AHC: Cyberpunk for realz.

[Dan Reilly The Great]

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it is to find a plausible scenario in which the late 90's or early naughties are as cyberpunk as possible. This includes:

-Japan being far more powerful than IOTL
-More computers and internet everywhere
-possibly more advanced computer tech
-bigger and more powerful corporations, having them be virtually exempt from the law in most countries(especially the US) would also desirable.


Probably you will have to avert the dot-com bubble bursting and Japan's lost decade. Bonus points if you can do it with a POD after 1980, but it isn't a requirement.



Go.

 

[Color-Copycat]

Is there any way to truly avert the Japanese demographic shift with a post-1980 pod? Even if you can avoid the crash of the early '90s, the rapid graying of the country will be an inevitable strain on their economic resources.