Hideokawa Corporation

The Hideokawa Corporation was a conglomerate of Japanese businessmen formed in 2020 in direct response to America's decline in the business world. Rather than just attempt to get financial dominance, the Corporation actively purchased the Japanese government and attempted to obtain political dominance as well.

The Purchase of Japan
Seeing an opportunity to crush the dominance of their long-term Western rivals in America, the Hideokawa Corporation formed primarily to have enough money to purchase the Japanese Government and nationalise every business. While unorthodox, there were no challenges by anybody, domestic or international, and the Hideokawa Corporation swiftly turned Japan into what was effectively a Socialist state, with every business, service and form of entertainment owned by the state. Over twelve months, unemployment is virtually elminated and it is rumoured that even crime is run by the state.

While it leaves a bitter taste, the countries of the IPA have no option but to allow it to happen.

The Purchase of China and the formation of "Jhinan"
By 2021, distressed and believing that they should do something to stop the Hideokawa Corporation's meteoric rise to global power, the IPA pass a resolution limiting the number of workers a business can have outside of it's own country. For the next eight months, Japan's production grinds to a halt as the demand cannot meet supply.

By 2022, in a move more controversial and drastic than purchasing their own country, the Hideokawa Corporation approaches the Chinese government. Financially ruined by the American ultranationalist attacks in 2017, the Hideokawa Corporation offers to settle the country's debt if they effectively sell China to them. Despite an outcry from civil rights groups around the globe, the Chinese government agrees and sells itself to Japan.

Despite early reservations, Japan's new ownership of China is mutually beneficial with the debt being removed as a priority of the deal and China being given access to Japan's ever improving education and healthcare systems. From then until the Invasion, the countries (which became known in the English-speaking world as the combined "Jhinan") continued to prosper and led the way in many developments to the quality of life for humanity around the globe.

Innovations and Technology of the Hideokawa Corporation
While the Hideokawa Corporation improved almost every aspect of life, there are still some areas which deserve specific attention;
 * Cybernetics. The biggest medical breakthrough since penicillin, Cybernetics allow humans to be grafted with robotic body parts to replace crippled and otherwise untreatable ailments. While the initial designs look like human limbs, the IPA quickly rules that cybernetics must be obviously different from natural limbs so police forces are immediately aware of the greater strength and durability they provide.
 * CortexNet. By subtle but powerful gene therapy, microbiologists working for the Hideokawa Corporation managed to create a section of the human brain that functioned as a computer, up to and including connecting to the internet. Visible as an overlay in the eyes, the CortexNet allows permanent connection to a computer, no matter where the user is. After five years of production and refinement, it is found that the system is hard-coded into a parent's DNA, giving children a chance of also having the CortexNet, free of charge.
 * Cold Fusion. Accidentally discovered by a scientist by the name of Logo Tukinawa, Cold Fusion is a system that creates clean, safe and self-sustaining nuclear power. More than any other development by the Hideokawa Corporation, it is argued that Cold Fusion was what changed the world.
 * Metaburn Energy Drinks. While it tasted of heated blood mixed with battery acid (labelled "Classic". Other brands included "Lemon" and "Jungle Fruits", but all taste the same), Metaburn was remarkable for it's ability to include copious ammounts of sugar, caffiene and various other stimulants. These were, however, combined in such a way that anything that the system didn't absorb were burnt up safely, therefore eliminating any negative side effects. While this didn't change the world, even the most Japanophobic student, gamer or night-shift worker would be hard-pressed to not praise the Hideokawa Corporation's ability to keep them awake for days on end with no negative side effects.