History Main / JapanTakesOverTheWorld

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', Marty works for a man called Fujitsu and calls him "Fujitsu-san."[[note]]Although this is the name of a Japanese company (short for "Fuji Telecommunications Equipment"), and ''not'' an actual Japanese name.[[/note]] The filmmakers state on the [=DVD=] that they based their vision of 2015 in part on the assumption that Japan would take over the world and heavily influence American culture. In [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII the third film]], 1950s Doc Brown is incredulous when Marty tells him "all the best stuff comes from Japan."

** The famous episode "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" was originally going to be about Mr. Burns selling his power plant to a Japanese corporation, but the writers felt it would have been too obvious given how common such transactions like that were at the time. They ended up going with a group of German businessmen instead. One of the German investors still looks Japanese, for some reason.

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'': [[spoiler:As revealed by Amai Mask in Chapter 119 of the webcomic, originally, the world was made of many different nations, not unlike our own. The nations fought multiple world wars with each other over natural resources, and eventually, it got so bad and killed so many people that they all decided to make up and band together to preserve the future and prioritize the future generations by creating an OneWorldOrder; which said unified government, language, and culture are suspiciously Japanese-related.]]

* The Mishima Zaibatsu in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''.

* In the ''Mecha Samurai Empire'' novels by Peter Tieryas has Japan as the winner of World War 2 and the US is a vassal state to Japan.

* In ''Left To Survive'' by Upwake.me Games, the zombie outbreak that started in 2018 had reduced the US to 5 million people and the two major powers of the NER (New Economic Republic) there are in a state of civil war in the 2030s. In contrast the Hattori Syndicate, which is a major ally to the NER, had prevented significant deaths in Japan and the rest of East Asia. This allowed the Hattori Syndicate to completely dominate the US in the 2060s with the use of bionic zombies and a new breed of {{Super Soldier}}s.

* Creator/Clive Cussler's ''Dragon'' from 1990 has a group of Japanese businessmen smuggle nuclear bombs into the United States in an attempt to blackmail the country into effectively becoming a Japanese puppet state. One of them even makes a holographic video call to the President of the United States, demanding that the USA secede both Hawaii and California to Japan.

* His subsequent ''Literature/BridgeTrilogy'', set mostly in the earthquake-ravaged cities of San Francisco and Tokyo, the latter rebuilt using self-constructing [[{{Nanomachines}} nanotech]] materials, also had quite a bit of this (as well as the China variant), despite having been written during the 1990s. This is partly due to the Tokyo setting, though, and much less pronounced in the Bay Bridge scenes.

* ''Literature/RisingSun'', a novel by Creator/MichaelCrichton is all about how Japanese culture is allowing them to outperform the West.
* The book version of ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'' heavily implies a very heavy influence between the West and Japan in the time-lost spacecraft's own prior timeline, which would be the future for the world at present in the book.

* Creator/TomClancy's ''[[Literature/JackRyan Debt of Honor]]'' focuses on a war between Japan and the US, instigated by a Japanese corporate executive as part of a plan to dominate the Pacific region.
* Creator/RobertSilverberg's ''Hot Sky At Midnight'', also written in 1994. In a dystopian future where the Earth's climate has been damaged beyond all repair, two Japanese mega-corps have taken over the world economy and are battling for supremacy: Samurai Industries, based out of Tokyo, and Kyocera-Merck, based out of Kyoto. Most workers are stuck in their company, hoping for a job that has "slope" to a better grade (as in, pay grade). Positions within the company hierarchy are highly stratified, with one's level of clearance determined by position; asking questions beyond your grade is bad for your career health. These positions are known as "Salaryman X", with X being a number (a lower number means a higher rank). Interestingly, just having a "Japanese" name, or being part Japanese, does not guarantee any favorable position; only the "purest" and most dedicated are worthy to ascend the ranks.
* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', a collapse of the world economy has made Japan (Nippon) a major player in a very fragmented, franchised world government.
* Creator/PhilipKDick's ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'' could be seen as both an UrExample of this and a combination with the DayOfTheJackboot; instead of depicting a future of Japanese dominance it shows an alternate present (when the book was written) where the Axis won World War II and the world is split between UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and Japan.
* In Creator/CharlesDeLint's ''Svaha'', most of the few remaining cities AfterTheEnd are run by the {{yakuza}} and the corporations that they own.
* Part of the backstory of ''Literature/TheSparrow'' is that Japan is the pre-eminent economic power in the world.
* Creator/EphraimKishon wrote a satirical story about this. At the end he (the author BreakingTheFourthWall) feared that they might write better satires than him.
* Creator/EricLustbader wrote numerous unrelated novels around this concept, including ''Black Blade'' and ''[[GratuitousNinja White Ninja]]''
* Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/DarkFuture'' for the Creator/GamesWorkshop [[TabletopGame/DarkFuture setting]] invoke this in the form of the [[MegaCorp GenTech]], a Japanese-Korean conglomerate headed by the mysterious Dr. Zarathustra and producing things for virtually every purpose from Paradise, its home appliances and decoration subsidiary through to [=BioDiv=], their genetics and cybernetics research department who can give you bigger breasts, better highs, up to five new dentitions pre-implanted or augment your body to let shrug off bullet wounds and tear open tanks.
* Parodied in ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'', where the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was part of a "complex, long-term, and ultimately successful strategy to dominate the U.S. consumer-electronics market."
* ''Dave Barry Does Japan'' explores some aspects of the trope. Notably, he readily agrees that Americans could do with the politeness and work ethic the Japanese display (and maybe learn to make some ''good'' cars), but the Japanese could stand to loosen up, noting that the edgiest he ever saw Japanese youth were JapaneseDelinquents dressed like it was TheFifties.
* In ''The Tojo Virus'', a hacker named David Kimura is the point man for a shadowy cabal of Japanese executives who intend to take out a thinly veiled {{expy}} of IBM and in doing so dominate the American economy and get revenge for the Japanese loss in World War II.
* Somewhat downplayed, but present in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', where Imperial Japan is more of a first-among-equals on the international scene than a truly hegemonic superpower--but still far more powerful in both relative and absolute terms than it ever was in real life, with the world's foremost navy and nuclear arsenal, a booming economy and major political influence in the UN and among the [[FallenStatesOfAmerica American successor states]].

In TheEighties and the [[TheNineties early '90s]], Americans pretty much expected that UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} would be their new overlords in a decade or two. While other nations were too busy worrying about the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and trying to dominate the world militarily, Japan was quietly taking over the business and finance sector with a never ending stream of technological advances and high-quality consumer goods, supported by a seemingly single-minded dedication to work. There was quite a bit of concern that no matter what other countries did, Japanese domination of the global economy was just an inevitability.

As a result, a large number of media created in the 1980s and 1990s, set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture or later, had the U.S. being dominated by Japanese companies and culture. This trope was particularly prominent in {{Cyberpunk}} of the era.

* In a sense, during The80s, Japan pretty much ruled the synthesizer market for the most part, as many synthesizers used in European and American pop music during the decade (partially during The 70s and especially in The90s with PCM modules) were Japanese, like the Yamaha DX7, the Roland Juno-106, the Yamaha CS-80, and so on.

* The VideoGames industry can be seen as a microcosm of this trope, as Japan pretty much dominated the worldwide video game industry throughout the 1980s to 1990s up until the early 2000s. Even today, many of the most prominent video game franchises (''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'', ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'') are Japanese, as are two of the three companies that still make video game consoles (Nintendo and Sony).

* ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'': As may be expected from a series created by a [[CreatorProvincialism Japanese]] studio in the halcyon days of the late '80s, ''Gunbuster'' paints a picture of a world dominated by Japan. It's governed by a Japanese Empire ruling from Tokyo, protected by a very Japanese Imperial Navy. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]], Japan bought Hawaii from a declining USA in a very different economy. 12 years later during WorldWarIII, the US [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything attempts to take Hawaii back]]. However America's continuing collapse allows a more militant Japan to confiscate its space program and technology, soon using it to force the rest of the world under its emperor.
* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'': [[spoiler:As revealed by Amai Mask in Chapter 119 of the webcomic, originally, the world was made of many different nations, not unlike our own. The nations fought multiple world wars with each other over natural resources, and eventually, it got so bad and killed so many people that they all decided to makeup and band together to preserve the future and prioritize the future generations by creating a unified language and a world government; which said unified government, language, and culture are suspiciously Japanese-related.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': This plot is used in the episode "Chinpokemon" where the {{Anime}} show is just camouflage for Japan's real intention to take over the world by brainswashing all infants into become Nippophiles.[[note]]Lovers of Japanese culture.[[/note]]

Since the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan) Japanese economic crash]] starting in the early 1990s, however, the trope has become [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]], as the Japanese aura of invulnerability became permanently cracked (see [[Analysis/JapanTakesOverTheWorld Analysis]] for more details). Today, the trope has been replaced in the Western world with a preoccupation over [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld China taking over the world]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Starlancer}}'' is pretty much World War II meets Cold War in space, where Japan is a major space power and a member of the protagonist's [[The Alliance military alliance]].

* ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'': As may be expected from a series created by a [[CreatorProvincialism Japanese]] studio in the halcyon days of the late '80s, ''Gunbuster'' paints a picture of a world dominated by Japan. It's governed by a Japanese Empire ruling from Tokyo, protected by a very Japanese Imperial Navy. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]], Japan bought Hawaii from a declining USA in a very different economy. 12 years later during WorldWarIII, the US [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything attempts to take Hawaii back]]. However America's continuing collapse allows a more militant Japan to confiscate its space program and technology, soon using it to force the rest of the world under its [[TheEmperor emperor]].

** ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' which is set 800 years later, features a Japanese-inspired faction populated by descendents of Japanese space colonists.

* VideoGame/{{Starlancer}} is pretty much World War II meets Cold War in space, where Japan is a member of the protagonist's military alliance.

In TheEighties and the [[TheNineties early '90s]], Americans pretty much expected that UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} would be their new overlords in a decade or two. While other nations were too busy worrying about the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and trying to dominate the world militarily, Japan was quietly taking over the business and finance sector with a never ending stream of techonological advances and high-quality consumer goods, supported by a seemingly single-minded dedication to work. There was quite a bit of concern that no matter what other countries did, Japanese domination of the global economy was just an inevitability.

In TheEighties and the [[TheNineties early '90s]], Americans pretty much expected that UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} would be their new overlords in a decade or two. While other nations were too busy worrying about the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and trying to dominate the world militarily, Japan was quietly taking over the business sector with a seemingly inhuman affinity for technology and a hive-like dedication to work. It seemed that, no matter what we did, we'd all soon wind up working for the Japanese.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' is a PeriodPiece set in TheEighties and invokes this trope as a historical reference in an [[Radio/GTARadio in-game commercial]] of a compact car called "Maibatsu Thunder" and then with another commercial telling people to buy true American muscle instead of Japanese compacts. On the other end of the scale is the "Maibatsu Monstrosity" in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', which is apparently able to seat 12 people, as well as being amphibious and equipped to travel across arctic tundra. Similarly, in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'', the largest of the various organizations the player can take missions from is Zaibatsu (presented as the name of a specific MegaCorp, not a generic noun).
* While it is a Japanese game developed by a Japanese team and written by [[Creator/HideoKojima a Japanese writer]], the treatment of the Tokugawa Corporation in ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'' is obviously supposed to resemble the way this trope was used in American action movies of the era, rather than CreatorProvincialism. (The game is a pastiche of American buddy cop movies.) However, it makes a satirical point here: Japan has exported the worst parts of its economic system and cultural prejudices to Beyond Coast, and the social problems caused by this are some of the main obstacles the characters face. It's also ironically amusing that the protagonist is shown to be racist against the Japanese...

* The Mishima Zaibatsu in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''.
* In ''VideoGame/TheOrionConspiracy'', the OneNationUnderCopyright that the main characters (who are mostly British, aside from the Irish protagonist) belong to/work for is called Kobayashi.
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': You can accomplish this by playing as Japan in the basic campaign mode.
* The ''lingua franca'' of the [[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]] is a variation on Japanese (spoken with the words in reverse order for whatever reason). This is due to Japan leading scientific progress in the mid-21st century onward, making it the common tongue for Earth. The various alien species also adopt this "Neo-Japanese" from humanity as a trade language. TranslationConvention makes the player hear them in whatever language the game is set to. Curiously enough, the game is not a Japanese product: the designers are German.
* It is implied that at the very least, Japan will rise to a permanent seat in the Security Council of the UN in one of the endings of ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor''. Justified, as demon power ''would'' imply a major power shift in global economics.
* You can play as Japan in the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series and literally take over the world by means of a Conquest or Domination victory. The game encourages you to do it, especially in V, where your soldiers attack at max strength even when damaged. Their Samurais are also a threat.
** In Civilization VI, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oXkQvQmqwA Japan's theme in the Atomic Era]] is meant to evoke this trope, with its combination of traditional Japanese and {{Cyberpunk}}-esque electronic instruments.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/EiyuuSenkiTheWorldConquest'' as the player takes control of the Zipang/Japan army before embarking on the titular world conquest.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', numerous characters and factions (such as Militech) treat the Arasaka MegaCorp as an extension of the Japanese state. Saburo Arasaka's worldview as a Japanese Imperialist and his desire to dominate [[FallenStatesOfAmerica what's left of the US]] through sheer financial might also touches on this trope.
* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'': Depending on how affairs in the Cold War play out, the United States can diminish in influence and Nazi Germany can collapse into a warlord state, leaving Dai-Nippon Teikoku as the sole remaining superpower in the world, barring possibly a [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain reunified Russia]].