[War] Japan: "Matters of Security"

[Ian Martell]

“Matters of Security”
Prime Minister Hiroshi Sakai
Japan
Jan 25th 2013

Prime Minister Hiroshi Sakai, was well known in political circles as being 
extremely informal with his cabinet, but most put it down to him being from 
Osaka where such things were acceptable, or perhaps his time with the Swiss. 
Hiroshi found that last though amusing, if anyone in his cabinet actually 
knew the Swiss, they’d know nobody learned informality from them. The truth 
of it was Hiroshi had learned early on in his political career that if you 
could put the people you were talking to off balance they tended to be more 
malleable, so he had cultivated himself the image of the kooky informal one 
while ringing up enough successes to make sure no one above him could call 
him on it.

Now there was no one above him but the Emperor, and he could pretty much do 
as he liked so long as Japan prospered from his actions.

He sat back and sipped on his tea and waited for his next meeting to arrive. 
Almost on cue the door opened and Defence Minister Taro Inukai and Foreign 
Minister Hanzo Jonouchi entered. Hiroshi smiled and set down his tea cup and 
stood. “Taro, Hanzo,” he said. “Take a seat please.”

“Are we in trouble?” asked Inukai with a broad smile. “Cutting our salary 
again?”

Inukai was an old friend from Osaka, he was used to the way Hiroshi did 
things.

Jonouchi, smiled. “Can he do that?” he asked. “The Shimbun has said he’s 
already handing the reigns of government over to the privledged, next it 
will be the rich.”

Hiroshi smiled but thought, ouch, he hadn’t read that article.

“Well as you know bad policy but good politics, we’ll retract it once things 
are on a stronger footing.”

“Sounds like one of Murato’s plans,” said Inukai meaning Hiroshi’s Director 
of the PMO.

“It was,” he says. “And it was successful, we’re up several points in the 
polls.”

Inukai nodded. “The wages of politics.”

“Or lack thereof,” Hiroshi said beating Jonouchi to the punch.

The three of them had a laugh at that, and Hiroshi sat down behind his desk 
as they sat down in front of it.

“Well first things first. The Kuril Islands, what do you make of this move?”

Jonouchi spoke first. “Actually I was hoping you would be the one to tell 
us, you after all have a history with President Nemerenko.”

Hiroshi had literally written the work up on President Nemerenko after all.

“President Nemerenko is a patriot, and one with deep convictions about where 
his country should be going, this should not be seen as anything but 
securing the advantage for his nation.”

“No threat of future territorial ambitions?” asked Inukai.

“Is that what the Chief’s are worried about?” asked Hiroshi.

“You have to admit, they’ve never been fully comfortable with either the 
closeness of the Russians to Hokkaido, or for that matter your history with 
the Russian President.”

Hiroshi nodded. “Well please let them know, I was his teacher. You both 
remember Professor Fukudome at Waseda, now how friendly would our relations 
be with him?”

They smiled remembering the teacher who had been a terror to the three of 
them in their youth.

“Now, not that I am saying my relationship with President Nemerenko was 
quite that bad, but you can assure the chief’s that I won’t give away the 
home islands when I’m at the summit next week.”

Inukai nodded. “Of course,” he says. “They do want to increase our patrols 
of our side of the line though.”

“Definitely not,” Hiroshi says. “We keep acting like we did when China 
wasn’t behind the Russian bid for the Kuril Islands any escalation on our 
part will lead to an escalation on theirs and that would make my job of 
backing them down that much harder.”

“What is our response to that then?” Jonouchi asked.

“Our previous press release on the issue is enough, we regret that China has 
decided to involve herself in what is essentially a Russo-Japanese matter, 
however we remain dedicated to our claim on those islands and so-forth.”

“We run the risk of looking weak.”

“Compared to Russia and China, we are weak in a military sense,” Hiroshi 
said. “So there is no sense at all in taking this into that arena with them 
with increased patrols, or hard language from our diplomats. We must use 
diplomacy that is where we are strongest. China will make its noise about 
giving up our claim but in the end we are a larger trading partner than the 
Russians.”

The men nodded.

“The key is finding some suitable compromise given the situation…”

The doors opened and both of the Cabinet Minister’s cell phones went mad.

A Kantei security officer entered the room. “Sir Director Murato is on the 
way, he has important news from North Korea.”

Hiroshi nodded. “Send him in right away.”

The men looked at each other, panic beginning to seep into Jonouchi’s 
expression. “It isn’t an attack is it?”

Inukai shook his head. “We would be evacuated,” he says.

A moment later Murato opened the door followed by the Director of the 
Cabinet Intelligence Bureau.

They closed the doors behind them. “Kim Jong-Il is dead,” Murato said. He 
walked and distributed a translated copy of the address that had been 
broadcast throughout North Korea.

“Namu Amida butsu,” breathed Jonouchi, a supplication of the Buddha of 
mercy.

Hiroshi looked up to Murato. “Is the security council assembling?” he asked.

The Director nodded.

“Ministers, Director Obuchi, what’s your read on this?”

“Korea’s in real trouble,” Inukai said. “There’s no clear successor for Kim 
Jong-Il it will likely cause chaos as the Generals try to take what they 
can.”

Obuchi nodded. “Agreed, and there are the WMDs to consider, there is a very 
real risk this could see their chemical and biological weapon stocks shipped 
to those willing to buy them.”

Hiroshi nodded. “Alright, Minister Jonouchi, please co-ordinate getting in 
touch with South Korea and America, I want to talk to their respective 
Presidents as soon as possible.

“Inukai, please see the American forces in Japan are made aware of this and 
have the Chiefs take our anti-missile forces to ready status, but fire 
commands will remain with JSDF HQ.”

The Minister’s nodded and quickly got on their phones.

Actions:
(OOC: Was midway through this post when I got the Flash Report so I thought 
I’d have it come in and interrupt.)
1.	Japan sends it’s transcript to the American forces in Japan.
2.	Readies its defence forces, just in case.
3.	And waits.

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