NationStates Jolt Archive

Key
A- Ally
VF- Very Friendly
F- Friendly
N- Normal
NG- Not Good
B-Bad
W- war
===
Basic Info:
Size/Area: 145,883 square miles
National Language: Japanese
Time Zone: JST (UTC + 9)
Population: 128,085,000
Government: Constitutional monarchy
- Emperor HIM Emperor Akihito
- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (LDP)
GDP (nominal):
- Total $4,571 trillion
- Per capita $35,757

Diplomatic Relations
China: NG
Russia: N
Germany: N
United Kingdom: VF
United States: A
Pakistan: N
Australia: N
South Korea: NG
Thailand: N
Italy N
Nigeria N
Germany N
Lithuania: N

Politics
Japan is a constitutional Monarchy though the Emperor serves a mostly ceremonial role and most power lays with parliament, which is headed by the Prime Minister; this system is very similar to the United Kingdom

The Emperor
The Emperor is defined by the Constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people" and is the head of the Imperial family and head of state. He is a ceremonial figurehead in a constitutional monarchy and does not wield even emergency reserve powers. Chiefly the Prime Minister and other elected members of the Diet hold power. Sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people by the constitution. Although his official status is disputed, on diplomatic occasions the emperor effectively acts as the head of state. Akihito is the current emperor and the only reigning emperor in the world.


The Parliament
The Constitution of Japan states that the nation's "highest organ of state power" is its bicameral parliament, the National Diet (Kokkai). The Diet consists of a House of Representatives (Lower House or Shu-gi-in) containing 480 seats, elected by popular vote every 4 years or when dissolved, and a House of Councillors (Upper House or Sangi'in) of 242 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal adult (over 20 years old) suffrage, with a secret ballot for all elective offices. The liberal conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been in power since 1955, except for a short-lived coalition government formed from its opposition parties in 1993; the largest opposition party is the liberal-socialist Democratic Party of Japan.

Prime Minister
The Prime Minister is the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the title is "Prime Minister of the Cabinet". The Prime Minister is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet of Japan and appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State, a majority of whom must be Diet members. The current Prime Minister of Japan, since September 2006, is Shinzo Abe. Although the Prime Minister of Japan is theoretically very powerful, his position is attenuated by the factional nature of Japanese politics and the tendency towards coalition government.

Military
The Japan self-defence Forces or JSDF, are the military forces in Japan that were established after the end of World War II. The force has not been engaged in real combat but has been engaged in some international peacekeeping operations Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea and the People's Republic of China, have re-ignited the debate over the status of the SDF and its relation to society.

Military age: 18 to 27 years of age

Availability -
(Males age 18-49): 27,003,112
(Females age 18-49): 26,153,482

Fit for military service -
Males 22,234,663
Females 21,494,947

Reaching military age annually -
Males: 683,147
Females: 650,157

Military expenditures
Dollar figure: $42.1 billion
Percent of GDP: 1%

Military Statistics:
Five Armies (180,000 Soldiers, 46,000 Reservists, 980 Tanks, 230 Self Propelled Artillery, 480 Towed Artillery, 660 armoured Vehicles, 400 APC's, 763 Helicopters)
Five Maritime Districts (45,800 Sailors, 146 Surface ships, 15 Submarines, 179 Aircraft, 135 Helicopters)
Three Air Defences Groups (45,000 Airforce Personnel, 474 Aircraft)

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Self-Defense_Forces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Ground_Self-Defense_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Maritime_Self-Defense_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Self-Defense_Force

Green Tax
Today the Japanese Parliament and Prime Minister Ratified a 1,500 yen a week 'Green tax' for each person over the age of 18 and in employment to fund research into alternative technologies. This fund comes to around 59.9billion US$ a year and will provide money to build Japans new Industrial Scale Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (ETR) which would be completed by 2008 and have a Self-sustaining plasma fusion reactor by 2009 able to eventually generate 6,000Mw a second by 2015. The Rest of the 'Green fund' will go towards planting Tree farms, building wind generators and hydroelectric plants on the coastline; and several other projects like Crude Oil waste Reprocessing research and development of Bio Reactors for landfill reprocessing as well as building recycling centres. The new tax will help Japan become cleaner and more efficient and a world leader in power distribution.


ACT OF PARLEMENT
2nd January 2007

Overview
Introduction of the Green tax to fund research and construction of environmentally friendly technologies and development of existing Eco-friendly systems

Details
The Tax shall charge no more than 1,500 Yen per employed person over 18 per week

Outcomes of Fund
This fund will be used to fund the following: -

Japanese Industrial Scale Sustainable Fusion Reactor Prototype (JISSFR)
Bio-Waste Reactor Research
Crude Oil Reprocessing Research
Hydroelectric Power plants
Genetic Engineering of fast maturing Crops for food production

New Bill passed by Japanese Diet.


Green Technology Research Bill (GTB)
Tags: Internal Bill
Category: Research

Effective from - 5th January 2007

Overview
The Green Technology bill will be a primary research bill to guide research and funding into Green Technologies to make Japan "Green friendly". The funding for all projects will come from the recently passed Green Tax which will create some $59.9Billion USD of funding per annum for construction, staff and research needs.

Research Goals

To Create the worlds first full scale Industrial Fusion reactor by 2015-2020 operating at 6000MW; the reactor would be installed in the complex by 2009; and gradually increasing the output from its self sustaining plasma over a period of 6-10 years until optimal output is reached. Plasma Fusion is safe, clean and offers nearly limitless power for Japan's energy hungry cities.

Bio-refinery-- This is an analogy for an oil refinery. Different biological feeds stocks -- kelp, corn, wheat, sugar cane, rapeseed, wood chips are fed into it to make bio-fuels-- ethanol and bio-diesel. The leftovers from the distillation process are turned into other products, natural chemicals, animal feed, botanicals, bio-plastics, bio-plastics and other materials. This will also help to further research done by the Spanish in creating genetically engineered plankton Oil though Oil burning is not green it would greatly reduced Japans need for excess Oil from the Middle east or Russia if applied on an industrial scale. Construction of plankton oil farms would take from 2007 to 2009 for industrial scale production.

Landfill Bio-reactor Plant-- This is a plant designed to turn landfills and house hold rubbish into things we need on a large scale; such as oil, plastics and bio-gas or methanol.

Ocean Reactor Plants - Laid around the coast, these use an underwater version of the wind turbine that use ocean currents to drive them as well as running pipes into the ocean and generate energy by using the temperature differential between the deep ocean and surface ocean. This also use Small scale distributed hydroelectric turbines, that are smaller turbines designed to distributed along a river without damming the river, they are also designed to not catch fish in their blades; larger plants however require river damming. Several of these are to be completed by 2015

Wind Farms - These are wind turbines both onshore and offshore that generate an amount of energy from the wind; they are usually placed on hillsides for optimal output.

Geothermal Boreholes - deep holes dung into the earth for energy collection from thermal energy; geysers and hot rocks can also be used. The plants are usually surrounded but Solar Condensers for extra power generation; as the condensers create large amounts of heat and steam energy.

Flexi-Panels - Flexible metal transparent like film but covered in photo sensitive cells that can be mounted on or over virtually any surface converting it to a solar panel that can generate electricity. It is hoped that Flexi panels can be mass-produced given time and research as these could be used on windows, housing roofs, trains etc.

Mag -Trains - Magnetic Induction Drive trains powered by solar energy. These use electromagnets instead of conventional Diesel engines to move a train at incredible speed up to 360mph; building high speed Mag lines will take some time but far cleaner in the long run. It is believed the entire rail network including underground could be converted to Mag-lines by 2030

Bio-jet fuels - In modern tech additives to jet fuel have been created using soy, which make the jet fuel burn cleaner. Recent advances in the study of the soybean additive have created a pure biological jet fuel. It is especially formulated to not gel up at low temperatures, which makes it burn much cleaner research in this is progressing and should be completed for industrial scale production by 2012

Ion Propulsion - Research into Ion Drives; Ion drives have existed since the 1960's however large scale research into them has been very little; by researching Ion Drives, Japan hopes to operate an entirely new type of propulsion that can be applied to aircraft, cars and even space craft.

D/N
Today; Japan formalised the Creation of the Japanese Information self-defence force; the JISDF will serve as Japans front lines in defence against cyber warfare and serve to protect Japan far into the future. In Other News Japans first aircraft Carrier built since Word War 2 Nears completion at its birth; the Carrier will be able to launch up to one hundred and twenty F/A-2A Carrier Modified Jets in Maritime operations


JAPANESE INFORMATION DEFENCE FORCE (JIDF)
Mandate:

To Protect Japan from Information Warfare
To Conduct Internal and External security operations to protect Japan from foreign intelligence services


The JIDF is not covered by Article 9 of the Japanese Pacifist constitution as they lack the means to engage in total war.

CV Ryoko Class Aircraft Carrier
Length: 420 Meters
Beam: 30 Meters
Displacement 94,000 Tons
Flight deck: 70 Meters
Draft: 11 meters
PowerPoint: Two Nuclear Reactors
Crew Complement: 5,000 (including pilots)
Aircraft Complement: 90 Mitsubishi FS-X, 10 attack helicopters, 3 AWACS craft, 5 rescue helicopters

Onboard Systems
Multi-Function Radar
Multi-Function Air Tracking Radar
Air Surveillance Radar
Air Traffic Control Radar
Landing Aid Radar
Surface Search Radar
Volume Search Radar
Sonar /Doppler Sonar Velocity Log System
Mk 23 Target Acquisition Radar
Mk 91 NSSM Guidance System
Mk 95 Radar
Mk 1 LIDAR Detection systems

Countermeasures and Decoys
Laser Dazzler/splitter
Laser Range finder warning
EMP hardened electronics.
Electronic Warfare Suite (Jamming/Deception)
Torpedo Countermeasures
Decoy Launching System
Degaussing System
FCSSM Fleet Counter Surveillance Satellite Module

Point Defence
4 x RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Point-Defense Retractable Missile Batteries (6 missiles each)
4 x RIM-7 Sea Sparrow AA Retractable Missile Batteries (6 missiles each)
6 x 30mm Retractable Goalkeeper CIWS

Armour
Belt: 11.1 in
Bulkheads: 10.3 in
Barbettes: 10.6-14.3 in
Decks: 7.5 in
Flight Deck: 8.9 in
Cost: 4 Billion US$ Each
Construction Time: 1 year
Planned/ Under construction
CVN Ryoko
CVN Oni
Completed by: Early 2008