Japan would need to run into a food-population problem (probably avoid ww2) while already using all possible farmland and also have a problem with food imports. And all this needs to happen before 1950.

Given that rice from the colonies was undercutting the domestic farmers, I don't really see a food-population problem happening before 1950.
 
Glad so many people find the idea interesting!

but as for a PoD, I was thinking of maybe a post-WW2 pre-GreenRev Japanese Empire trying to undertake such a project as a way to seek more both independence from foreign powers (be more self-sufficient) and as a vanity project. a prestige thing. the PoD though is mostly arbitrary, I just wanted to talk about a terraforming project tbh. i was thinking some canals could link some of the more major cities to the ocean again. might as well since you're gonna need canals for rivers anyways.

it would be interesting to see how Japan reels from a natural disaster that destroys a dam and refloods the plain and the overall effect on the human conscious regarding large environment altering projects.
 
Why this doesn't make sense as a vanity project: Japan took decades after the war to finish their national road and rails network. What crazy government would pursuit this sort of idea when they don't even have proper infrastructure?
 

ben0628

Banned
Sounds like an epic environmental disaster.

Agreed. Massive man made projects to change the environment of an entire region never works out. This is more ridiculous than the idea of turning Central Australia into a giant ass lake.

Aren't their multiple coastal cities in these areas? If so, the economic impact of draining all the water would turn these cities into poverty stricken hellholes
 
Agreed. Massive man made projects to change the environment of an entire region never works out. This is more ridiculous than the idea of turning Central Australia into a giant ass lake.

Aren't their multiple coastal cities in these areas? If so, the economic impact of draining all the water would turn these cities into poverty stricken hellholes

Considered what happened to the ports in what is now the Aral Desert, yea... and those were ports linked to an inland sea. The cities in Japan's inland sea would be cut off from the maritime trade network.
 
one other thing, that water is a lot of weight pressing on the underground.
pressure like that keeps it stable, with the removal of that weight you might be looking at a few earthquakes
 
Cool idea! This has inspired me to make worldA and Qbam covers of Japantropa™

5Syy1lJ.png

WlHvNZD.png


EDIT: Wait, am I the first person to come up with the word Japantropa? I call copyrights:openedeyewink:
 
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This is a fascinating idea, maybe the Empire of Japan forgets about overseas expansion because of this(both ideological focus on draining the place and the financial burden it'd put on EoJ). How about something like this:
- early 19th century. Japanese intellects, while visiting Europe, become both acutely aware of Japan's need for more arable land and the Dutch solution to limited land - finding them from the sea.
- 1875. Korea rebuff's Japan's request for a normalisation of diplomatic relations, leading to a TTL-seikanron debate. The radicals win, and lead a failed military expedition into Korea. Moderate, pro-terraforming faction survives.
- 1880. First attempt at reclaiming land from the sea is done at the Hinuchi-Nada Sea, between Shikoku and Honshu.
- 1900. A weak Korea and China leads to Japanese militarists pursuing war. Both countries lose against Japan, but expansion beyond Formosa and the Korean peninsula is rebuffed by Western powers.
- 1910. Land reclamation from the Hinuchi-Nada Sea is finished, leading to huge amounts of arable land and a land connection between Shikoku and Honshu. The next project is to connect both Kyushu, Honshu and Shikoku altogether, in a massive 50-year project to completely drain the Inland Sea.
- 1920. Flow of foreign investments into the Inland Sea reclamation projects, particularly that of the United States, draws Japan and the US closer. When the Korean Revolution begins to put a toll on Japan's finances, the United States, supports Japan in suppressing the uprising by supplying weapons and 'military experts'.
- 1930. When the global depression hits, the Dollar-Yen Bloc struggle to keep afloat. The Inland Sea reclamation project becomes paramount in lowering unemployment in Japan. When radical expansionism takes hold in the United States, Japan also sees a rise of fascism.
 
This is a fascinating idea, maybe the Empire of Japan forgets about overseas expansion because of this(both ideological focus on draining the place and the financial burden it'd put on EoJ). How about something like this:
- early 19th century. Japanese intellects, while visiting Europe, become both acutely aware of Japan's need for more arable land and the Dutch solution to limited land - finding them from the sea.
- 1875. Korea rebuff's Japan's request for a normalisation of diplomatic relations, leading to a TTL-seikanron debate. The radicals win, and lead a failed military expedition into Korea. Moderate, pro-terraforming faction survives.
- 1880. First attempt at reclaiming land from the sea is done at the Hinuchi-Nada Sea, between Shikoku and Honshu.
- 1900. A weak Korea and China leads to Japanese militarists pursuing war. Both countries lose against Japan, but expansion beyond Formosa and the Korean peninsula is rebuffed by Western powers.
- 1910. Land reclamation from the Hinuchi-Nada Sea is finished, leading to huge amounts of arable land and a land connection between Shikoku and Honshu. The next project is to connect both Kyushu, Honshu and Shikoku altogether, in a massive 50-year project to completely drain the Inland Sea.
- 1920. Flow of foreign investments into the Inland Sea reclamation projects, particularly that of the United States, draws Japan and the US closer. When the Korean Revolution begins to put a toll on Japan's finances, the United States, supports Japan in suppressing the uprising by supplying weapons and 'military experts'.
- 1930. When the global depression hits, the Dollar-Yen Bloc struggle to keep afloat. The Inland Sea reclamation project becomes paramount in lowering unemployment in Japan. When radical expansionism takes hold in the United States, Japan also sees a rise of fascism.

That's an awesome idea, Japantropa™ could see a quasi-fascist economic model arise in Japan in the late 1800s, leading to a much earlier Japanese economic expansion. This could prove to last far longer than Japan's brief flirt with empire building in the early 20th century. Japanese economic dominance is also an effective way for Japan to infiltrate western colonies.
 
Of course, you could blow up mountains in order to properly fill new polders to become over sea level. The thing is, whatever exists in human geography along the coasts will become fucked up. Easier than building canals to save the ports is not draining at all.
If Japan would've ever done this, I guess they'd have started north of Shinjuku, with Imabari-Onomichi and Marugame-Kurashiki as sites of the dams. The question is what to do with the dried up land. (Note: That's the part I wrote before going to bed after a long night, that's no copycat from zeppelinair.)

Retrofitting harbor cities for expanding into what used to be the shore and the sea is another challenge. What do you do with a harbor which is no longer good? How do you make for a continuous settlement? Remember that Flevoland war deliberately designed as an island as the Northeast Polder showed how ground water from old land moved to the new land after drainage. Cities like Zwolle still have a harbor because it makes for fewer headaches. Blowing up mountains for infill purposes is actually a Japanese thing, I even learned that back in middle school. It's good to see that the OP rather refrains from damming Kitan Strait, that would've killed Kansai for good.
 
That's an awesome idea, Japantropa™ could see a quasi-fascist economic model arise in Japan in the late 1800s, leading to a much earlier Japanese economic expansion. This could prove to last far longer than Japan's brief flirt with empire building in the early 20th century. Japanese economic dominance is also an effective way for Japan to infiltrate western colonies.
This is how imagine the long-term plan goes - red is the original 1880 project, the blue being the 1910 expanded project.
 

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