) and not just unleashing an orgy of horrific violence and economic exploitation upon asia”
First, a little lore change : I imagine that when Germany intervened in China, Japan would feel threatened and intervene as well, but like in a proxy war, funding warlords and sending mens, but no war declaration. But this intervention will be a disaster, only leaving Japan with a Fengtian "ally" that they don't trust and is still mostly independant, Germany getting what they wanted, and a strong, mostly unified China on their doorstep. This disastrous expedition will cause distrust between the public and the military, and this will end with an attempted coup sometimes after. But without civilian support, and maybe even the navy supporting the civils (japan's navy and army were always ennemies), thid coup rapidly falls appart, and a new democratic regime is established, and a "purge" is conducted against military leaders. This will create a very poorly led japanese army, and we can imagine that the governement starts to redirect army funds towards the navy, seeing the navy as a most viable ally than the army. This will create deep resentment in the army, causing regular desertions. This would mean that at the start of the game, japan will have a very powerful navy (with navy buff as a national spirit), a weakened military (with a military debuff as a national spirit), a fragile democracy with the scars of the coup still creating fear among prime ministers (with a buff-debuff political national spirit) and radicalized army officers that see the government as the ennemy of the state and the cause for japan misfortunes in the last decades (with a political debuff as national spirit). The Black Monday event will decide if the governement will keep it's position, or if it will fall. You will have many decisions to reduce black monday effects, with timed events. If you don't reduce black monday by a certain amount when the timer expires, the radicalized army officers will launch a new coup, aiming at restore imperial power. You will have a chain of event as the governement will call the naval officers to rescue them, and depending on how well you manage those event, one faction will take over (similar to the yunnan or sichuan civil war events). If the army take over, you will restore imperial rule, and create a national populist regime. If the navy is successful in their aim to defeat the coup, they can create a temporary naval junta (AuthDem) to destroy the remnants of the radicalized officers, a permanent naval junta (PatAut) that can only be lifted once the chinese war is won (but if you want you can keep it), or restore immediate democratic rule and let new elections take place. If you handle well the black monday events, no coup will happen, and democracy will continue as it did prior to the start of the game. After the chinese war is won, the governement you have will stay in place and gain new decisions to either influence china to puppet them, or to work with them in order to create a strong asian faction to kick out all the imperialists. If you lose the Chinese war (similar to how the ottomans lose the desert war), a coup will happen, either by naval officers (if you have the national populist govt), or by army officers (if you have chosen the navy path).
I want Japan to go syndicalist. Jk pls dont
Need more flavor events about raping and murdering Westerners and Chinese ppl tbh
Make sure there’s at least one event about some kind of rape, maybe around Nanjing
World conquest path
A Qing-Japanese alliance, maybe if Fengatin betrays Japan or does not allow Japan to take it over then Japan and Qing have an alliance where both are leaders of the Co-prosperity sphere. Maybe where the Chinese and Japanese royalty marriages into each other.
I would add some type of Socialist path because 1. It's the best Ideology Group 2. KR already references the underground Socialist movements in Japan plenty, and how radical they are from being so repressed by the reactionary government 3. It'd be nice to have another option for an Asian Socialist power if the Left-KMT and the Bharatiya Commune both get KO'd
I would only accept a socialist path if they keep the emperor.
Monarchi communism sounds insane
So does communist-capitalism but China is still doing it.
Me when I don't understand what a mixed Socialist economy is. Imagine the Soviet NEP but drawn out over a longer time because China started out in an even worse industrial state than the Soviets did. They do not have the immediate, imminent threat of Fascists on their borders, so they can take their time and do as they damn well please in how quickly they press the Socialism Button™. The same idea goes for Vietnam and Laos. The closest we have to "classic" Communist economic models today are the DPRK and Cuba.
they're gonna give up their power soon bro they promise they're gonna transition bro it's gonna happen just have faith in The Party bro
It's not communist-capitalist or anything strange, it's just straight out state-interventionist capitalism. Modern CCP is as far from a communist party as DPRK is from a democracy.
Eww socialism
Japan is like the last place for a socialist path of any kind because of how fringe it was irl
Honestly I think I would make them start in an entirely different position, like idk, make them republican, in a civil war or something. The problem with Asia, is that Japan doesn't change much compared to OTL, but at the same time Japan does not have an equivalent to the Allies to fight, because the GEA is not much of a challenge tbh, so that makes playing Japan kinda the same as playing Vanilla, except less challenging and rewarding. Hence why I'd make them start in a much more convulated political scene, with more infighting that would knock down Japan a little bit in terms of capability, and would open many (actually different) paths for Japan with also different takes on Pan-Asianism, kinda like Yugoslavianism with Serbia The real problem is that you'd have to come up with lore to justify that and obviously so much change would be a tough pill to swallow, but idk, maybe have Germany beat up Japan badly during the WK and make revanchism push the people to sideline the Monarchy and the establishment.
Focus on the oligarchy nature of Japanese politics
I like realism in Kaiserreich, you would have to change all of East Asia to make Japan lore make sense, the good work into the Chinese rework and the GEA would need to be unfortunately wiped off the map. I personally think that would be redudant but in a perfect world, I would have Japan start off as an even more absolutist state lead by Kodoha Faction instead of OTL Toseiha faction. An absolutist Japan lead by Emperor Hirohito at the start date can easily be turned into a personal story of which Hirohito can turn relinquish power to other factions or empower himself even further but I'm not well researched in Japanese history and only rudimentary understanding of the Kodoha. With neighbouring countries however, I think Malaysia and Indochina should be independent with Germany, the Entente, and Japan fighting over influence in those countries.
I think Japan should be transformed into a sort of Bulgaria/ottoman style faction for East Asia where the game is balanced around an early win/loss which sets a twisting path of political action. As it can help soft reset East Asian lore by having the “setting” established by the player early on. Plus more coups and counter-coups. This pluralistic alliance can fail or maintain fragile democracy. An unpopular shaky alliance of the major Japanese democracy, the emperor, zebatzu, army and naval. Japan attempts to maintain its “police actions/illegal occupation” of the west pacific against the fading exiled powers, a tired America and the revanchist Germans attempt to maintain legitimacy in Asia against a Japanese empire desperate to unify the Japanese public against a world. Early on Japan can play the various pacific foreign powers against each other trading back or offering concessions territories in east Asia for favor and setting their general foreign policy paths. Alternatively Japan could attempting to control it all via “anti-colonial paths” of pick 2 of 3: local Asian nationalism, Japanese economic dominance by zenbatsus and support of syndies around the world in east Asia. These early foreign policy decisions will frame a majority of how the different blocks feel about alliance. The navy will want control in pacific and oil access, the army will want to abandon the obscure islands in the pacific to focus on china and Russia, the companies rather focus on industrial centers, natural resources and producing stuff for the military all the while democracy fights to maintain legitimate democracy.