Nihonkoku Shoukan: Beyond

Chapter 39: For What is Yet to Come

PSIA Central Command, Tokyo, Japan, 5th March 1640 CCY

In a dimly lit room, a man is sitting alone with his cup of tea, looking out of the window. At night, the skyline of Tokyo shines brilliantly. It is beautiful and yet, it wasn't always looking like this. From the window of his office in Chiyoda ward, he can see the renovated Diet Building, where Heikurō Tōdō was just inaugurated as Japan's new Prime Minister in the official capacity, and with his inauguration comes the establishment of a new government cabinet. Not too far from the National Diet, is the rebuilt Imperial Palace, where the recently enthroned new Emperor of Japan calls the place home.

Said enthronement also officially marked the first era of Japan in the new world which was become known as Shinwa (新和), meaning "New Harmony''. The name was chosen to reflect the intention of the reborn nation of Japan to carve a new age of harmony and peace in this new world, not only for their people but also for the other countries that coexisted with them. In addition, the name was also intended to represent the new harmony of Japanese people with various other Earth cultures as well as their former Garmillan enemies that are now residing in their country, now part of a single unified nation.

However, with the new government come political parties with different agendas and ideologies. Right now Japan's politics is divided into two opposing camps, each of them led by a dominant party, the Progressives and the Conservatives. The Progressive camp led by United Progress Coalition (UPC) party advocates for more active Japanese involvement in the politics of Elysia as a whole, vouching for the further commitment to building and uplifting the nations that Japan has made contact with, including the nations of Rodenius, and intensifying the economic diplomacy efforts to eradicate slavery in Parpaldia and elsewhere. The Conservatives led by the National Democratic Front (NDF) party on the other hand, prefer to use the national budget to help Japan rebuild itself after the transfer, increase the military spending against potentially hostile entities, and generally put Japan's national security and interests first and foremost over other countries. Combined these two political camps make up approximately four-fifths of the entire Diet members, with the rest being unaffiliated parties or even independent politicians.

These political camps also have their own leading figures with significant political clout and were deemed by many analysts to be the most likely candidates to replace Heikurō as the Prime Minister in the future. These figures are Asuna Narusaka for the UPC Progressives and Tenzou Yanai for the NDF Conservatives. Asuna Narusaka is a philanthropist billionaire and along with her husband, one of the chief founders of Yuki Corporation, a cutting-edge tech company renowned for providing advanced computer systems needed to fully harness and stabilize Wave Motion Technology and as one of the major technological, industrial and financial contributors to Earth's war efforts. While Tenzou Yanai is a decorated former Vice Admiral of the Earth cosmos navy with a warrior aristocratic lineage tracing all the way back to the Satsuma Domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate who was honorably discharged due to continuous injuries he sustained during the wars. Many other political figures also try to make their names in the Diet, be it for their parties or as independent candidates, but none of them gains as much attention as these two and their respective parties.

Meanwhile, just a short distance from the Palace and the Diet Building is the entrance to the old bomb shelter complex. The shelter complex symbolizes the failure of the whole Earth Federation, in which the tragic mistakes of everyone involved resulted in the painful and devastating wars that almost exterminated the entire mankind. Said old shelter was now repurposed as a memorial museum and deliberately left in the damaged condition that just after the war ended as a constant reminder to everyone who visits it, including government and military officials, not to repeat the same mistakes ever again.

Old shelter complex and the new Imperial Palace, the man then looks grimly at both structures, two of which symbolize two very different things, a tragic failure and a hopeful revival. Chief Yusuke Haneda, the director-general of PSIA, silently sips his tea as he ponders by himself while the music player in the back of the room plays some of the old-fashioned tunes from god knows when. Suddenly, someone knocks on the door to his office.