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5[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/JapanTOTWImperial2_915.jpg]]
6[[caption-width-right:330:All together now: BANZAI!!!]]
7
8->''"Pearl Harbor didn't work out, so we got you with tape decks."''
9-->-- '''Mr. Takagi''', ''Film/DieHard''
10
11In The80s and [[The90s 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 manufacturing and finance sectors with a never-ending stream of technological advances and high-quality consumer goods, supported by a seemingly-single-minded dedication to hard work, quality, innovation and efficient management. This also tied neatly into stereotypes of [[InscrutableOriental them being cold and work-obsessed]]. (Though some would say that the stereotype was ''caused'' by this scenario, as just a few decades before, Americans instead painted the Japanese as stupid scoundrels.) Sensationalistic newspapers and opportunistic politicians were all too happy to stoke people's financial and/or racist fears. There was concern that Japanese domination of the world economy was inevitable.
12
13As a result, a lot 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.
14
15Since the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades Japanese economic crash]] starting in the early 1990s, the trope has become [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]], as Japan has never returned to the same level of global prominence (see [[Analysis/JapanTakesOverTheWorld Analysis]] for more details). Today, the trope has been replaced in the Western world with a preoccupation over [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld China doing the same thing]], which hilariously has lead to some Western commentators arguing for [[AesopAmnesia a return of Japan as a strong regional power, including outright proposals of remilitarization.]]
16
17This is a Western trope. Compare TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse, which is a Japanese trope about CreatorProvincialism.
18
19SubTrope of TakeOverTheWorld. See also {{Americasia}}, YellowPeril, ChinaTakesOverTheWorld and AmericaTakesOverTheWorld.
20
21----
22!!Examples:
23
24[[foldercontrol]]
25
26[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
27* ''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.
28* ''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; with said unified government, language, and culture suspiciously Japanese-related.]]
29[[/folder]]
30
31[[folder:Comic Books]]
32* ''Crash'' (the ''ComicBook/IronMan'' graphic novel by Saenz). And in ''ComicBook/Marvel2099'', Stark Industries has become Stark-Fujikawa. This was later toyed with in PresentDay Comicbook/IronMan, most notably with {{Love Interest|s}} Rumiko Fujikawa, whose father briefly owned Stark Industries while Tony was believed dead.
33* ''The Secret of The Swordfish'' (the first book of the ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' series) has the Yellow Empire as the antagonist. It is explicitly named to be Tibet, but is obviously an expy of Imperial Japan, with its red sun banner, soldiers wearing Japanese-like uniforms, and using [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons German weapons]]. They even manage to conquer most of the world in the beginning of the story. A later book in the series mentions they had a non aggression treaty with UsefulNotes/NaziGermany back in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
34* In one chapter of ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', Dream has been given the key to Hell, and envoys from multiple pantheons approach him to obtain dominion over it. The Japanese envoy is Susano-o, who presents it as a corporate takeover (their pantheon apparently runs multiple hells, the Christian one would be a sizeable addition).
35** This was interestingly revisited in the SpinOff series ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', which ran during UsefulNotes/The2000s instead of UsefulNotes/TheNineties. The Japanese pantheon are still depicted as cunning and ambitious, but noticeably more pathetic, with their massive store of conquests portrayed more as a knickknack-stuffed garage than anything else.
36* Fellow Creator/VertigoComics flagship ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' also referenced this in the "Damnation's Flame" arc, where the metaphorical image of [[{{Eagleland}} America]] at its worst - Uncle Sam as a gun-toting, drug-dealing pimp who's conquered both [[VestigialEmpire Britannia]] and [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell the Russian Bear]] and blown [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam's]] brains out for trying to resist him - is seen cringing in fear at the rising sun.
37-->''"There's further West than you, you know."''
38* ''ComicBook/BuckDanny'': Many of the early albums are very pro-America and anti-Japan, though granted they were made just after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
39* Being a product of the early 90s, Creator/ValiantComics' original continuity had elements of this. Toyo Harada, the main antagonist of the ''ComicBook/{{Harbinger}}'' book, is a Japanese CorruptCorporateExecutive whose psiot powers were activated when he survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In the 41st century, Japan has become technologically advanced and successful enough to transfer itself and its population into a huge space station.
40[[/folder]]
41
42[[folder:Fan Works]]
43* The ''Anime/CodeGeass'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5305140/1/I_Heard_The_World I Heard the World]]'' is an [[MirrorUniverse inversion]] of the canon, where UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan colonized North America, conquered China and most of East Asia and the British Isles, named Britannia, where the events happen.
44* In the ''Manga/DeathNote'' CyberPunk [[AlternateUniverseFic AU]] ''FanFic/AlternativeGods'' in keeping with the fic's whole CyberPunk theme; {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by [[BasementDweller Matt]] when Near tries to hack into the Japanese NPA's server for the SPK and is crushed [[spoiler: by the superior skills of Kira and L]]:
45-->'''Matt''': Yup. N went and fucked with Japan, you don't just go and fuck with Japan. I've been telling you, man. Nobody just goes and fucks with Japan.
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
49* ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'': The un-named MegaCorp referred to as "the Company" is named "Weyland-Yutani," a fusion of a Western and an Eastern name. Apparently it was originally meant to be Leyland-Toyota, representing the merger of Britain's then-nationalized motor industry (British Leyland) with a Japanese giant. This was changed later on for trademark reasons.
50* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', future 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."
51* Ridley Scott's stylish but dubious 1989 action film ''Film/BlackRain'', in which a tough New York policeman is sent to Japan after capturing a rogue {{Yakuza}} in New York. The film includes an exchange in which a Japanese cop tells his US counterpart, played by Michael Douglas, that "We make the machines, we build the future, we won the peace." Douglas' character retorts "And if even one of you guys had an original idea, you'd be too up-tight to pull it out of your ass!"
52* ''Film/BladeRunner'', though it was a more general "Asia takes over the world." Noodle shops litter the street and gigantic animated Coca-Cola marquees feature smiling geishas. WordOfGod says that this was supposed to show that most of the more affluent (i.e. white) population of America had already left Earth for the offworld colonies, and a lot of poor Asians who had also been left behind had subsequently immigrated.
53* The corporation that is assaulted by terrorists/[[TerroristsWithoutACause thieves]] in ''Film/DieHard'' is a Japanese corporation, Nakatomi Trading, instead of the American one of the book it's based on, ''Nothing Lasts Forever'', reflecting the economical weather of [[TheEighties the era the movie was made in]]. Mr. Takagi's joking about it is the page quote (although Gruber mentions in passing that Takagi was interned in Manzanar, so it may also be a "[[WhosLaughingNow shoe in the other foot]]" joke).
54* In ''Film/GodzillaVsKingGhidorah'', the Japan of the 23rd Century is described as an economic monolith that not only buys out other countries, but also ''entire continents''. The action of the film is driven by three time travellers who go to mid-[[TheNineties Nineties]] Japan to erase Godzilla from history, put a more destructive monster in its place, and reduce Japan to a nuclear slag heap before it can rise.
55* ''Film/GungHo'', where Japanese businessmen are portrayed as cartoonishly repressed and professional, while Americans are cartoonishly undisciplined and ineffective. Michael Keaton makes a speech toward the end stating that Japan was "kicking America's butt," but the film ultimately pushes an {{Aesop}} of compromise and working together.
56* ''Film/KinjiteForbiddenSubjects'' is driven by the anxiety of this trope; in one of its main subplots a Japanese businessman is assigned to his corporation's Los Angeles office and starts off his stay in America by molesting [[Creator/CharlesBronson the protagonist's]] teen daughter [[TheChikan on a public bus]]. The cops, trying in vain to identify him, complain that there are 25000 Japanese businessmen in L.A. already.
57* In ''Film/OtherPeoplesMoney'', Lawrence Garfield, head of Garfield Investments, said he was encouraging his employees to learn Japanese out of fear of the trope.
58* The [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of ''Film/RisingSun'' has Sean Connery's character constantly talking about how Japanese culture is superior to the West, and a Japanese takeover of a large American corporation sits at the heart of the plot. The story also portrays powerful Japanese businessmen as shadowy, decadent and corrupt.
59* In ''Film/TheSantaClause'', Scott Calvin notices Japanese businessmen are occupying a table in the same Denny's restaurant he is dining in, making the all-American Denny's restaurant chain less than all-American.
60* In ''Film/RoboCop3'', the Omni Consumer Products MegaCorp gets bought out by the Japanese Kanemitsu Corporation. It's unclear whether they are better or worse than the old OCP, morally speaking... but their CEO is certainly [[JapanesePoliteness more polite]] than [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Dick Jones]] in the first film.
61* This trope was invoked while designing the USS ''Excelsior'' for ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''. The ''Excelsior'' was a brand-new bleeding-edge prototype that threatened to replace the ''Enterprise'', her crew, and her Iowa-born and -bred American captain as Starfleet's finest. In order to give off this feeling, it was designed to look as if the ''Enterprise'' was designed by the Japanese.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Literature]]
65* 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."
66** ''Dave Barry Does Japan'' from 1992 explores some aspects of the trope. Notably, Barry 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.
67* 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.
68* Creator/MichaelCrichton:
69** ''Literature/RisingSun'' is all about how Japanese culture is allowing them to outperform the West.
70** 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.
71* Creator/CliveCussler'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.
72* 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.
73* William Gibson's ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy'', beginning with ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}''. Japanese culture dominates the world, most of the biggest corporations are Japanese, and the {{Yakuza}} is a global player. Consequently, practically the entire subsequent genre of CyberPunk has elements of this.
74** 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.
75* Creator/EphraimKishon wrote a satirical story about this. At the end he (the author BreakingTheFourthWall) feared that they might write better satires than him.
76* Somewhat downplayed, but present in William Lind's ''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]].
77* In Creator/CharlesDeLint's ''Svaha'', most of the few remaining cities AfterTheEnd are run by the {{yakuza}} and the corporations that they own.
78* Creator/EricLustbader wrote numerous unrelated novels around this concept, including ''Black Blade'' and ''[[GratuitousNinja White Ninja]]''.
79* 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 it shrug off bullet wounds and tear open tanks.
80* In ''The Tojo Virus'' by John D. Randall, 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.
81* Part of the backstory of Mary Doria Russell's ''Literature/TheSparrow'' is that Japan is the pre-eminent economic power in the world.
82* Averted in Kieran Shea's cyberpunk Koko series (a.k.a [=EBK=] book series). Yes, the Koko series has most of the usual dystopian cyberpunk traits such as evil corporations surpassing governments of different countries, pollution so bad most of the world is uninhabitable, mercenaries killing and torturing for corporate or gov't interests or sometimes for their own kinks, pervasive mind-deadening entertainment. What it doesn't have is Japan taking over the world. In the series (which takes place farther in the future than most cyberpunk stories), Japan is a failed state and so devastated by pollution that only Tokyo is livable and it's been depopulated to 9 million people.
83* Creator/RobertSilverberg's ''Hot Sky At Midnight'', 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.
84* In Neal Stephenson's ''Literature/SnowCrash'', a collapse of the world economy has made Japan (Nippon) a major player in a very fragmented, franchised world government.
85* 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. But at least the United States of Japan has developed {{Mecha}} technology.
86* Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's 1984 novel ''[[Literature/WarDay Warday]]'' has the United States and Soviet Union cripple each other in a limited nuclear war, leaving Japan and Britain as the new top dogs. The Japanese are allowed to send whaling ships to American waters with impunity, and they also dismantle the Los Alamos National Laboratory and move it to Japan. A fictional poll in the novel also has 26 per cent of respondees say Japan is the strongest country in the world as of 1993.
87* A major part of Creator/KurtVonnegut's novel ''Hocus Pocus,’’ (1990) which is set in the early 2000s, centers around a for-profit prison owned by a heartless Japanese corporation that has taken over everything and hollowed out the larger community.
88-->"[The warden of the prison] worked for Sony. He had always worked for Sony."
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91[[/folder]]
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93[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
94* In the "Unforgettable" episode of ''Series/{{Amen}}'', Ernest begins flirting with the young environmentalist who's come to his door to raise money for her "Save The Earth" organization by jokingly asking her, "Our earth? Didn't a Japanese company already buy it?"
95* In ''Series/MaxHeadroom'', the Zik-Zak corporation, which more or less runs the world, is Japanese. Late in the series, its Board of Directors are revealed to be {{Yakuza}}.
96* ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' had a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4m_ajuNmSA&ab_channel=BBCStudios spoof news segment]] that "the British Government has apparently just been bought by Honda." This was likely an allusion to Honda's real-life "partnership" with the troubled [[TheAllegedCar Austin Rover Group]].
97[[/folder]]
98
99[[folder:Music]]
100* 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 The70s and especially in The90s with PCM modules) were Japanese, like the Yamaha DX7, the Roland Juno-106, the Yamaha CS-80, and so on.
101* Music/RayStevens, mocked this in the 1991 song "Workin' for the Japanese":
102-->We’re all working for the Japanese\
103Little cars and color TV’s\
104Sending all our money overseas\
105To the Eastern sphere\
106One day we’re gonna lose our roots\
107Wear Oriental jeans and boots\
108And drink nothing but Kawasaki sake, Honda wine, and Mitsubishi light beer\
109Chrysler fights for survival\
110So does General Motors\
111Ford perseveres with better ideas\
112And, everybody drives Toyotas\
113Sony owns the Rockefeller Center\
114And the Hawaiian archipelago\
115We buy Seikos, walkmans, TV's, and minivans\
116And wonder where the money all goes...
117* {{Vaporwave}} as a whole has this as an underlying motif, hand-in-hand with its heavy 1990s capitalist iconography. This manifests both as {{Gratuitous Japanese}} in the titles and frequent sampling of Japanese pop songs, especially in the subgenre of Future Funk.
118* Creator/TheCapitolSteps made some songs on their albums that came out in the 80s that dealt with this topic, such as "Sushi and the M.C.A." and "Mommy's Spoiled Child" (in which a mother buying Japanese-made toys for her son for Christmas puts herself deeper and deeper into debt).
119[[/folder]]
120
121[[folder:Radio]]
122* In ''Nineteen Ninety-Four'', a parody of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' broadcast in 1988 on Creator/TheBBC, the equivalent of Oceania is "[=AmJap=]", a [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture WikiWord]] of "America-Japan". The cover of the sequel's {{Novelization}} shows the [=AmJap=] flag as a stars-and-stripes with a rising sun in the striped section.
123[[/folder]]
124
125[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
126* Played with in ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}''. Japan itself, like every other modern Earth nation, has become just a regional district on Terra. But one of the most powerful Great Houses of the Inner Sphere is the Japanese-descended House Kurita of the Draconis Combine. However said power comes from the nation's military, rather than economy, and culturally it's closer to feudal Japan than modern day Japan. Ultimately, the trope can be considered averted since the Combine was styled after feudal-era Japan by its leader in the 26th Century, due to his having been a fanboy of ancient Japan and wishing he could have been a real-life samurai. Thus the Combine is really TheThemeParkVersion of Shogunate Japan without any true ties to the nation itself beyond the ruling dynasty's lineage.
127* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' plays with this. While Japanese {{Mega Corp}}s are extremely prominent around the world, including the Arasaka corporation which is one of the two most powerful corps in the world and has a [[CorporateWarfare private army]] stronger than most countries... the far-and-away strongest entity is the [[UnitedEurope European Economic Community]], both in terms of economy and military. The [=EuroDollar=] has replaced USD as ''de facto'' global currency, and EEC also operates a giant [[MagneticWeapons rail gun]] on the moon, capable of annihilating any threat to them without the fear of MutuallyAssuredDestruction.
128* This was popular enough for a while that ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' decided to play with it; one of the alternate earths in ''GURPS Alternate Earths I" was Shikaku-Mon, whose Japanese had taken over the world militarily rather than economically (after converting to Catholicism early and becoming a colonial power), but which still invoked many of the standard CyberPunk tropes.
129* Due to the major influence of CyberPunk, ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' is set in a world where this is sometimes true. The "nuyen" has become a global currency, Japan reestablished its imperial family and expanded its territories by force (including the Philippines and a significant portion of the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica California Free State]]), and at any given time, Japan is home to a disproportionately large number of megacorporations, including the very first one. There are forces and setbacks keeping it from truly ruling the world though, like a rebellious general, a Great Dragon, natural disasters, and a megacorp moving its headquarters to Russia, but there are plenty who dream of global domination as a realistic possibility.
130* ''TabletopGame/{{TORG}}'' dealt with multiple dimensions, each representing a different genre, invading different parts of modern-day Earth. Japan was invaded by the "Nippon Tech" realm, which conducted its invasion through economics and espionage rather than the military invasion conducted by some of the other realms. Basically, the Nippon Tech realm was a direct invocation of this trope, and was heavily influenced by movies such as Blade Runner and Black Sun.
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132[[/folder]]
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134[[folder:Theater]]
135* ''Theatre/TheCompleteHistoryOfAmericaAbridged'' gives this a wink and a nod. A RadioDrama where AmericaWonWorldWarII is acted out, and at the end Rock Fury, Super GI says: "Well, thank goodness we won this war; otherwise, the German and Japanese economies would dominate the world." The performers then do a DoubleTake and all check that their scripts are correct, and the one playing Rock delivers this AsideComment: "Hmm... a terrifying thought."
136[[/folder]]
137
138[[folder:Video Games]]
139* 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 (''VideoGame/PacMan'', ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'', ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'') are Japanese, as are two of the three companies that still make video game consoles (Nintendo and Sony).
140* 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.
141** 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.
142* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' has the Empire of the Rising Sun as one of three playable factions, and arms them with easily the most advanced and versatile, albeit expensive, technology and weapons among the three. They actually complete the trope in their campaign ending.
143* 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.
144** In 'The Devil' ending, Arasaka is on the path to conquering the world; [[spoiler:Project Mikoshi proves Arasaka's BodyBackupDrive works, ensuring they can just buy off world leaders with immortality]]. This is considered the bad ending.
145* Subverted in ''VideoGame/EarthAndBeyond''. The Japanese took over ''Jupiter''.
146* Played straight in ''VideoGame/EiyuuSenkiTheWorldConquest'' as the player takes control of the Zipang/Japan army before embarking on the titular world conquest.
147* ''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).
148* In ''Japan Bashing'', a StrategyGame for the Platform/PC98, the player must prevent Japan from taking over the U.S. by deploying anti-Japanese propaganda. Since [[MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting it's a Japanese game made by Japanese people for Japanese people]], it's all PlayedForLaughs.
149* One of the two endings to ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'' results in Japan leading the United Nations in a war against the U.S. Given that the game was made by Creator/Suda51 (and runs heavy with the theme of eternal and inevitable conflict between eastern and western cultures), we can safely presume this is not meant to be a "good" ending.
150* 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 Earth 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.
151* ''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]].
152* ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'' has a Japanese-styled faction, who use WWII-looking vehicles that are no less effective than their modern versions (and in Kanbei's case, are ''more'' effective).
153* 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.
154* 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...
155* ''VideoGame/RedFlood'': Downplayed. In this alternate history, [[{{Irony}} Japan is (along with Germany) a major player in the]] [[DirtyCommies Third Internationale]], and it can cause the emergence of Japanese-influenced communist movements in Brazil and Italy.
156* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': You can accomplish this by playing as Japan in the basic campaign mode.
157%%% * ''VideoGame/ShowaAmericanStory'': In an AlternateTimeline, Japan really did begin to take over the world, as it ''bought'' the United States and was busy 'Edoblazing' Japanese culture by building a super-highway from coast to coast, jam-packed with Japanese businesses and Buddhist/Shinto monuments - and then the apocalypse ruined everything. Now, the only three things that rule the world are bandits, Yakuza, and hordes of zombies.
158* ''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 [[TheAlliance military alliance]].
159** ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' which is set 800 years later, features Kusari, a Japanese-inspired faction populated by descendents of Japanese space colonists.
160* The Mishima Zaibatsu in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' is so powerful that their military wing takes over the world under Jin Kazama's name.
161* 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.
162* 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.
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165[[folder:Web Original]]
166* Invoked in Alasdair Beckett-King's [=YouTube=] video, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X35QcMC0xxI "Every Advert (In The Future)"]], which parodies the [[CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker sinister public address systems]] in dystopian science fiction. Among the futuristic services advertised are a "pleasure dome and vaguely Asian imagery", read over clips of floating sushi.
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169[[folder:Western Animation]]
170* Prominent in many [[WarTimeCartoon propaganda cartoons]] from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: ''WesternAnimation/TokioJokio'', ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunnyNipsTheNips'', ''WesternAnimation/TheDucktators''...
171* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Road to the Multiverse", Brian and Stewie visit a universe where Japan dominated the world after World War II.
172* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
173** In "Last Exit to Springfield," a worker from decades ago warns Burns' grandfather about the rise and fall of unionized America (the latter courtesy of Japan):
174---> '''Worker:''' One day, we'll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve! Then we'll go too far, and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!
175---> '''Grandfather:''' The Japanese?! Those sandal-wearing goldfish-tenders? Bosh, flim-shaw!
176** There's this line from the episode "Colonel Homer," where Homer is approached by an agent from a Country Music label.
177--->'''Agent:''' I'm from Rebel Yell Records, a division of the Tokasagi Corporation.
178** 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 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.
179** After Homer bankrupts Herb Powell's car company in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" it is taken over by Kumatsu Motors, who also made Homer's pickup truck in the later episode "Mr. Plow."
180* [[TheStarscream Zero]] from ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGobots'' was likely meant to be an anti-Japanese sentiment. Not only does he transform into a Japanese WWII plane but he also ends his first appearance with "[[TakingYouWithMe Operation Kamikaze]]". Although, oddly enough, ''[=GoBots=]'' was based on the Japanese ''Toys/MachineRobo'' franchise.
181* Hell in the ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'' universe is owned by a Japanese Mega-Corp and run by businessmen.
182* ''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 becoming Nippophiles.[[note]]Lovers of Japanese culture.[[/note]]
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