Once Upon a Time There was a country named Japan --- Someone's narrative in 2040

（This is a fiction.）

The geopolitical difficulties 

     Once upon a time, there was a country named Japan. Of course, there IS the Japanese Archipelago still now but the Japanese Government hasn't functioned for a long time since the serial earthquakes occurred and the nuclear plants that were located on the coast of the Japan Sea exploded. At that time a lot of people ran away to Hokkaido. Though fifteen years have passed, basically people can't live in the large part of the main island because of the nuclear pollution.

     I live in the east of Hokkaido, which is comparatively less polluted. Who am I? I'm Kenji. I was born amid the first corona pandemic in 2022. My parents died from COVID 19 immediately after I was born and I have been raised by the adoptive parents. At that time, there were a lot of similar cases like mine. A lot of parents lost their kids and a lot of kids lost their parents. I was lucky. My adoptive parents are very nice people. They decided to move into Hokkaido just before the earthquakes. They were so smart to do that though I was too young to remember that. 

     My parents told me that Japan is located in a geopolitically difficult place and has always been treated in anyway with the global powers' convenience. The Japanese politicians should have bee more clever back then. However, people also had no interest in the politics and a lot of them threw away the voting rights. As a result of that, the soft dictatorship started: the selfish, greedy and stupid politicians had the power. Some of them tied up with the US, the others did with China and they were so mad to bring a profit to the big companies that would return a kickback to them. The people did not even protest. The people's  small but precious businesses were ignored and declined. Then earthquakes hit Japan.

     There was a lot of confusion, death, fury and sadness. A lot of people evacuated to the north. The nuclear wastes flew with the wind and spread. Tokyo lost the capital function. The central government still malfunctions because most of the Parliament members evacuated abroad when the nuclear plants collapsed. When you have to stay in Tokyo, you need the high quality and full faced mask and you have to pay a lot for the hotel with the nuclear shelter like quality. Now some former Parliament Members with good will gather in Asahikawa and make an effort to reform the Japanese Government.

The twisted history

     In spite of being in a kind of anarchy, the small communities are still working. The UN also helps us in many ways. Online teaching is possible because the internet managing with effort of the domestic and foreign providers. I'm learning Japanese history and politics. I have the online lectures of foreign universities on those themes. 

     I wonder why the Emperor system was not abolished when the Imperial Japan was beaten in the war with the US ninety-five years ago. It still exists but is like a cult of some enthusiastic people. The Constitution of Japan limits the Emperor's family members' fundamental human rights. They can't say any opinion about the abolishment of the system if they wanted. It's the 21st century, isn't it? If I were the present emperor, who is the nephew of the former emperor, I would commit suicide. That's a really twisted system.

     I've heard that once in a while Japan used to be developed industrially and economically, though I can't believe that. The adult people often say that the turning points were the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2023, the Olympics amid the pandemic in 2021 and the Japan Sea Coast Earthquakes in 2025. 

     I also wonder why the Constitution of Japan was revised so easily. I'm imagining that if the Taiwan Crisis happens, the US military bases in Japan could be targeted first than any other places. Japanese people have to owe the collateral damages instead of the US. Anyway, the bases in mainland of Japan don't work anymore. 

     I really appreciate to my parents for giving me the opportunities to learn English. When I was very young, they directly taught it: they read me picture books, showed me the internet videos, and sometimes made me memorize some poems and someone's speech lines. They knew that being able to use English is crucial for everything in such a tough time.

The man-made disasters caused

     Someone says that the LDP in 2012-2022 was so terrible: there were many political corruption cases but no media critiques. The welfare and public support of policies shrank. The birthrate went down and working population declined. However, the government didn't adopt the immigration  policy though actually a lot of foreign people came under the policy of "the apprentice of skills and techniques" because a certain group of Japanese people claimed that Japan has been a country with a pure ethnicity and that should be protected.

     The leading parties' ministers bound with the big companies, established the policies that were convenient and profitable to those companies, and they paid a lot of money as the political funds back to the politicians. Sometimes some of those companies were owned and run by the LDP politicians' families and relatives. They stole our taxes pretending politics and business. Especially the politicians whose family had been the parliament members in many generations like Shinzo Abe, Taro Aso and so on. Also the number of the female Parliament Members was still small. One of the causes of the LDP  members' corruption and other illegal acts was that those who were from privileged families and mostly men could only access to the gate for being politicians. I can say that the Japanese corona pandemic and the nuclear plants accidents were combined disasters of such terrible politics and the natural disasters.

     Now it is still a difficult time but I'd like study more and become a politician or a nuclear engineer to help people.

December 24th, 2040