Renting Kyushu and Chugoku: Where Do We Go From Here?

Day 1,244, 20:19 • Published in Japan Japan • by Sophia Forrester

As has been announced in another publication, the Kyushu and Chugoku regions are being leased to China for 90 gold per month. By historical standards, this is a decent price for our regions. The funding is needed, and it will go a long way toward rebuilding our treasury after the two Korean wars earlier this year.


With a stronger military, this sort of thing will not need to happen again.

A few members of the Imperial Diet were concerned about the good faith of the Chinese administration. I believe them to be mistaken. China sought to honor its deal with us, to return Kyushu, but a strong nationalist element of their citizens prevented the Resistance War from succeeding. We were then offered a region rental, which was evidently a first for the Chinese: According to the debate on the floor of the Diet, they did not pay rent to North Korea for their rentals earlier this year.

I did vote against the region rental, but for a different reason. Because of how controversial region swaps have been in the past, I have typically been very reluctant to endorse them. A price of 45 gold per region per month is not small, by historical standards, but neither is it all that generous. So although the gold will be a significant help to our military and National Bank, as a representative of Kyushu in the Diet, I voted against.


The true contours of what we are giving up.

The majority, however, has spoken. With this in mind, I intend to ensure, before the end of my term, that the money is watched a bit more closely than past expenditures. It has been a while since the Imperial Army has kept close tabs on its expenses; Kita Ikki-sensei's past efforts at the Defense Ministry have not been equalled by the newer generation of politicians. For this reason, as well as to ensure that my mandate from the people of Kyushu is not forgotten, I will do my best to work toward a responsible accounting of the public funds.

If this is the calm that follows the storm -- if our Korean ventures represented a noisome winter, and this is the slow-dawning spring -- then we may be proud of our efforts, and do our best to support our allies. Although Japan's low population has made us a somewhat junior member of the Terra alliance, it remains blessed with a motivated and talented group of leaders, from Defense Minister exReality to the ever indomitable Minister of Culture, Hitoshi Makoto. The Terra alliance has also shifted the momentum of a war that had been less favorable, relying on coordination with EDEN to roll back NWO gains. If we are to create a place for eJapan in the new spring that is emerging, both our leadership and our alliances are up to the task.