AHC: A New Axis: Germany & Japan Arise as Superpowers in the 90s

At the end of the Cold War and the cusp of the 1990s, Germany was reunifying and Japan was an economic powerhouse. This alarmed many analysts and politicians of the time; in the former case, many Europeans (particularly Brits and Poles) and the Soviets feared the prospects of a reunified Germany. Some merely feared that Germany would economically dominate Europe; others feared a resurgence of fascism and a desire for expansionism. Then - British PM Thatcher actually privately agitated against German reunification, stating once "we fought the Germans twice, and now they're back!"

Same for Japan in the East - some feared that Japan would arise as the world's dominant economic power, wielding great influence over the economies of the world, while yet others feared Japan might decide to flex a few more muscles. These fears pervaded the literature of the early 1990s, from academic texts such as George Friedman's The Coming War with Japan to technothrillers like Harold Coyle's The Ten Thousand, Larry Bond's Cauldron, Ralph Peter's The War in 2020, and Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor.

Of course, things didn't quite work out that way. Germany did not swing to the right - if anything, it's far too liberal, but I digress - and while it does hold a goodly deal of economic power, it lacks many of the other attributes of a superpower. Japan, meanwhile, suffered severe economic setbacks in the 1990s, and while they are certainly no slouch today, they are nowhere near the all-powerful superpower the world feared they could become.

So, your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is with a POD of December 31st, 1989, turn both Germany and Japan into major military and economic superpowers by 2017. Bonus points if one or both nations develops an autocratic right-wing government. Grand prize awarded if the two form an alliance.

How would the world develop in response to the resurgent Axis Powers?

Tl, dr: make the unlikely premise (pushed by alarmist columnists and paperback authors bummed that the fall of communism robbed them of feasible villains) that Japan and Germany would revert back to their WW2 antics in the post-Cold War era a reality.
 
I'm not sure if Germany can revert back to ultranationalism on the scale of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan given that the Allies made a good job (to a degree) making sure that the Germans learn their lesson and that the German people themselves made sure of that since the 1960's with the school visists to the concentration camps and outlawing Nazi symbols.

Japan on the other hand I think it might have a chance (sort of) but only if you give it a couple decades of using that economic power that isn't interrupted by the lost decade into rearming its military.
 
I'm not sure if Germany can revert back to ultranationalism on the scale of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan given that the Allies made a good job (to a degree) making sure that the Germans learn their lesson and that the German people themselves made sure of that since the 1960's with the school visists to the concentration camps and outlawing Nazi symbols.

I wouldn't think it would necessarily be full-on Nazism, or even really fascism. Maybe something akin to modern-day Poland or Hungary; strongly conservative, fiercely nationalistic and heavily militarized, but still democratic. Nowhere near as bad as Nazism (and potentially preferable to modern Germany in at least some regards, depending on where you stand), but understandably concerning for a world that remembers the dangers of a militarized Germany.

Perhaps an earlier and worse Migrant Crisis/Wave of Terror or a more acrimonious fall of the Warsaw Pact could result in that sort of government, but I wouldn't know.
 

Hunter W.

Banned
Thatcher did voice concerns about the power of the German state, and to be fair, Kohl did make some monumentally stupid statements about the Oder-Neisse line. Japan I think is little possibility of reverting to ultra nationalism, they already controlled a chunk of the world economy and the auto industry, it doesn't make sense for them to poke at the stuff you refer to.

German too has a large industrial base. The thing is, reunification came painfully (I believe) as the disparities between east and west became apparent. Unemployment and poverty were significantly higher in the east, adding to the fact German can contribute little to the United Nations because of its geographic location.
 

FBKampfer

Banned
I'm not sure a militarized Germany is really plausible barring some outlandish fluke butterfly.

Germany really did seem to not only learn their lesson, but to have internalized it on an individual level. Granted there are right-leaning, even fascist, elements, they are distinctly in the minority. Eben the general "right" in Germany would have little in common with the "right" in, say, Poland, or the United States.
 
Germany... unsure.

As for Japan, have a second Korean war break out, where the US is forced to a quagmire in the end and has to pull out due to issues at home, while Japan is forced to remilitarize.
 
For Germany have the Four Powers refuse to allow reunification, then the Germans do it anyways. USSR in no shape to fight, France and Britain back down, US wags its finger with a grin. Germany remilitarizes defensively, and when Putin talks about invading Germany goes nuclear just to be safe, promising no first strike. Other countries do mild sanctions but they go away eventually.

Japan would need some form of Abe on steroids for this to happen, plus a Korean nuclear strike where the US doesn't respond somehow (that's hard)
 
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