Challenge: Welsh Japan or Japanese Wales
- Thread starter Justin Pickard
- Start date
Floid said:
There's a Welsh-Japanese guy in one of my seminar groups this term, and I thought it was an interesting mix.
Can you imagine the long-term culture that would emerge?NapoleonXIV
Banned
Meiji mining engineers are sent to Cardiff to study modern mining. Finding the area much like home, the head of the delegation, one Saigo Takamori, invests in a small estate for retirement purposes. When he has his famous falling out with the government he is offered exile after the revolt but before violence has ensued. He and his followers form an outpost of traditional Japanese culture which grows in influence as it attracts considerable immigration from those discontented with the new power in the Far East.
radical_neutural
Banned
wales breaks off from UK and becomes a colonial power, conquers japan after long hard struggle.
radical_neutural said:
What kind of dates are we talking about. Where would Wales get the manpower to send colonists? Why would the Welsh sail East rather than West?
How would the Welsh just beat Japan? How would they be able to break off with the UK and become expansionist without the UK kicking up a fuss? Why wouldn't the Russians, Chinese and Americans and Europeans kick up a fuss about Welsh aggression?Justin Pickard said:
Just some more questions there.
This is easy. Have Wales remain independent and conquer England (Prince of England anybody?). They then become a European power over time. Japan turns isolationist like it did in OTL, with Wales forcing the opening of Japan in the 18th/19th century. Over time, Welsh culture spreads until they finally take over Japan.
I don't think a Welsh royal family is good enough. Same issue with a Welsh Britain - it'll be more British than Welsh. When you get right down to it there's nothing much you can do imperially-speaking from Wales. All the problems of the Netherlands - small population, large aggressive neighbors - without the natural basis for a trading state.
Now if the Industrial Revolution had happened in East Asia, then you might have a chance to get the Japanese into an imperialistic power. When you've done that it's not that big a step to have them taking control of the British Isles. No problem.
Now if the Industrial Revolution had happened in East Asia, then you might have a chance to get the Japanese into an imperialistic power. When you've done that it's not that big a step to have them taking control of the British Isles. No problem.
The Anglo-Saxon Tide is stopped before any huge settlements get out of hand, except in Kent, where the word "wealas" (ancestral to modern term Wales) is used to describe the "foreigners" to their west. The Kingdom of Wales (name gets used because Kent ends up passing the term on to places like France, and since French still ends up language of diplomacy...) eventually industrializes and becomes a strong power, colonizing Japan.
Okay, this isn't a Japanese Wales, just a bit more mixing of Japanese and Welsh cultures.
In the 1980s the Thatcher government uses Wales as a social experiment in untrammeled free markets - businesses there pay no taxes and are very lightly regulated. As a result, every Japanese manufacturing business that wants to sell its products to the European Economic Community sets up in Wales, bringing a lot of wealthy Japanese managers and technicians with them.
Also, in this timeline Ivor the Engine, a 1970s children's cartoon about a train set in Wales, became hugely popular, particularly in Japan. Japanese tourists flock to Wales to travel on steam engines.
Cardiff gets Japanese shops and restaurants.
Japan does not undergo any recession in the 1990s. The bubble of interest in Japanese culture in the west in the late '80's to mid '90s never bursts. Japanese companies in Wales expand as Japan sells more and more stuff to the European Community. Some South Korean companies move to Wales too.
Aardman Animations also moved to Wales in the 1980s. As a result Wallace and Gromit become Welsh. They too become hugely popular in Japan, prompting more tourism. Japanese people start moving to Wales simply because they like it and it's seen as a cool place to live.
Wales is flush with money. The Welsh Independence Party (which has now become more Thatcherite than in OTL) trounces all the other parties in Wales and Wales becomes an independent nation within the European Union. Japanese replaces French as the third language taught in schools (after English and Welsh).
In the 1980s the Thatcher government uses Wales as a social experiment in untrammeled free markets - businesses there pay no taxes and are very lightly regulated. As a result, every Japanese manufacturing business that wants to sell its products to the European Economic Community sets up in Wales, bringing a lot of wealthy Japanese managers and technicians with them.
Also, in this timeline Ivor the Engine, a 1970s children's cartoon about a train set in Wales, became hugely popular, particularly in Japan. Japanese tourists flock to Wales to travel on steam engines.
Cardiff gets Japanese shops and restaurants.
Japan does not undergo any recession in the 1990s. The bubble of interest in Japanese culture in the west in the late '80's to mid '90s never bursts. Japanese companies in Wales expand as Japan sells more and more stuff to the European Community. Some South Korean companies move to Wales too.
Aardman Animations also moved to Wales in the 1980s. As a result Wallace and Gromit become Welsh. They too become hugely popular in Japan, prompting more tourism. Japanese people start moving to Wales simply because they like it and it's seen as a cool place to live.
Wales is flush with money. The Welsh Independence Party (which has now become more Thatcherite than in OTL) trounces all the other parties in Wales and Wales becomes an independent nation within the European Union. Japanese replaces French as the third language taught in schools (after English and Welsh).