Points of divergence concerning alternate historical developments within the modern day territory of Japan.

Japan is an island country in northeast Asia, wellknown for its many contributions to international culture, namely ninjas, samurai, karate, and sushi. Besides Japan's current proficiency for everything technological, AH.commers also adore Japan for its awesome history. After being ruled for centuries by petty kings and warlords, the nation unites, invades all of its neighbors, loses, and isolates from the world only to be reawakened another couple of centuries later, where it almost repeats the process. Because of Japans great and influential history, it is featured in many AHs and is constantly studied by alternate historians.

• A Japan dominated by the Jomon, Eminshi and Ainu cultures
• Sheep pastoralism in Japan and Korea
• WI the Jomon people resist the Yayoi or contain them in Kyushu ?
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• Discussion about Japan being Hindu
• A more diverse Korea and Japan
• WI: Japan with dynastic cycle (in the vein of China)
• WI: Emishi victory in the Thirty-Eight Years' War (beginning in 773 AD)
• Cuisine and foods of a Japanese/Korean/Chinese colonized west coast of North America ?
• Challenge: Buff up the Ryukyu Kingdom
• Plausibility check: Spain colonizes Japan
• WI: Longer Sengoku Period
• Challenge: Japan develops a strong gun culture
• Miscellaneous feudal era Japan POD ideas
• Plausibility check: Taiwan becoming an overseas possession of the Ryukyu Kingdom ?
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• WI Japanese try to colonize Formosa in 1594, earlier end to Imjin War
• Early Japanese colonization of Taiwan ?
• Plausibility check: Could the Japanese conquer China in the 1600s ?
• WI: Tokugawa decides some expansion may be desirable
• Non-political developments in a Japan without the Tokugawa shogunate
• What if Japan did not abandom firearms manufacturing?
• Discussion about Japan being converted to Catholicism
• More discussion on a potentially Christianised Japan
• Plausibility check: No Sakoku Policy and a Catholic Japan
• WI the Dutch or Spanish invade Okinawa instead of Taiwan in the 1620s
• Discussion on Japan being opened to trade in the 1660s
• Challenge: Japan East Indies Company
• Discussion on Spain conquering Japan during the colonial era
• Discussion about Japan going south instead of attacking Korea
• Japan a Great Power of the World by the 1600s ?
• Miscellaneous feudal era Japan POD ideas
• An earlier 'Meiji Restoration' equivalent ?
• Earlier end to Japan's isolation
• Challenge: Civil war in 19th century Japan
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• WI: Japan partitioned by European Powers
• Plausibility check: French seizure of the Ryukyuan Islands, Taiwan and Hainan by the 1850s
• Pulling a Meiji
• Idle thought about the Prussian and Meiji Japanese constitutions
• A sane Japanese Empire
• Challenge: Bring Japan into the American Civil War
• Japan purchasing Alaska from Russia
• WI Japan opens to Russian trade earlier ?
• Challenge: Curb the Japanese Empire (1894 to 1910)
• Plausibility check: 1894 - Japan buys the Philippines
• WI the Japanese sold Taiwan to France in 1897
• First Sino-Japanese War PODs
• Plausibility check: Earliest possible Pacific War between Japan and the US ?
• Challenge: Avoid the militarists usurping power (with a POD after 1900)
• Russo-Japanese War PODs
• Japan acquiring Madagascar pre-WWI
• Japan defeats Spain and takes its Pacific colonies
• Japan being more involved in WWI
• Challenge: Prolong the era of "Taisho Democracy" that occured in the OTL 1920s
• WI Japanese militarists do not take over ?
• Discussion on Japan staying neutral and staying Imperial run to present day
• Japan becoming Communist with a POD between 1900 and 1939 ?
• WI: Soviet Invasion of Honshu
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• Second Sino-Japanese War PODs
• An isolated war between Britain and Japan in the 1940s
• Japan not entering WWII
• Japan stays neutral in WWII
• WI Japan wins the Battle of Khalkhin Gol ?
• Plausibility check: Was the USSR actually capable of conquering Japan at the end of WWII ?
• Japan chooses not to attack Pearl Harbour. What do Americans do ?
• A Soviet-Japanese War in 1939-1941 ?
• Japan rebuilding the Kwantung Army
• Yamamoto is placed in charge of the attack on Pearl Harbor
• Japanese invasion of Hawaii succeeds, but ends in disaster
• WI: Japan wins WWII ?
• WI Japan had radar at its disposal during WWII ?
• Plausibility check: Hideyoki Tojo's Alaskan Alternative
• Plausibility check: Japan securing the Sakhalin oil fields in 1939 ?
• Terms for Japanese surrender in 1942/43 and its long-term consequences
• WI Japan surrenders early (e.g. in 1944) ?
• Help with a plausible Japanese WWII victory
• WI: No atomic bombs dropped on Japan
• Operation Downfall 1945: US invasion of Japan
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• Discussion about Japan keeping Taiwan after WWII
• Challenge: Japan keeps the Meiji Constitution after WWII
• Discussion about Japan getting carved up into occupation zones after WWII
• WI: Post-WWII Communist North Japan and capitalist South Japan (with a POD in late WWII)
• Japan becoming an industrial or minor superpower with a POD in or after 1946
• No economic bubble for Japan after the 1980s
• Japan dodges the Bubble
• Challenge : A Japanese response that avoids the Lost Decade
• The NHK as the sole national broadcaster of Japan for many years
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• Discussion on the importance of more original PODs concerning Japan
• Popular Culture PODs
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• Landlocked Nations, Navies, and Islands ISOT to Waterworld
• Western Japan ISOTed to 1616
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Japan

Japanese Timelines and Scenarios

Useful Resources about Japan

List of Countries by POD

Points of Divergence Main Directory