Is a liberal democratic party equivalent in power as in is Japan a dominant party state
As of 1966, Japan's political situation can be compared to that of OTL's post-WW1 '
Taisho democracy', with a constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary system based on the British model, plus a two-party system similar to the one over in America, with the Diet dominated by the conservative '
Rikken Seiyukai', and the right-liberal '
Minseito'. There will of course be various other nationalist, left-liberal, and socialist (Even an openly syndicalist) parties both operating in the country and even have sits in the Diet... But much like in
OTL Japan, their influence will be marginal at best.
While we are on the topic of Asian politics in TTL, since
@comrade cat asked me in private about how the heck the
Dutch East Indies that we last saw in 1936 KR world ended up becoming the 'United Indonesia Principalities' seen on this map, I thought that I would share the lore for TTL here as well:
Long story short, for the lore of Indonesia, I combined elements from both the HOI4 version of the mod, as well as one of those very rare outcomes that one can get in DH under unusual circumstances.
(1) Dealing with the political crisis back home, the Netherlands took the SocLib solution by formed the VDB-SDAP Coalition, setting up a first Dutch centre-left government. A government that appointed
Nico Palar, the first ever native Indonesian, as the Governor-General in the late 1930s. With him trying to reform the colonial system to the point of reworking everything from the ground up through compromise balancing the needs of both the native Indonesians and the Dutch settlers.
(2) The Insulindian National Revolution under Sukarno's leadership still happened, with the revolutionaries uniting everyone from the nationalists to the socialists and the Islamists under a broad tent coalition to throw out the Dutch. At the revolution's height, they managed taking both the colonial capital of Batavia, not to mention overrunning much of Sumatra... But the lack of internal unity led to in-fighting, buying just enough time for reinforcements from the Dutch regular army to arrive, crushing the uprising with their superior training, equipment, and firepower.
(3) In the failed National Revolution's aftermath, the Congress of Batavia was organized, to discuss the future of the Dutch East Indies. After significant negotiations, the Dutch agreed to turn the East Indies from colonial possessions into becoming a series of autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands itself, with equal status on-par European provinces such as North Holland, Overijssel, or Zeeland: Ruling themselves while still being part of the the Netherlands, with Indonesians, even those without Dutch parentage, being given full Dutch citizenship.... But of course, said independence will not be given for years to come.
(4) In the end, however, Congress of Batavia seemingly be became moot. As the Japanese invaded the East Indies. With the Dutch mainland falling to Communard France, and Germany forced to withdraw from Asia after the fall of Singapore, the Dutch were forced to formally give up the East Indies to the Japanese. With Tokyo putting a Japanese military administration in place, while trying to rekindle both nationalism and Pan-Asaianism within the Indonesian population.
(5) But soon, the Japanese started having other problems up north. Starting with the Indochinese Union proving themselves to be a much harder foe to fight compared to the various European colonial administrations, forcing them to redeploy troops meant to reinforce Indonesia to fight in Indochina instead. Followed by the newly formed Republic of China making a deal with the devil with NatPop Russia to drive the Japanese out of the Asian Mainland while their forces were tied down in Southeast Asia. Causing even more troops to be pulled back troops to redeployed, leaving Indonesia almost undefended.
(6) The Australasian Confederation, already viewing the Japanese control of Southeast Asia as an imminent and intolerable national security threat, took advantage of the situation: With the Royal Australasian Navy invading and seizing Indonesia, Borneo, and most importantly, the Malay Peninsula including the city of Singapore.
(7) Having secured control over all of the former Dutch East Indies. The Australasians handed over power to the local hereditary rulers in Indonesia to rule as an Entente aligned protectorate. Under a system based on that of based on OTL Malaysia: With the UIP functioning as a loose confederacy ruled by the Dewan Kerajaan (Princely Council) based in Jakarta. While offically, each individual regional monarch is independent in their own right, Indonesia will have Sultan
Hamengkubowono IX serving as Prime Minister, a 'first amongst equals' and de-fecto head of state.
The question of how the situation in Borneo came to be, and why the Philippines control Sabah will be another long, fascinating story. Also based on a rare outcome in the DH version of the mod that is directly tied to the history of Indonesia as explained above.... A story that I will get to on another day.