Characters / TNO Sixties Guangdong Chief Executives

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Chief Executives (1964-1972)

Morita Akio

^{70's Portrait (Success)}

^{70's Portrait (Failure)}

Role: President of Sonus-Li Electronics Company, External Secretary^note Foreign Minister (Matsuzawa and Matsushita cabinet), Chief Executive^note Head of State (Matsuzawa succession)

Party: Rippoukai - Minseiha (Sony)^note Legislative Council - Civic Faction: Money will never not be a part of Guangdong's politics. But the logic of money is not infallible, argue some, and sometimes the impulse to maximize profit must be balanced against the need to preserve stability. Whether they be more paternalistic corporate men or unreconstituted believers in a civil society backed by more than just greed, these individuals in the Legislative Council back a heterodox theory of economics that balances State interests with corporate prerogatives.

Ideology: Corporate Paternalism^note Paternalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}"The Gadgeteer of Guangdong." "The Man Who Fought the Zaibatsu." "The Japanese Washout." Morita Akio is known by many names, all of which are true to a degree. Despite his prestigious origins - a graduate of Osaka Imperial University and a member of the IJN's Wartime Research Group - Morita washed ashore in Guangdong after a falling-out with his once-friend, Ibuka Masaru, over the acquisition of Tokyo Telecommunications Company in 1952.

With little more than memorized schematics - and the assistance of his long-time associate, Li Ka-Shing of Cheung Kong Enterprises - Morita clawed his way back up the corporate ladder in Guangdong in the 1950's, selling high-quality audio-visual electronics in Guangdong and the Republic of China. With Sony's accession into the Four Companies in 1960, Morita became the lone voice of reform, fighting to make his adopted home of Guangdong both an economic powerhouse and a better place for the Zhujin community he has come to represent.

A long decade in the shadow of the Japanese has convinced Morita and Li that for Guangdong to survive, it must become more than just a playground for the corporations - but a place that its people can call a home. Few of Guangdong's Japanese establishment think he will succeed - but even fewer expected Morita to come back swinging from his fall from grace, let alone speak out against them. He will not stop now.

In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Matsuzawa cabinet)^{Click to Show}Even as one of the heads of the Four Companies, Morita Akio and Sony had always been an outsider - comfortably outvoted by Yasuda, Matsushita, and Fujitsu combined. Yet, as Yasuda careens towards its dissolution and Chief Executive Suzuki abandons his post, Morita is one of three men standing between Guangdong and total chaos. It stood to reason that along with his new responsibilities, he would receive a title befitting his position.

Morita knows full well there are ways to signal displeasure even amongst insiders: the External Secretary is a glorified PR position at the best of times, and an easy target for criticism in times of crisis. But even his small seat at the table gives him access to the Chief Executive - one who eyes the naked maneuvering of Matsushita and Ibuka as warily as Morita does. As for Morita - he is both the man with a plan, and a man who can be trusted, and he will not let this crisis go to waste.

In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}For Morita Akio, being kept in the position of External Secretary under Chief Executive Matsushita is a consolation prize - an example of how he failed to seize his moment. With the Corporate faction once again outnumbering his and Li Ka-shing's State faction in the Legislative Council, Morita knows that once again, he is condemned to serve in the role of the eternal opposition.

It could be worse - he could have been shut out of the Chief Executive's cabinet, as was the case before Yasuda's fall. Morita wouldn't have been kept on without his being of some use - no doubt to serve as a counterweight to Ibuka Masaru of Fujitsu. So be it! Morita knows better than anyone how all-encompassing Ibuka's ambition is - and Matsushita will soon find that Morita is a far better confidante than Ibuka could ever be.

70's In-Game Biography (Success)^{Click to Show}More than an engineer or an executive, Morita Akio is a survivor - one who holds the fate of millions in his hands.

Nearly a decade after becoming Chief Executive, Guangdong has been recast into something close to what Morita has wanted for nearly half of his life, ever since he washed ashore in Honkon in 1952: a second home. With hard work and with trusted allies - foremost amongst them Li Ka-shing - at his side, he has built a life in a Guangdong that has transformed itself in his image: no longer Japanese or Chinese, but somewhere in between.

Luck, he admits, may have had some role to play in his - and Sony's - fairytale success. He knows that he will need far more of it to survive the decade to come.

As China and Japan stare each other down, pacing around each other like boxers in a cage, Guangdong stands on the precipice of extinction. Much as it flirted with destruction in the Riots, it now faces the prospect of being trampled by the two goliaths of Asia in a historical reckoning, long overdue.

But Morita has no interest in becoming collateral damage. His home - his Guangdong, and the millions who will soon find themselves in the eye of the storm - must survive, at any cost.

70's In-Game Biography (Failure)^{Click to Show}When faced with his first brush with death in 1952, Morita Akio chose flight. Now, months after the threat of Sony's financial dissolution, he chooses to fight.

Even a decade after becoming Chief Executive - working alongside Li Ka-shing to build a second home that has gradually transformed itself in his image - he finds he is no safer in Guangdong than he was in Japan, all those years ago. The only surety of his existence in the twilight chasm between Japan and China is that he is forever vulnerable - if not to the whims of the two goliaths of Asia, then to the predations of Ibuka Masaru.

And while there is relatively little he can do to steer China and Japan away from conflict, Ibuka presents a far less intractable problem.

Where Morita had once worked almost exclusively from the Kōshu government complex, he now increasingly decamps to Sony's Honkon offices, allowing Li to face the passions of his people head-on. Every waking moment is spent rebuilding Sony from the ground up - and preparing it for an inevitable war with Fujitsu.

Their third showdown will be their last - and Morita will have the last laugh over Ibuka Masaru, no matter what the cost.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Independent Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}Good for Matsushita, Morita Akio thinks, without really meaning it.

A decade of effort was spent convincing Matsushita and his predecessors to not be satisfied with just building a corporatocratic empire and instead take actual, substantial steps to help the people of this artificial state—all wasted, for nothing. Mere ashes. At least Morita has tried, though it is cold comfort to say so.

Then again, maybe Morita can't really judge Matsushita for that. No rational person would just give up power even if doing so harmonised with the morals one claimed to adhere to. Morita Akio would like to hope he is better than that. But he feels he is really just the same.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Sony Puppeted Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}Finally! An opportune time has come for Morita Akio, whose decades-long work to convince the rulers of Guangdong to adopt a more just, responsible way of governing has at last reached fruition. That old conservative curmudgeon, Matsushita, has done the only reasonable thing he could do in the face of the Riots and handed over power to those most capable of preventing them from ever taking place again. With this leeway, Morita will move to do more to help the people than Matsushita has ever done.

But the External Secretary suspects that it may well be too late already. Tensions are rising north of the border—as well they would, after all this time. But at least Morita can try to do what he can to make sure things don't get much worse. And at least Ibuka, that bastard, hasn't gotten his way this time around

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Fujitsu Puppeted Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}"What the hell is Matsushita doing?" are the words that issue forth from Morita Akio's mouth semi-regularly these days.

That makes all the more sense when one realises that it's because Morita's decades-long rival Ibuka Masaru has been handed the reins of Guangdong after Matsushita's failure. It irritates Morita so much. After all these years how the hell has Matsushita managed to not just double down on being a corporate brute but doing it the way Ibuka out of all people would?

All this is proof positive that Morita has had a terrible failure—that of not realising that people like Matsushita are closer to Ibuka than they ever will be to him. The more one trusts amorphous protoplasms like Matsushita, the more isolated Morita will be—but if corporate obstinacy destroys Guangdong in the end, then Matsushita and his clique have only themselves to blame.

The President of Sony, one of the Four Companies of Guangdong. Washing up in Guangdong after falling out with former friend Ibuka Masaru over their company, Tokyo Telecommunications, Morita has rebuilt his prestige thanks to Cheung Kong's timely aid and Sony's engineering ingenuity. As Chief Executive, Morita sympathizes with the plights of Guangdong's Chinese and Zhujin inhabitants, and aims to reform the state into a place that people can call home.

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• Absentee Club Member: In protest to Ibuka's regime, Morita is conspicuously absent every time the other corporate leaders convene with the Chief Executive.
• All for Nothing: Arrested by the IJA and witnessing Li's demise, Morita concludes that all his efforts to repay Li and the people of Guangdong for giving him a second chance will be undone, casting the country into ruins.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Morita calls his policy of enshrining minor concessions to the workers of Guangdong into law "Capitalism with a Human Face"; a reference to Alexander Dubček, the Communist Chairman of Czechoslovakia in 1968-69, who attempted to institute several limited liberal reforms of the Czechoslovakian communist government under the slogan "Socialism with a Human Face".
  • Morita's reforms are a parallel to the politics and reforms implemented by British Hong Kong in the 1970s-80s, as well as sharing the socio-economic problems that still affect the region to this day.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Having rebuilt his corporate prestige in Guangdong, Morita is the strongest voice in the Legislative Council for better treatment of the Chinese and Zhujin, believing that he should repay the support they gave him years ago.
• Being Good Sucks: "Good" might be stretching the definition a bit, but Morita's whole project as Chief Executive is trying to reform Guangdong's society to be a much more tolerable place to live for the average worker, if only mostly out of a sense of pragmatism because, the way he sees it, happier workers with more money in their pockets result both in more loyal and less rebellion-prone population and a much larger pool of consumers and thus makes for a more stable environment to do business in. A large part of his efforts involves him trying to crack down on Guangdong's endemic corruption, but this will eventually put him in the unenviable position of having to try to pass worker-friendly legislation through a legislative body entirely staffed by representatives of companies profiting from abusing said workers without being able to bribe them into going along with his ideas.
• Beneath the Mask: If German embargoes are lifted and Sony expands to Europe, Morita will privately worry about having the German branch be based within the courthouse where Speer's Sondergericht was conducted, doing business with those who use slave labor in eastern Europe, and looking at Li's disappointed face for compromising on his principles.
• Better the Devil You Know: Morita knows that crime cannot be entirely curbed and aligns with Stanley Ho's contacts, turning a blind eye to their activities so it can be controlled and used to combat the Yakuza. The focus ‘Tolerate Some Vices' acknowledges this trope directly. Part of Morita's justification is that the Yakuza are funded by criminal elements of the wealthy Japanese demographics, who are opposed to Morita's reforms, so he might as well back Ho in the race.
• Bookends: One of the final events for Morita's Guangdong parallels Morita and Li's first event of eating egg noodles while discussing business at a small Chinese ran restaraunt, only this time, both of them are enjoying lunch in Cheung Kong's new headquarters.
• Bread and Circuses: Morita's main argument for making concessions to the workers of Guangdong, such as a federally enforced minium salary and reduced working hours, is that the previous policy of essentially working them first to the bone and then into their early graves only leads to resentment towards Guangdong as a state, and in the long run will result in a risk of instability and rebellion. His reforms are supposed to show the workers that the state can be reasonable and also work in their interests, thereby fostering loyalilty towards Guangdong as a concept, helping to boost the artificial state's legimitiacy and thereby ensuring its long term survival.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Many, including Lee Chun, lose faith in Morita's ability to reform Guangdong due to his flawed policies and broken promises, especially during the Oil Crisis. These citizens come together in the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen and riot against him in the Oil Crisis' climax.
  • After Komai takes over Guangdong, Morita becomes discredited in the eyes of many Chinese and Zhujin for failing to stop Hitachi, which amplifies Sony's already dire situation.
• Category Traitor:
  • If Yokoi remains firm during their confrontation, Morita will be called a race traitor to the Japanese, where Yokoi insults him as a sellout to the Chinese.
  • Komai considers Morita a disgrace to Japan and briefly forgets his ethnic origins as Morita reacts with disgust to a suggested zero-hour contract amendment to the Entrepreneurial Recovery Ordinance.
• The Chains of Commanding: In his personal bad ending, Morita experiences a significant amount of stress as Hitachi comes incredibly close to successfully pulling a hostile takeover of Sony, so much so that he elects to step away from the spotlight of running Guangdong and instead focus solely on Sony.
• Color Motif: Red and pink. These colors symbolize the more compassionate hand of Morita towards the Chinese and Zhujin, being the most humanistic of the possible Chief Executives and genuinely motivated to establish greater protections for them.
• Consolation Prize: If Matsushita becomes the Chief Executive, he promotes Morita to be his External Secretary, but only as a consolation to him and to serve as a counterbalance to Ibuka. He can eventually grow powerful enough from this position to make Matsushita into his puppet.
• Control Freak:
  • Failing Morita's personal crisis results in him devoting more and more time to micromanaging the affairs of Sony and leaving Li to take over the responsibilities of governing Guangdong. Even with the other corporations beginning to ask questions about his absence, Morita continues to leave government documents to collect dust on a side desk in his office.
  • If Morita wants to create a revolutionary Sony product that will mitigate the Oil Crisis' effects, he will closely monitor the development team behind it, even bringing out a collapsible bed to watch them, until they've made visible progress.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Downplayed in comparison to the extremes of the other Chief Executives but Morita is willing to use underhanded means to secure his position. For instance, if Morita begins investments in public housing, he is willing to do backroom deals to ensure that Cheung Kong wins contracts for providing utilities with an an event afterwards detailing a construction manager and his boss meeting with someone claiming to represent Morita in a bar at midnight, who instructs them to bid at just over the starting prices of an upcoming auction for utilities construction to make it seem legitimate to outsiders.
• Corrupt Politician: Downplayed and a relatively benevolent example. Morita is willing to use bribes so that his Rural Development Ordinance can pass, but it is for a good cause of applying fair and humane standards to all rural development projects.
• Defiant to the End: When arrested by the IJA and put on the Kōshu tribunal, Morita tells the judge to "go fuck [himself]" and denounces all of the war crimes that his prosecutors are exacting on everyone in Guangdong. This secures his own sentence of death by hanging.
• Despair Event Horizon: In the failure scenario of his personal crisis, Morita will be left dejected that his company's stock has been irreversibly damaged and that Tokyo rejected his request for a subsidy. Though he manages to stop the selloff, Morita still feels like a failure and locks himself in his office, leaving Li to carry out his usual duties. Even if he successfully dismantles the riots, Morita is still unable to enjoy his victory, devoting a good portion of his time still trying to recover Sony's damage.
• The Determinator: Even when Tokyo Telecommunications was two steps away from bankruptcy's door, Morita refused to give up on it and tried everything he could to make it work. Unfortunately, Ibuka had other ideas and accepted Fujitsu's deal to buy out the company, expelling Morita as a "liability" and rendering him jobless.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Matsushita is a member of the Sphere, but he'll occasionally break off into his own independent path, if it best suits Guangdong's interests. For example, he will set up his own investment deals with the Zaibatsus because Japan is too unreliable to depend on.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Sony and Cheung Kong suffer from being overshadowed by Hitachi in Komai's path with Sony falling to mid-1950s level profits and Cheung Kong suffering under constant harassment from the government. This leads Morita and Li to start drinking several bottles of whiskey to cope, especially with their credibility among the Chinese and Zhujin falling dramatically.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite the success he's enjoyed as Sony's executive, he's still doubted and ignored by the Japanese elite in the Home Isles, still remembering his past failures in Tokyo Telecommunications. Fortunately, this becomes Downplayed if he has a successful reign in Guangdong, where he's now become lauded as a hero in Tokyo and often sought for advice on geopolitics, mainly over Chinese politics. However, appeals for economic investment are still largely side-lined and the Japanese PM is often late to meetings with Morita.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Morita senses an opportunity to increase Sony's profile when Yasuda begins supporting Suzuki's efforts to bring Guangdong in-line with Japan's interests. He knows Suzuki needs someone to tip the scales and that forming a temporary truce with the two is the best opportunity to level the playing field against Matsushita and Fujitsu. If Suzuki seeks to gather support for the RLSO from Sony, this alliance can develop further, both wanting to prevent Fujitsu from gutting the bill.
  • Morita serves as Matsuzawa's External Secretary, not to save his doomed cabinet, but to make Sony seem more reliable than their rivals in Matsushita and Fujitsu, thereby gathering more support for Morita to be Suzuki's true successor.
• Et Tu, Brute?: The loss of Tokyo Telecommunications stung even more for Morita when Ibuka, his once close friend and business partner, fired him. The two have hated each other ever since.
• Everyone Has Standards: Morita has several opportunities to compromise with Komai and appease some of their interests with his ordinances. However, Morita invariably puts his foot down with the Public Order Ordinance, seeing newspaper stories of Hitachi officers dragging people off the streets, and killing and mutilating people. Horrified, Morita rejects any notion of cooperating with Komai on this front.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: In the good ending of his personal crisis, Morita develops eye bags, exhausted from investigating the Sasshin Fund's transactions and conspiracy to buy out Sony.
• The Exile: Following the bankruptcy of Tokyo Telecommunications and being blacklisted by the Zaibatsus, Morita could no longer support himself and vanished from Japan in 1952. Fortunately, he planned for this outcome as rumors spread of him being a liability, so he took the transistor blueprints and prototypes from Ibuka's desk, catapulting his eventual return to the spotlight in Guangdong with the TR-56.
• Fighting for a Homeland: While not native to Guangdong, he does consider it his own country and seeks to reforge it into something that the citizens can call home, even if it is an artificial state blending Cantonese and Japanese culture. When war between China and Japan looms on the horizon, Morita leaves no intention to have his home and everything he built be destroyed.
• Gadgeteer Genius: One of Morita's strengths as an executive is his inventiveness with each product that Sony manufactures, which is especially noticeable when compared to Ibuka, who focuses more on quality control.
• Hanging Around: Morita is sentenced to death by hanging at the Kōshu tribunal on allegations of treason against the Japanese people and Pan-Asianism. Morita secures his own sentence when he defiantly denounces everything the IJA are doing to Guangdong.
• Heroic BSoD: If he fails to stop Ibuka from passing the Zoning Ordinance, Morita falls into a catatonic state from sheer shock and despair over Guangdong's future.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Li are longtime friends and business partners, having worked since 1955 to make a name for themselves.
• Historical Relationship Overhaul:
  • In OTL, Morita was very close with Ibuka, a friendship as strong as the relationship to their respective wives, if not more so. Here, the two have become arch-rivals because Ibuka sold their company to Fujitsu and fired Morita per his new masters' orders.
  • Morita and Li didn't have a relationship in OTL, which is dramatically overhauled in this timeline, since Morita was exiled to Guangdong and was coincidentally found by Li in front of his factories. This chance encounter leads to a deep friendship between the two, replacing Morita's old partnership with Ibuka before their fallout.
• Hope Bringer:
  • Morita's overarching goal is to bring hope back to the masses of Guangdong and give them a glimpse of the country becoming more than a corporate playground. Morita even thinks of himself as such, believing it will give him the advantage over Manchuria, if the more cynical Sōmucho takes power.
  • This gets downplayed in Matsushita's Oil Crisis path and his passage of the New Labor Standards Ordinance, where most do retain hope that Morita is a genuine reformer representing the Zhujins' interests, but even they are skeptical about how much tangible progress he can make.
• Honor Before Reason: At multiple points, Morita must make hard choices that test the strength of his morals. From refusing to water down his amendments to justly trying corrupt allies, Morita can stick with his principles and sacrifice some support to maintain the moral high ground.
• Hypocrite:
  • Many of his allies, including Li, are generally disappointed by his willingness to do business with Speer's Germany and abet their slave practices, in spite of fighting that same exploitation back home. Morita sympathizes with these notions, but dismisses them under the belief that Abs' business connections are too valuable to toss away. Such pragmatism is reinforced when Morita reads an interview with Erhard on the plane journey back, which talks about the repatriation of Germany's slaves.
  • Morita is personally disgusted by Germany's use of slave labor. But when Abs gifts him a luxury BMW Glas 3000 V8, built by those same enslaved hands, Morita forgets all about his reservations and indulges in the automobile.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • Morita doesn't enjoy relocating people, but if they are sitting on valuable natural resources, he will reluctantly do so, arguing that the potential economic value is too important to leave untapped or in the hands of locals. That said, he tries minimizing the damage by offering relocation packages to the displaced.
  • Morita is less than enthused about resorting to policing to contain the Guangdong riots, even if he chose to negotiate with the protestors. However, he justifies them to himself as a necessity to prevent Guangdong from falling into chaos and especially from falling into the hands of the IJA.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even though in TNO's lore, Tokyo Telecommunications, the company that would become Sony in OTL, was acquired by Fujitsu in 1952, Sony still exists in TNO because Morita founded a second company named Sonus-Li Electronics Company in 1954. The developers consider Morita's use of the "Sony" name to be a mild case of Acceptable Breaks from Reality, to keep the name recognizable even though it is somewhat contrived in-universe, given the poor relations between Japan and US.
• Internal Reformist: If he takes power, Morita will begin implementing reforms to reduce the brutal exploitation of the corporations over Guangdong and implement strong anti-corruption measures, both improving the people's livelihood and making himself richer.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Morita is impressed by Ludwig Erhard's opposition to slave labor in the Einheitspakt, thinking that Manchuria could use a man like him.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Morita can accept Miyazaki's compromise to retain some level of Kenpeitai authority in Guangdong, believing that it is realistically impossible to completely replace them with the Guangdong Police.
  • Even if the Inspector-General of the ICAC manages to arrest Lui and most of his associates. Morita may refrain from prosecuting their superiors because he doesn't want to risk angering Fujitsu and Hitachi too much.
• Led by the Outsider: Morita is considered an outsider by the established corporations, having risen from ruin in the 1950s and only entering the Legislative Council in 1960. His appointment in Matsuzawa's government and subsequent promotion to Chief Executive is considered a major upset to the established corporate order that few think will succeed.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: The collapse of Yasuda and subsequent fall of Suzuki has placed Morita as one of the few corporate leaders in a powerful enough position to stabilize the situation, paving the way for his appointment as External Secretary by Matsuzawa. While a largely PR role, being placed in cabinet gives Morita an opportunity to influence the Chief Executive and make a play for the position himself once the dust settles.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The closest shade to grey Guangdong is likely to get. While still a megacorporation in a cyberpunk-influenced environment and a willing cog in the Japanese colonial/military machine, Morita's Sony company is touted as the least abusive of the megacorps, reaching out to the local Chinese and mixed people and trying to represent their interests with their legislative puppets. Morita himself has been described as soft-hearted, and his focus tree includes multiple branches for both implementing and institutionalizing anti-corruption policies and trying to buy the workers' loyalty with rights, regulations, and good salaries.
• Living Lie Detector: Morita can sniff out when a report is lying by omission and downplaying negative information.
• Man Behind the Man: After being given too much influence by Matsushita to handle the Oil Crisis and Guangdong riots, Morita becomes the unofficial power leading Guangdong, dealing with the country's diplomatic business and working with Li to control the Legislative Council, even though Matsushita is still the official Chief Executive.
• Mediation Backfire: The onset of the Guangdong Riots puts Morita in an uncomfortable position where the rioters are pushing him to appease their interests and the corporations demand that he no give them an inch. Thus, it's very easy for Morita to upset both sides with his mediation.
• Mouth of Sauron: In Matsushita's negotiation path with the Guangdong rioters, Morita can be sent as the government's ambassador to the masses, working on a deal to appease some of their demands and end the violence as quietly as possible. As Morita argues, he is the only higher-up trusted enough by the rioters to make a deal and expect that he will honor it, which leads to a cordial and calm negotiation between the two sides. However, this also risks Morita overstepping his authority in this role, which worries Matsushita.
• My Greatest Second Chance:
  • If Ibuka becomes Chief Executive, Morita becomes even more determined to stop him, partially to avenge the time Ibuka betrayed him in the Home Isles and banished him to Guangdong in the first place.
  • After failing to stop Matsushita's ascension the first time, Morita is determined to usurp him and seize his second chance at becoming Chief Executive, using the riots so that Matsushita will be forced to rely on Sony for help and unwittingly allow them to eclipse him in influence.
• Necessarily Evil: While not as bad as the other executives, Morita can still be unscrupulous and willing to work with Abs in a Speer-led Germany, under the justification that it can facilitate Sony's entry into the Einheitspakt.
• Not So Stoic: The normally unflappable Morita gives the IJA a piece of his mind at his trial, unleashing a blistering speech opening with uncharacteristic profanity.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Lee Chun's boss tries to pull this on him, Morita furiously switches to Cantonese and threatens to shut down his business, unless he gets his act together. Morita rarely gets this angry and the language switch from typical Japanese reflects this.
  • Morita is a passionate and outspoken debater on the Legislative Council, but when a persistent Ibuka passes the Guangdong Future Act and effectively turns the nation into a one-man dictatorship, Morita leaves in silence, not even trying to argue the matter and only expressing disappointment that his former friend has crossed the line of no return.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Curiously, the normally passionate Morita is awfully quiet while Ibuka's Modern Police Ordinance is in the Legislative Council and proposing restraints on the Kenpeitai, even as most of Sony's representatives abstain or vote in favor of it. Ibuka himself notices the silence and finds it peculiar.
• Perpetual Frowner: Noted to rarely smile; he's actually the only Guangdong leader to be frowning in all three of his portraits, including his "success" scenario.
• Pragmatic Hero: Morita is happy to give leeway to some of Matsushita's indiscretions if it means that Komai and Ibuka can be pulled down a couple of more pegs when it comes to the new financial regulations that he has passed.
• Pragmatic Villainy: A light version, since it's both implied and often stated that Akio is just generally kind of a soft-hearted guy (especially compared to his rivals) who would probably want to be less oppressive for its own sake anyway, but his Corporate Paternalism ideology outright says that giving the workers what they want, within a certain amount of reason, is just good business overall, and that a happy, healthy, and well-provided-for workforce is more productive and more loyal than a bunch of desperate, ground-down glorified slaves squeezed and fleeced for all they're worth. This reasoning is central to his amendments in the Labor Standards Ordinance and the rest of the bills he passes in his path.
• Properly Paranoid: After Komai takes over Guangdong, Morita anxiously watches his back and tries to keep Li's loud protests down, nervous that they're still being spied on from their usual safe haven. Given how dictatorial and brutal Komai is, the paranoia is understandable.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Morita can block Ibuka's passage of the Guangdong Civil Service Ordinance and prevent his streamlining of the civil service sectors. Though this mitigates Ibuka's ability to pressure the lower government institutions, his previous policies have already done their work and made his administration efficient enough for his liking.
• Rags to Riches: When Tokyo Telecommunications went bankrupt, Morita was left on the streets of Guangdong as a homeless wreck, seemingly never to return to prominence again. However, he miraculously bounced back after partnering with Li Ka-shing, creating the massive Sony corporation out of Li's single factory.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Morita can listen to the Guangdong rioters' demands for better labor reforms rather than cut them off.
• Red Baron: Morita has many nicknames, chief among them being "The Gadgeteer of Guangdong".
• Riches to Rags: While not exceedingly wealthy, Morita was considered a prestigious graduate of Osaka Imperial University and a member of the IJN's wartime research group before starting his own electronics business with Ibuka. It was not until the buyout of Tokyo Telecommunications and blacklisting by the Zaibatsus that he fell into poverty and left for Guangdong.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: During the beginning of Morita's personal crisis, he decides to raise Sony investor capital to pay for government programs and uphold the promises made to the people. Li, in a rare instance of confrontation with Morita, opposes such measures, being rather shocked at the notion of mixing public and private money and pushing investors to cash out. But Morita refuses to end up like Suzuki and is willing to risk his own wealth to succeed.
• Self-Made Man: After losing Tokyo Telecommunications, Morita was left homeless in Guangdong, with only a small, shabby transistor radio to his name. However, his work ethic and partnership with Li allowed him to recover his wealth, to the point he's now one of the richest and most influential figures in Guangdong. Even better, if he has a successful tenure, he will be invited back to Japan, now as an honored guest and subject for a VIP photoshoot instead of a blacklisted failure.
• Selective Enforcement: In exchange for his support, Morita has agreed to lighten his regulatory policies against Matsushita Electric, ensuring that they won't be too threatened by his reforms.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Morita is the most benevolent of the possible Chief Executives, but one of his biggest flaws is not doing enough to fix Guangdong's inequity. Unfortunately, he remains oblivious to just how awful life is on the streets and that most Chinese people don't want to be subjugated under any kind of Japanese colonial state; they just want to be free.
• So Proud of You: Morita is delighted that after so long of getting overshadowed, Cheung Kong is getting invited into the Legislative Council.
• Sore Loser: If Ibuka passes the Guangdong Trademark Ordinance, Morita loses all composure and decries the law as a new dark age of exploitation and greed in Guangdong.
• Starting a New Life: Upon arriving to Guangdong, Morita had to rebuild his life from scratch. With the help of Li Ka-shing he managed to grow a new company and accepts Guangdong as his new home.
• Sympathy for the Devil: A sign of his less ruthless nature, Morita will occasionally sympathize with this enemies, such as Matsuzawa during the Yasuda Crisis, Miyazaki when the Kenpeitai's powers are limited, and Ibuka when the Guangdong Riots spark.
• Token Good Teammate: Morita is the only member of Matsushita's cabinet who is even remotely interested in offering greater benefits for the Chinese and Zhujin out of genuine sympathy for them. Matsushita grimaces whenever he has to hear his suggestions and only heeds his advice to satiate the masses, which may be needed during the Guangdong riots.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Understandably, Morita is far more short-tempered and surly after failing his personal crisis and suffering a devastating blow for Sony. When Matsushita approaches him and request further financial assistance for Sony, Morita irritably asks him to spit the details out quickly, still reading through his shareholder proposals.
• True Craftsman: Morita takes great pride in designing and selling high-quality electronics in both Guangdong and the Republic of China. He may refuse to cut any corners during the Oil Crisis, not even trying to reduce production, because he's really confident people will still buy his products, based on their merits.
• Unfulfilled Purpose Misery:
  • If Morita fails to pass more than 2 social ordinances, he will look down upon Kōshū from his office in disappointment remarking that they can only lead by example and that they failed to make a legal framework that would force Ibuka and Komai to operate fairly.
  • Matsushita's independent ending leaves Morita with a sense of failure, with Matsushita entrenching a corporatocratic status-quo and doing little for the common people of Guangdong. Morita finds little comfort knowing he at least tried to sway Matsushita. This sentiment of failure is worsened if Fujitsu puppets Matsushita, as he decries that the corporate suits have thrown their lot with Ibuka and that they only have themselves to blame if Guangdong falls.
  • Arrested in the IJA coup, Morita is distraught that he can never repay the late Li and the people of Guangdong for saving his career, as his work will almost certainly be undone by Nagano.
• We Used to Be Friends: Morita is stark rivals with his former partner, Ibuka Masaru. If Morita takes leadership of Guangdong, he'll draw stern condemnation and opposition from Ibuka. Their conflict arose from downfall of Tokyo Telecomunications when the Zaibatsu banks refused to loan to them, forcing them to be acquired by Fujitsu for funding. Morita, as Chairman, refused on principle believing in the vision of portable radios, whereas Ibuka recognised the need for Fujitsu funding and called the board to vote out Morita.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His refusal to give up on Tokyo Telecommunications was partially motivated by his desire to prove to his family that he could successfully run a business and that giving up his illustrious naval career was not for nothing.
• What You Are in the Dark: Subverted. Many characters are suspicious of Morita's good intentions, cynically believing that there's some hidden, dark motive behind his actions. However, it's shown that Morita is a genuinely goodhearted person who tries his best to help the Chinese and the Zhujin. During his four hour commute, all Morita can think about is how something must be done about the corruption and oppression festering in Guangdong.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Some see Morita as too idealistic for his own good, believing that compromises and subterfuge will undermine his plan to make Guangdong a better place for the Chinese and the Zhujin. Depending on his playthrough, Morita can either prove them right or fall prey to their predictions.
• Would Rather Suffer: Morita expresses that he would rather die than give Komai an "inch of satisfaction" once the Oil Crisis riots break out.

Matsushita Masaharu

^{70's Portrait (Independent Path)}

^{70's Portrait (Puppeted Path)}

Role: Operational Head for Matsushita Electric Company, Financial Secretary^note Economy Minister (Suzuki cabinet), Chief Secretary^note Head of Government (Matsuzawa and Ibuka cabinet), External Secretary^note Foreign Minister (Morita and Komai cabinet), Chief Executive^note Head of State (Matsuzawa succession)

Party: Rippoukai - Zaikaiha (Matsushita)^note Legislative Council - Business Faction: The ascendancy of Guangdong's corporations in economic life came with a corresponding need for their interests to be represented in politics. The members of the Legislative Council - supposedly apolitical and independent - proved to be easily swayed by promises of money, status, and power offered by the corporates, in exchange for their loyalty. These individuals - now more loyal to their corporate benefactor than their Chief Executive - form the backbone of Corporate political influence in Guangdong.

Ideology: Corporatocracy^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}To many, Matsushita Masaharu has lived a charmed life, an anointed heir to one of Japan's most prominent electronics firms. Born to the peerage and an elite graduate of Tokyo Imperial University, Masaharu gave up his career as a financier in Sumitomo Bank to marry the daughter of Matsushita Electric's founder - Matsushita Kōnosuke, a living legend for his rise from elementary school dropout to one of Japan's few non-Zaibatsu corporate titans.

While Matsushita Sr. leads the company from Osaka, Masaharu has been its operational head since 1960, overseeing its expansion into China from his offices in Kōshu. As the son of the founder, serving as both corporate executive and government administrator, it would seem that Masaharu had no reason to fear for his future. But his close acquaintances knew otherwise.

Neither an engineer by training nor a salesman by habit, Matsushita Masaharu is keenly aware of his outsider status within both Matsushita and Guangdong. With every passing year, the two Matsushitas grow apart, with Masaharu wondering when he would ever be entrusted with the reins - if at all - while navigating a political tightrope in the Legislative Council. Now, as Guangdong's Chief Executive, he has the opportunity to show his detractors - his tycoon colleagues and his own adoptive father amongst them - that he is everything he promised he would be, building a literal empire for Matsushita in the Pearl River Delta.

In-Game Biography (Financial Secretary)^{Click to Show}Matsushita Masaharu is the heir apparent to Matsushita Electric, invited by the esteemed Matsushita Kōnosuke to be his successor - and yet the two could hardly be more different. Where Kōnosuke is one of Japan's vanishingly rare self-made men, an elementary school dropout who cut his teeth selling electrical fans door-to-door in Osaka, Masaharu was born to the peerage, a graduate of Tokyo Imperial University and elite financier who took on the Matsushita name upon marrying into the family in 1940.

Worldly, urbane, and refined, Matsushita took to his duties at Matsushita Electric with a grace and sophistication not out of place in Tokyo' s boardrooms - and befitting his role as Guangdong's Financial Secretary. But where most see a worthy heir to the Matsushita empire, the two Matsushitas are rumored to have grown apart - the elder increasingly critical of his heir's abilities, and the younger seeking to prove his twenty-year apprenticeship was not in vain.

In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Matsuzawa cabinet)^{Click to Show}The delicate politics of the Legislative Council and the Four Companies requires an exceptional skill at negotiating, and Matsushita is nothing if not a master of the art. When Matsushita, Ibuka, and Morita maneuvered their powerless colleague, Matsuzawa, into 'stepping in' as interim Chief Executive, it was abundantly clear that power would be principally in the hands of the three remaining tycoons.

Yet the management of power between multiple people is a tricky thing: Morita and Ibuka were already well known for their frequent and heated disagreements, and favoring either of them above the other could easily upend the delicate balance of power - and give Matsuzawa more power than he really ought to have. For the sake of peace between the Companies, Matsushita was the natural choice to serve as the Chief Secretary of Guangdong, a crucial - and not entirely unbiased - interlocutor between the Chief Executive and his peers.

In-Game Biography (External Secretary)^{Click to Show}Matsushita is well aware of the value of keeping one's cards close to one's chest, for there is no benefit to the naked pursuit of power if one ends up empty-handed. As Morita maneuvered himself into pole position against Ibuka in the race to lead Guangdong in the aftermath of Yasuda's collapse, Matsushita ordered his men in the Legislative Council to throw their weight behind Morita's ascension - and was duly rewarded with the post of External Secretary.

There is no real closeness between Matsushita and Chief Executive Morita. Both men see each other as means to an end - an olive branch to the corporate loyalists in the Legislative Council for Morita, and as a guarantor of Matsushita's continued relevance for Matsushita. Power rewards winners, but it also rewards survivors - and as the Corporate faction's man on the inside, Matsushita has all the power he needs.

In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Ibuka cabinet)^{Click to Show}The Corporate faction in the Legislative Council is ascendant, and Matsushita Masaharu helps lead the charge as the second-in-command in Ibuka's Guangdong. A distant second-in-command, as it were: a visionary as driven as Ibuka is loath to surrender control of his project even temporarily, and Matsushita finds himself operating almost purely in an administrative role, managing the minutiae of power in Ibuka's name.

If Matsushita is unhappy with this arrangement, he scarcely shows it. Ibuka's radical ideas have fostered incredible opposition in the Legislative Council, and Matsushita is not so wedded to Ibuka's vision to tie himself to the mast. Matsushita will grow so long as the Corporate faction remains in power - and for Matsushita, that is an acceptable, if suboptimal, outcome...

In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Komai cabinet)^{Click to Show}First as tragedy, then as farce: Matsushita Masaharu finds himself as Guangdong's External Secretary once more, under the employ of Chief Executive Komai. Theoretically powerful, in practice, Masaharu knows well what his place in the government is: he is to be a toothless spokesman, his words dictated by bureaucrats in Xinjing. Bodyguards and minders follow and trace every movement he takes, document everything he says, 'kindly provided' by Komai for 'his own safety'.

What safety? Himself?

Komai must think so; and for the sake of his own life, Masaharu must agree as well. So long as he remains in this position, he has no choice to obey. For if he attempts to break free from Komai's grasp, he will be free to spend the rest of his life in Hell.

70's In-Game Biography (Independent)^{Click to Show}Matsushita Masaharu has never considered himself anything more than 'down-to-earth', never one to harbor some grandiose, visionary plan belonging to the likes of Morita or Ibuka. Nevertheless, almost paradoxically, what Matsushita has actually achieved may well be called the realization of a vision in its own right, even if it was not what he had been intending. An entire state operating as a corporate entity - except, of course, with laborers and managers all in the millions. And part of a greater corporate empire, no less.

Millions of investors, engineers, and politicians from the Sphere, perhaps even far beyond, now look to Matsushita Electric for what it has to say and what new gadgets it has to offer. Masaharu looks back on it all, and knows that he hasn't simply made Matsushita Kōnosuke proud with what he's built; in a way, he has entrenched corporate politics on the global stage like never before. That's an achievement that, certainly, he can live with while standing tall.

Even as the Chinese turn their eyes towards Guangdong, he can finally say that it has earned its right to live proudly; and that he has earned the very same.

70's In-Game Biography (Puppet)^{Click to Show}For all the pluckiness and ambition he brought with him when he first stepped foot onto the soil of Guangdong, Matsushita Masaharu has been forced to realize in full the grueling realities of corporate politics. Worse still, this realization came in the most painful way for him imaginable: through his own vacillation, dithering, and feebleness. One crisis after another, over and over again, and in the end he gave everything that he'd built away to the backstabbing voices he trusted in far too much.

All the nation building he did, all the promises he made to Matsushita Kōnosuke, and all of it in the end was work done for the sake of other companies, in the end handing out the bright future he had wanted for Matsushita to those taking advantage of him. Part of him supposes he deserved it - if this is what happens to a businessman who can't see beyond profit, maybe it's better after all to hand over the helm to those who can.

When China comes for Guangdong, demanding its return in full to being Chinese land, it will not be Masaharu's problem. He's no better than some middle manager anyways, with only a family name to his credit, a family that in truth is not and never has been his.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Successful Morita cabinet)^{Click to Show}Morita and Li have outflanked Matsushita Masaharu politically, but the External Secretary is nowhere near done for. There are still countless opportunities to profit, and to ensure Matsushita's survival while other, less prudent companies fall by the wayside in the new order the State Faction has created.

Ibuka may gripe endlessly about sentimentality, but those are the cries of a man that knows he has been outmaneuvered beyond recovery. Matsushita, on the other hand, will avoid Ibuka's reticence—he can be as 'receptive' as ever, 'cooperating' and striking back whenever needed.

It is at times like these that Matsushita Masaharu is thankful for his lack of some pointlessly grand vision like Ibuka's. Let other fools go on and on about the changes they will make; the head of Matsushita Electric is content if he and his company are able to survive and thrive.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Failure Morita cabinet)^{Click to Show}What is it they say? "Now is the opportune time"?

Whatever the wording is, there can be no question that now is an opportune time for Matsushita Masaharu. Everything seems normal on the surface, but Matsushita knows all too well that amidst the chaos of the Oil Crisis the Morita Administration has managed to partially cripple itself internally. If this is not an opportune time, what is? Matsushita knows he can swoop in to make Morita and/or Li more dependent on him to continue to succeed. Hell, he can even market himself as the new benefactor of Guangdong to peers and investors alike while he's at it.

Had Ibuka had more sense than to go drooling after 'perfection' and his hatred of Morita Akio, he'd have loved to have this opportunity. But as it stands Ibuka too must stand on the sidelines and watch his rival and said rival's friend slowly join him there, as Matsushita Masaharu slowly walks into the spotlight at long last.

70's In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Persistent Ibuka cabinet)^{Click to Show}It would be a lie to say that Matsushita Masaharu is a brave man; he is afraid of many things, large and small. In ordinary times, his greatest fear would be failure, specifically when it comes to his failure to build a corporate empire for Matsushita as a whole in Guangdong. This has already come to pass, and yet it cannot rightly be called his greatest fear.

No, Ibuka has taught Matsushita that there are realities that he should be more afraid of than his own failures. Specifically, it is the lengths to which Ibuka is willing to go, and the lengths to which he is willing to force everybody else to go to, so that he might realize his vision that Matsushita is afraid of. Ibuka has made more than clear his willingness to bury, literally as well as metaphorically, anybody who contradicts this grand vision, and Matsushita now lives in fear that Ibuka will never quite feel as though he's accomplished what he's set out to achieve.

70's In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Reconciliatory Ibuka cabinet)^{Click to Show}For once in a long while, Matsushita Masaharu can breathe a great big sigh of relief and truly get back to work building the strongest and most profitable business that he can. Some part of him is glad that Ibuka has softened and begun to listen to others again, not only for the business opportunities it provides him but genuinely, personally glad. It's a strange feeling, Matsushita must admit, but deep down he does quite like this new, genuinely kind Ibuka even if he doesn't fully understand the drastic change in his behavior.

Ultimately, compromise and cooperation have always been Matsushita's strong points, so strange sense of relief or no, he supposes he has no reason to complain.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Manchurian Komai cabinet)^{Click to Show}How the mighty have fallen. Or rather, how they continue to fall. Matsushita Masaharu stand alone in a field of ashes and broken dreams - his ambition to built Matsushita Electric into a titan of its own consumed in the fire of Komai's machine. Now, he can only sit and watch as the niche he carved for himself is slowly repossessed for the benefit of Manchuria.

Indeed, it seems as if the situation can do nothing but continue to deteriorate for Matsushita. However, if nothing else, he can take cold comfort in the knowledge that Komai has built himself a fragile throne. Manchuria will only ever be an empire for someone other than himself, and much of the same can be said for Guangdong. No matter how much thuggery he deploys, Matsushita knows that Komai will never truly be the victor.

And this pleases him greatly.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Personalist Komai cabinet)^{Click to Show}How the mighty have fallen. Or rather, how they continue to fall. Matsushita Masaharu stand alone in a field of ashes and broken dreams - his ambition to built Matsushita Electric into a titan of its own consumed in the fire of Komai's machine. Now, he can only sit and watch as the niche he carved for himself is slowly repossessed for the benefit of Manchuria.

Indeed, it seems as if the situation can do nothing but continue to deteriorate for Matsushita. For every yen made by his own company, it seems Komai grows more and more powerful. Perhaps, as every day goes by and his own personal power shrinks, his anger will give way to what truly lies beneath.

Fear.

The Operational Head for Matsushita Electric, one of the Four Companies of Guangdong. Being the heir apparent to his father-in-law Kōnosuke's industrial titan, Masaharu's only ambition is to prove himself worthy by effectively leading the company towards profit. As Chief Executive, Masaharu sees Guangdong as a fertile ground for Matsushita's expansion, and intends to turn Guangdong into the capital of Matsushita's corporate empire—literally.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Matsushita is a Corrupt Corporate Executive and a Japanese supremacist, but his torture at the hands of the IJA in their coup is horrific. Tongueless and restrained, Matsushita contemplates the disappointment he will bring for failing his father-in-law and desperately tries to kill himself in vain, rendering him a pitiable disgrace whose dreams and ambitions amounted to nothing.
• The Alcoholic: He's sometimes seen drinking sake, usually when he's relaxing.
• All for Nothing: Imprisoned and tortured after the IJA coup, Matsushita is distraught that all his efforts to build up his father-in-law's corporate empire has amounted to nothing, dreading the inevitable phone call from Kōnosuke and considering suicide out of grief.
• Ambition Is Evil: While impressing his father-in-law is the primary objective, Matsushita also intends to become the most powerful corporate executive in history, a reputation that would turn him into a living legend, even at the cost of thousands of lives. In his victory scenario, many wonder if attaining this status will satiate his greed.
• Appeal to Consequences: He refrains from social welfare by emphasizing the costs that would be needed to fund these programs.
• Bearer of Bad News: If Morita chose a completely independent ICAC, Matsushita will have to present reports to the cabinet of complaints being filed by rank and file police officers against the ICAC who believe they are making their job impossible to do. Matsushita elaborates that the environment presented by the ICAC has caused mass infighting and mutual suspicion amongst the police, grinding police work to a halt. He concludes that Morita will have to choose between letting the ICAC continue its current methods or discuss the situation with Commissioner Kamino.
• Beige Prose: Matsushita isn't a great public speaker, typically speaking in bland corporate speak that hides all emotion and emphasizes technical data.
• Beneath the Mask: Privately, Masaharu is afraid of failure, wanting to prove himself to be as proficient as his foster father and make his family name proud. Worse still, he fears that he lacks the innate expertise that Morita and Ibuka have, which will doom him to fall behind. Upon being confirmed to be the successor to Matsuzawa, his initial enthusiasm morphs into fear for the briefest second, nervous about the possibility of failing Guangdong and his family name as the rest of the Legislative Council look down upon him.
• Blue Blood: Masaharu's biological father is a minor aristocrat and a famous painter, so he was treated well by Mitsui Bank before he moved to Matsushita Electric.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Compared to Sony and Fujitsu's race to see who can design the higher-quality product, Matsushita specializes in compact, simple designs that aren't as impressive, but are convenient enough to make up the disadvantage and put Matsushita Electric on equal footing with them.
  • While his unambitious policies result in the overall slowest maximum possible growth of the Chief Executives, Masaharu is also easier in many ways, able to flexibly ally with various factions and political alignments and having an easier time passing their legislation overall. And this stable, don't-rock-the-boat approach to Pragmatic Villainy makes it comparatively easy to get good Chinese and Zhujin support and weather the Oil Crisis.
• Break the Haughty: When puppeted by Morita or Ibuka, Matsushita's former bluster completely evaporates and he's reduced to wallowing in his despair and failure, while the real power players run the country.
• Character Development: At the beginning of his path, Matsushita starts off as a bland, meager businessman who doen't evoke much passion or excitement behind his work, only focusing on what is pragmatically best and communicating that in very dull terms. By the end of the Oil Crisis, Matsushita develops into a far more assertive figure, speaking more boldly against his rivals and declaring all of Guangdong's successes to be the product of his work, a claim he never would have made five years ago.
• Choosing Neutrality: During the debate in the Legislative Council over Morita's successful amendments to the Labor Standards Ordinance, Matsushita will argue that as businessmen that they should consider any method after Li and Ibuka argue about whether the amendments would be profitable.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: If the IJA takeover Guangdong, Matsushita is brutally tortured by the IJA, having his tongue mutilated and some of his teeth pulled out with rusty pliers. During his final statement in the Kōshu tribunal, he can no longer speak and needs assistance walking due to the torture he received.
• Color Motif: White, representing Matsushita's focus on household electronics and their clean, mechanical nature. Matsushita Electric's logo is colored white and most of his focus icons are various shades of whites and grays.
• Control Freak: When Sony first trounced Matsushita Electric with their portable radio, Masaharu became paranoid about future mistakes and conducted monthly, weekly, and even daily inspections into the company's projects to ensure that no efficiency was being lost.
• Corrupt Politician: In spite of his otherwise belligerent stance against corruption, Matsushita can employ dirty tactics to get the upper hand, such as manipulating the Yasuda auction to keep their best assets for himself or maintaining oversight of the anti-corruption committee to use as his attack dogs and blackmail favors from his rivals.
• Crazy Enough to Work: One of Matsushita's humble, but ambitious plans is to make Guangdong self-sufficient from Japan so they will not be beholden to the Home Isles' economic woes. It's a crazy plan that even Ibuka expresses doubt about, since Japan won't be happy with an invigorated Guangdong and the corporations oppose all taxes necessary to fund the initiative. However, with enough effort, Matsushita can pull his plan off.
• Death Seeker: Overthrown by the IJA and having his tongue ripped out, Masaharu wishes that he could strangle himself with a telephone cord or bash his head in on a flat surface, mortified at what the IJA are doing. Unfortunately, his physical restraints prevent him from committing suicide
• Defector from Decadence: If Morita decides to reinvest government savings to welfare programs, Matsushita will defect from his side and join forces with Ibuka and Komai in opposition to it. When a surprised Ibuka asks why, Matsushita replies that it's because the investors are not happy about "wasting" money, so he's not happy either.
• Dirty Coward: Matsushita serves Komai purely to save his own skin, obeying the Chief Executive's every word and bending to his requests so that he won't be discarded and almost certainly executed. It goes as far as sacrificing his morals for Komai's Civil Obedience Ordinance in the Oil Crisis, averting his disgust for it so that he won't be targeted.
• Disappeared Dad: Inverted. After marrying into the Matsushita family, Masaharu has since completely ignored his biological father, Hirata Shōdō, not even attempting to remain in contact with him.
• Disinherited Child: In the IJA ending, Masaharu is disowned by the Matsushita family and forced to readopt his maiden name of Hirata Masaharu.
• Dislikes the New Guy: Beneath his polite posturing to Li, Matsushita is secretly contemptuous of him, deeming him inexperienced to the rest of the Big Five and thinking he's out of his league.
• The Dog Bites Back: After being mistreated by Komai for so many years, Matsushita finally defies his request to give support for the Budget Reorganization and Responsibility Ordinance, refusing all talk of allocating the budget to security at the expense of his company. From that point on, Matsushita becomes a lot less keen to let Komai roll over him.
• The Dragon: If Ibuka leads Guangdong, Matsushita becomes appointed his Chief Secretary and his second-in-command.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Matsushita is appointed as Chief Secretary during Matsuzawa's interim leadership, with the goal of paving the way for himself to take power. His appointment is a fundamentally strategic move that is outright opposed to Matsuzawa's wishes; he's meant to balance the interests of Morita and Ibuka to prevent open conflict between the two and give Matsuzawa an opportunity to supersede them.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Depressed of becoming subordinate to Hitachi in Komai's path, Matsushita installs a mini-fridge in his office, containing a bottle of whiskey to drown out his sorrows, fears of Komai's pressure, and pondering thoughts if Kōnosuke would be as spineless as he is.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Part of why he's such an efficient businessman is because he's good at building coalitions among the Japanese elite, compromising and appealing to their interests to earn their cooperation.
  • Alarmed by Yasuda's support for Suzuki reigning in the tycoons of Guangdong, Matsushita and Ibuka agree to work together against Suzuki so they can continue making consumer electronics without interference.
  • Matsushita can hire the Triads to go after the Yakuza, despite the animosity the two sides share.
  • In his aggressive response to the Riots, Matsushita will ally with Komai to put the dissidents down, even though the latter was responsible for the outbreak in the first place.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • His horrible actions are all motivated to earn Kōnosuke's approval, who is the closest person he has to a father figure. In his independent ending, hundreds of executives and bureaucrats pay their respects to him, but their praise means little in comparison to the approval of his father-in-law, which is only matched by the praise of his wife.
  • He became Kōnosuke's heir when he married Sachiko Matsushita, whom he is very affectionate with.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While Matsushita supported Fujitsu's lawsuit of Morita and Li over the TR-56, he expressed open alarm of Fujitsu harassing Sony's business before a verdict had even been reached.
  • Matsushita is among the many denizens of Guangdong who fear Komai and Hitachi's extreme brutality.
  • As much of a ruthless and callous businessman as he is, Masaharu is noted to genuinely like and be happy for Ibuka if he goes through a personal transformation into a better person on Ibuka's Reconciliation route, and to be genuinely afraid of what his boss has become and is becoming on Ibuka's Persistence route.
  • Matsushita rolls his eyes when Ibuka makes a jab at Li that he would let corruption happen if the perpetrator was Chinese, suggesting that even he thinks that insult was low and pointless.
  • Even if he chooses to crush the Guangdong rioters, Matsushita is reluctant to get the Kenpeitai significantly involved, knowing how easily they can escalate the conflict with their brutality and the threat they pose to his own authority. He'll initially try empowering the police force instead with emergency funding, only ever turning to the Kenpeitai at the very last push needed to end the Riots.
  • While Matsushita's aid to Morita during the latter's his personal crisis is motivated by a deal to gain more power in the Council, it's also driven by his disgust at the Kanton Sasshin Fund's flagrant rule-breaking in the stock market, which he calls reprehensible.
  • Even he is disturbed by the lengths a persistent Ibuka will go to put down the Guangdong riots and keep his horribly deluded vision alive.
  • Matsushita is horrified by the prospect of Manchurian security officials running amok in Guangdong, even if it is only because they personally threaten him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Matsushita doesn't understand how Morita's lighter hand makes him more popular among the Chinese and the Zhujin, wondering if it has to do with his "local touch and flamboyance".
  • If he accepts Morita's help to build more housing, Matsushita will be impressed by the relatively high living standards he sets up, but he's more so concerned with the expenses of the project, expressing uneasy pride with his achievement.
• Evil Colonialist: When selling his products to China, Matsushita compares himself to the old Japanese military engineers who conquered the country, deeming it a hostile and "savage land" that will become the latest boon for his air conditioning business, lining his pockets and keeping the Japanese ruling class on top.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: He develops eye bags after the tireless months of handling the Oil Crisis.
• Extreme Doormat: After Hitachi takes over Guangdong, Matsushita completely bows to his new masters and obeys every one of Komai's orders without question. It gets to a point that Komai sends a letter ordering him to give support for the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance, without even bothering to call him personally because he expects Matsushita to fall in-line. Matsushita finally stands up to Komai, if he tries appealing to him for the Budget Reorganization and Responsibility Ordinance.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's good at sugarcoating his words with empty pleasantries and flattery to disguise his ruthless competitiveness and cold-hearted politicking.
• Family Honor: Despite being married into the Matsushita family, many of Masaharu's decisions are done with the goal of succeeding and furthering the family business, personally fearing the prospect of failure and letting his father-in-law down.
• Fish out of Water: When Morita invites his cabinet members to discuss economic plans, Matsushita is described as being out of his element with discussions from Ho and Li being focused on stability. After Morita and the others give Matsushita a moment to collect his thoughts, he advocates for a greater focus on innovation to compete with Manchukuo before quickly handing the ball back to Morita.
• Graceful Loser:
  • Unlike Ibuka and Komai, Matsushita isn't that upset if Morita and Li achieve their goals, content that his company will at least survive and can continue their operations in Guangdong.
  • Downplayed if he loses power to Sony or Fujitsu. Matsushita is initially upset about his failure, but with the passage of time, he reflects on the brewing tensions within the Sphere and the younger generation of executives who will succeed him, eventually accepting some responsibility for his mistakes and appearing to the media more relaxed and accepting of his fate than he'd previously been.
• Heel–Face Turn: Exploited in his Reconciliation path of the Guangdong riots, where Matsushita will tone down his rhetoric against the recent protests to calm everyone down. He'll criticize the police force's brutality against the rioters, but not completely denounce their actions to avoid angering his own men. He'll promise cooperation with the populace if they stop the violence, but have no intention of actually fulfilling their most radical demands. Although some see through the act, most are so grateful to hear a Chief Executive say the words "please" and "thank you" that they don't care, which really shows how low the bar for leadership is in Guangdong. Even some members of the Legislative Council believe his face turn is genuine and think he's getting too cozy with the "radicals".
• Hoist by His Own Petard: At multiple points, Matsushita gives favors to Sony or Fujitsu, buying their support if they have a mutual interest. These deals become extremely tempting to weather the Oil Crisis and the Guangdong Riots, but submitting too many times to either company will cause Matsushita to lose control, and become their puppet and mouthpiece.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: By the end of Komai's path, Matsushita has gone from a respected and powerful corporate leader to a powerless mouthpiece, as Komai's regime destroys up everything, including his company and its change to become a titan in consumer electronics. He does find some comfort in Komai's Manchurian ending, knowing that Komai is still beholden to his masters on a fragile throne.
• Humble Goal: Downplayed. Unlike the other Chief Executives, Matsushita isn't planning to dramatically transform Guangdong's economy or roll out revolutionary social reforms. All he wants is economic stability and placation of the Chinese workers through piecemeal reforms; so long as both are met, Matsushita is satisfied. However, this same humility paradoxically leads to a distinctly grand future for Guangdong in his independent ending, which has converted the country into a corporate entity owned by Matsushita Electric, entrenched in global corporate politics with millions of laborers, investors, and engineers.
• Hypocrite:
  • Matsushita prides the free market as one of Guangdong's core principles, despite using his immense wealth and influence to manipulate the market in his company's favor, such as potentially keeping Yasuda's best assets to himself after their bankruptcy.
  • He calls corruption a vice that must be purged from the government, but he may turn a blind eye to the political corruption of Matsushita Electric's representatives on the Legislative Council, not willing to spend money to strike his own men. In fact, one of his primary tactics to sway investors to his side is to bribe them.
  • One of his responses to the Oil Crisis may be to raise taxes and keep government revenue up, in which he espouses the need for everyone to pay the shared burden. What he doesn't mention is that some people are going to bear a larger share of the cost than others, namely the Chinese citizens.
• I Did What I Had to Do: No matter how radical his anti-corruption campaign is, Matsushita will inevitably have to forsake this position during the Oil Crisis, reverting to the "old ways" of bribery to keep the Legislative Council on his side. Much as he hates it, Matsushita recognizes that it's a desperate measure and he has no choice otherwise.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: When Morita takes the lead in the race to become Chief Executive, Matsushita changes his tune in favor of Morita, awarding him the position of External Secretary. His support comes solely from the desire to further his own interests as the only corporate faction member within Morita's cabinet. A successful Morita ending bears fruit for him as the other companies, namely Fujitsu, fall behind in the order created by Morita, while he is treated relatively lightly. Matsushita also serves as Ibuka's Chief Secretary for the same reason, even if he is not committed to Ibuka's grand visions for Guangdong.
• Indubitably Uninteresting Individual: Matsushita isn't much for passionate speeches or outside-the-box ambitions. Many of his goals and rhetoric is plainly to-the-point, which only inspires murmurs and lukwarm applause in his opening speech as Chief Executive. Following the Guangdong riots, Matsushita becomes a lot more outspoken.
• It's All About Me:
  • While Morita and Li express outrage of Komai's brutal practices against the populace, Matsushita is mostly concerned about how Komai's actions are harming his company.
  • Unlike Morita or Ibuka, Matsushita isn't concerned about making Guangdong a better place for everyone else. Everything he does is adding to his legacy and family name, taking credit for leading the country into a period of "prosperity" for the Japanese.
• It's Personal: Part of the reason why he's so desperate to save the corporations during the Oil Crisis is because his father-in-law once said "If we cannot make a profit, that means that we are committing a sort of crime against society". Thus, helping the other companies is a matter of filial piety for Matsushita.
• Kent Brockman News: Matsushita is one of the largest sponsors of the Kanon Government Media Complex, providing pro-Japanese propaganda that promotes Guangdong as a center for innovation and prosperity, while downplaying the poverty, ethnic conflicts, and worker strikes that happen on a frequent basis. Amazingly, in the IJA coup, the Complex's last broadcast is spent advertising the TF-6000FR, despite the horrible circumstances everyone is facing.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: If he loses power to Morita or Ibuka, Matsushita reluctantly accepts becoming their puppet leader, not willing to risk any more of his dignity and name to a losing battle.
• Lack of Empathy: He is apathetic to the abuses and horrid living conditions that the citizens of Guangdong have to endure and dismisses any concerns over helping them, at one point sarcastically asking if Morita wants to build a sanctuary for endangered Chinese puppies.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Matsushita fits many of the typical qualities of a Japanese corporate suit. He's cunning, ruthless, greedy, and indifferent to the suffering of Guangdong's denizens. However, all of these same characteristics are matched, if not exceeded, by Ibuka and Komai, while the former combines them with a merciless Social Darwinist mindset and the latter wants to apply Manchuria's particularly brutal labor system to Guangdong. He is also genuinely happy for and likes the new Ibuka on Ibuka's Reconciliation route, in contrast to Komai who immediately begins plotting to usurp him.
• Long Game: During the Yasuda auction, Matsushita can give Matsuzawa a surprisingly generous deal to sell his company's assets to him in exchange for offloading some of his debt to Japan's national budget. However, Matsushita's long-term goal with this scheme is to take some of Yasuda's support in the Legislative Council for himself, giving himself an advantageous position.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He likes drinking expensive French wine, in which he laments the Burgundian invasion because it made it much harder to acquire a premium selection of them.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Matsushita is shockingly callous about individual tragedies, instead focusing on the bigger picture of economic efficiency. When he hears of a tenement collapsing after the Urban Housing Ordinance's failure, Matsushita casually discards the report of twenty people dying and hundreds being injured.
• Moral Myopia: Matsushita bemoans the Chinese peoples' cries for fairer treatment and, even when opening up the bureaucracy for more social mobility, thinks that they're just being greedy. He never once considers the multitude of work abuses and social inequalities they face under the corporations, including by Matsushita Electric.
• Nepotism: On his own, Masaharu would be considered a talented businessman, but his marriage to the daughter of Matsushita Kōnosuke elevated him to national prominence. Though his experience can arguably make his rise to power justified, Masaharu is secretly insecure about being placed on a pedestal and intends to prove his worth by turning Guangdong into an industrial powerhouse.
• Nervous Tics: Matsushita fears Komai after his takeover and starts clicking his pen whenever he's pressured by the new Chief Executive.
• Never My Fault: His crackdowns of the Guangdong riots are premised on the belief that the exploitative corporations, including his own, are innocent victims who are being attacked by dangerous radicals and anarchists who refuse to show any respect for the law or openness to dialogue.
• No-Respect Guy: Once Matsushita is made a puppet, neither of his masters really care whether or not he opposes them, since they have greater sway over the Legislative Council. Both Ibuka and Morita handle phone calls and agreements with China and Japan, only informing Matsushita after the fact because they have no regard for his opinion on their actions. Very few treat him any better, leaving him to wallow in his own thoughts and listening to his superior over Matsushita's own bidding.
• No Sympathy: Matsushita has no concern or empathy for the Chinese and Zhujin of Guangdong suffering from the corporations' exploitation, only focused on how productive they are. Even if he heeds Morita's suggestion to negotiate with the rioters, Matsushtia is reluctant to follow through with their terms because it would undercut the economy, not considering the morality of such agreements.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Throughout the 1950's, Masaharu's performance in Guangdong was deemed acceptable, if unremarkable. That perception all changed when Sony roared onto the scene and completely overshadowed Matsushita Electric with their portable radio, something that Kōnosuke has blamed on Masaharu and resented him for years.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Matsushita is well-known for his trademark smile and everyone knows he's serious when it disappears, like when Cheung Kong is brought into the Legislative Council.
  • Matsushita's bravado is consistently punctured during his potential visits to Speer's Germany, feeling intimidated by the possibility of failure or, worse, that the RND might arrest him. It shows how carefully he must manage diplomacy with Germany and the palpable tension that comes with negotiating with them.
  • If Katakura or Pujie take power in Manchuria, Matsushita will smugly think that they will be easy to economically compete with. However, if the Sōmucho or Sejima takes power, Matsushita pipes down and begins to worry about the possibility of failing, especially so in the latter scenario, where he's sweating bullets.
  • He's a stiff, passionless leader who doesn't focus much on theatrics or strong opinions, so it's a surprise to everyone if he tries to make friends with the Legislative Council by exuding more energy in his mannerisms and conducting an exhilarating speech about Guangdong's future under his tenure, something that even surprises Morita.
  • Matsushita usually isn't one to shout in anger. So when he does it upon the outbreak of the Guangdong riots, everyone goes silent.
• Opportunistic Bastard:
  • Matsushita Electric is one of Japan's largest electronics manufacturers and is only interested in one thing: profit. While Matsushita is not as light-handed as Morita or bullheaded as Ibuka, he is both reliable and adaptable enough to Guangdong's changing atmosphere to continue exploiting the populace for his company's benefit.
  • Whenever crisis erupts, Matsushita is quick to analyze the situation and see a potential opportunity to advance his own interests, going as low as kissing up to Komai, if he takes over. Whether Morita fails to manage his personal crisis or Ibuka repents for his actions, Matsushita plots to fill the void they leave behind.
• Order Is Not Good: Matsushita's ultimate objective is to bring order to Guangdong and make it as efficient as possible, which becomes all the more cathartic when the Guangdong riots end and he's independent enough to credit himself for the return to normalcy. Given that this "order" means supporting a regime built to serve corporate interests and condemn hundreds of thousands to a life of indentured servitude, this is far from a good thing.
• Pet the Dog:
  • While reforming the bankruptcy code, Matsushita can structure the new law to be more lenient towards small and medium-sized enterprises, giving them greater autonomy within the new insolvency laws, despite this policy not being the most efficient. Given that these businesses often lack legal advice or protections from creditors, this is a generous move.
  • Should the investigation into Ho be a complete success, Matsushita congratulates the lead investigator and thinks about accelerating his career through his powerful connections.
  • Assuming that he is being genuine, Matsushita earnestly tried to bring support for Morita's proposed Independent Commission to monitor government corruption, even if unsuccessfully, without money to bribe them over.
  • Despite being frustrated with the growing intensity of the Guangdong riots, Matsushita doesn't blame Tsuchida for it, understanding that this problem is far out of his own control.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Matsushita is one of the most Japanese ethnocentric leaders in Guangdong, alongside Suzuki. He generally prefers the status quo of the Japanese continuing to dominate the social hierarchy because they are more "enlightened". This is showcased in a number of events.
  • His Economic Prioritization Ordinance can outright give preferences to Japanese over Zhujin businessmen, enraging the Zhujin population, and Sony and Cheung Kong representatives.
  • Many of the staff of the Guangdong Government Complex become more sombre in their mood if Matsushita endorses cuts to personnel budgets resulting in less staff, no replacements and no bonuses despite the same amount of work remaining. Yoshiko's guide doesn't even hide his contempt in front a passing manager.
  • One of Matsushita's options during the Oil Crisis is to suppress Zhujin-owned businesses in favor of Japanese ones, upholding the latter's supremacy.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Matsushita's Guangdong permits some level of social mobility for its Chinese citizens, but not much more than that and not enough to ever challenge the Japanese corporations. He's willing to give them some welfare benefits and ease the state's worst oppressions, so long as it keeps the people content under the status quo. One of his proposals, the Limited Labor Standards Ordinance, is an outright successor to Suzuki's RLSO and potentially passed for similarly pragmatic reasons. In one of his events, a Chinese supervisor recognizes the insincerity, but doesn't openly complain because he's content to have better working conditions.
  • Government corruption is a malaise that Matsushita will not tolerate, if only because it doesn't service his company's interests. In a very telling example, Matsushita can create a commission to police the Legislative Council's corruption, but also give Matsushita Electric a lot of control over it.
  • By collecting sufficient evidence, Matsushita can confront Ho and/or Yokoi and make them cease their criminal activities, not for justice's sake, but because lawlessness is a threat to his legitimacy.
  • Matsushita can be convinced to support Morita's ordinances, provided that his company is given enough privileges and benefits so that his company can still remain on top.
  • He disproves of Katakura's extreme focus on the military because overspending one aspect of the country will inevitably destroy the economy.
  • Matsushita joins Morita and Ibuka in condemnation of Komai's decision to downsize during the Oil Crisis and refusal to negotiate, mostly because of the chaos it has created instead of the immorality. Notably, Matsushita is concerned about a potential exodus of expats back to Japan, along with negative reactions from Tokyo.
  • Matsushita can negotiate with the Guangdong rioters and offer them concessions to calm down. However, unlike Morita or a repentant Ibuka, it's clear that Matsushita doesn't have their best interests in mind and just wants them to shut up.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Matsushita is appointed as Komai's External Secretary and serves as a toothless mouthpiece and puppet guided by bureaucrats in Xinjing. Much as he hates the position, he does not try to break free from Komai's grasp, with Hitachi bodyguards watching his every move and threatening to imprison him if he steps out of line.
  • Matsushita is the only tycoon head who recognizes Guangdong's overreliance on oil and specially prepares for the Oil Crisis beforehand. If anything, Matsushita is less concerned about how it will affect his company and more about how Ibuka and Morita will react to it.
• Puppet King: If he relies too much on either of their help during the Oil Crisis and the Guangdong riots, Matsushita can lose control to either Ibuka or Morita, becoming little better than their puppet; avoiding this turn of events is how he gets his best personal ending by remaining independent.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Matsushita is sentenced to life imprisonment if the IJA coups the government, only sparing his life because he has connections back to the Home Isles.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Matsushita can survive the Oil Crisis and the Guangdong riots, but if he relied too much on either Morita or Ibuka's aid during those turbulent times, he loses too much power to them and effectively becomes their puppet, deriving any satisfaction from his victory. While the rest of the Sphere celebrates the return to normalcy, Matsushita can only reflect on himself with disappointment.
• The Quiet One: Fearing for his life in Komai's path, Matsushita keeps silent or meekly supports the Chief Executive in their meetings, while Morita and Ibuka are unafraid to loudly voice their complaints.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Exploited in his status quo path of the Guangdong Riots. In the face of outrage that he's not negotiating with the protestors, Matsushita explains that he is open to dialogue on the condition that the protestors come to the table first, and that doing otherwise would undermine the rule of law. However, it's all an act of good publicity and he really doesn't care about fulfilling any of their demands; he just wants the crisis to be over with as soon as possible and playing the reasonable authority role may do so.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Matsushita acts as the blue to Ibuka's red, being pragmatic and negotiable while Ibuka is quick to anger. This is best seen when Matsuzawa invites Cheung Kong instead of Hitachi onto the Legislative Council, Ibuka storms into the Chief Executive's office to shake his first at Matsuzawa while Matsushita calmly and rationally explains why Hitachi need to be invited onto the Legislative Council to act as a balance to Cheung Kong.
• Repressive, but Efficient: Matsushita isn't different from the usual, exploitative Japanese executive, but his skillful business acumen presents him as one of the more stable leaders to take over Guangdong.
• The Rival: Matsushita is viewed by Yasuda as their biggest rival, more so than any other corporation.
• Royal "We": An independent Matsushita assures group of assembled businessmen that "we" have the power in "our" hands, but everyone knows that he really means himself by "we".
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Downplayed. Masaharu is the only Chief Executive who will not be executed in the IJA's Kōshu tribunal, since his family connections in the Home Isles will spare him from execution. However, this doesn't stop the IJA from torturing him and sentencing him to life imprisonment.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He always wears a suit and tie, even on sweltering hot days, when most would change to something more loose.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In both of his puppeted paths, Matsushita's portrait shows him changed into a brown suit, contrasting with the black suits Morita and Ibuka wear. In the business world, brown is traditionally seen as a weaker and less desirable colour than black.
• The Speechless: Matsushita is rendered mute from his torture by the IJA should they takeover Japan, being unable to give a proper final statement at his trial.
• Third-Person Person: If he rules Guangdong with complete independence, Matsushita's ego grows so large that he begins referring to himself in the third person while promising to do whatever is "necessary" for Guangdong. To Yoshiko, this is just an sinister sign that Matsushita will maintain the unequal status quo for as long as he lives and there's nothing that can convince him otherwise.
• This Cannot Be!: Having been turned into a puppet in the wake of the riots, Matsushita loathes himself and asks a variety of questions relating to how could he let this happen and how much he has let down the family name.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • If Masaharu's tenure is economically successful, Kōnosuke comments and praises him for expanding the Matsushita business into the Chinese mainland.
  • After being shunned by Kōnosuke for years, Masaharu is finally acknowledged in 1958 for restabilizing the company, where his father-in-law invites him and Sachiko to a sushi restaurant.
• Token Evil Teammate: Matsushita is a frequent advisor for Morita in governing Guangdong, particularly offering counsel on the nation's economic policy. However, Matsushita's actions are selfishly motivated to expand his own corporate empire, often negotiating for some benefit in return for his service and having no problem abandoning Morita, if the situation is inconvenient. In Ibuka's path, Matsushita has little interest in working with Morita and firmly shows his disdain for him when he withholds important information to gain an advantage.
• Tongue Trauma: The fate of Matsushita after the IJA get their hands on him; they torture him so badly that his tongue is reduced to a pink raw stump, leaving him in constant agony.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky:
  • If there's one thing Matsushita hates most is prostrating himself to someone for their help, believing that it shows weakness that he can't afford to reveal. However, in the wake of Suzuki's downfall and his rise to power, Matsushita has no choice but to beg Japan to alleviate Guangdong's debt through additional funds, while internally berating himself for groveling.
  • Much to his dismay, Matsushita may fawn again to Japan during the Oil Crisis, begging them to send more funds to Guangdong and assuring them that it's a safe investment, contrary to their doubts.
• Turncoat: Despite being in Morita's cabinet, if Morita chooses Li's plan to issue bonds, Matsushita will side with the opposition arguing that the investors are not happy with the decision to turn Guangdong into a state.
• The Unfavorite: Masaharu has always been the unfavorite of the Matsushita family. When Masaharu reports the progress he's made as Chief Executive, Kōnosuke's response is a weary sigh and a dismissive comment that he'll probably fail to expand Matsushita's empire into mainland China.
• Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Being turned into a puppet will be considered a failure for Matsushita, as everything he's done to carry the family legacy is torn apart by crisis and opportunistic actors. In the end, part of him wonders if he deserves this for not seeing anything beyond profit.
• Villain Respect: Downplayed, if Pujie takes over Manchuria. Matsushita does respect him for being slightly more competent than Puyi, but doesn't think any more of him and expects to compete with the same "lumbering, obsolete relic" that is Manchuria.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Matsushita presents himself as a reasonable man to the media and makes public grandstands to the Chinese that his policies are for the betterment of their working conditions. Most are so desperate for hope that they eat his words.
• Villainous Breakdown: Knowing that he could potentially lose everything in the Guangdong riots, Matsushita's normally composed demeanor begins to crack, angrily barking orders at his subordinates.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Masaharu is motivated to prove himself a worthy heir to his more famous father-in-law, Matsushita Kōnosuke. Unfortunately, Kōnosuke rarely ever shows an ounce of pride in him and expresses a lot of doubt about his corporate leadership, something that also happened in OTL. If Matsushita succeeds, he basks in the satisfaction that he's proven himself and Kōnosuke personally calls to congratulate him, even inviting him to the annual stockholders' meeting in Osaka as an honored guest.
• What You Are in the Dark: In private, Matsushita hates becoming Komai's puppet when Hitachi takes over, knowing that he'll be perceived as a sycophantic sellout who is too fearful to oppose the Chief Executive.
• Wild Card: Matsushita can potentially become a cabinet member for the three other potential Chief Executives, including Komai.
• Workaholic:
  • The 1957 flashback reveals that, after Sony and Fujitsu gained ground in Guangdong's electronics market, Matsushita started spending much more time at work to keep up with the competition, lacking the same technical expertise as Morita and Ibuka.
  • Matsushita's first day as Chief Executive is spent working through the long pile of letters and reports from his cabinet members. Matsushita is diligent and thorough, believing that every bit of information is necessary to prepare his vision for the future.
  • While investigating Ho, Matsushita gets so invested in the affair that he starts losing sleep and works nonstop inside his office. It's to a point where Matsushita sympathizes with Suzuki for enduring similarly long hours in his tenure.
  • Matsushita buries himself in paperwork to keep himself busy in Komai's path, knowing he has failed to stand up for himself and became nothing more than a puppet for Hitachi.

Ibuka Masaru

^{70's Portrait (Persistence Path)}

^{70's Portrait (Reconciliation Path)}

Role: President of Fujitsu Limited Company, External Secretary^note Foreign Minister (Suzuki cabinet), Chief Secretary^note Head of Government (Matsushita cabinet), Financial Secretary^note Economy Minister (Matsuzawa cabinet), Chief Executive^note Head of State (Matsuzawa succession)

Party: Rippoukai - Zaikaiha (Fujitsu)^note Legislative Council - Business Faction: The ascendancy of Guangdong's corporations in economic life came with a corresponding need for their interests to be represented in politics. The members of the Legislative Council - supposedly apolitical and independent - proved to be easily swayed by promises of money, status, and power offered by the corporates, in exchange for their loyalty. These individuals - now more loyal to their corporate benefactor than their Chief Executive - form the backbone of Corporate political influence in Guangdong., Rippoukai - Chuou Iinkai^note Legislative Council - Central Committee: The Central Committee is Ibuka Masaru's latest experiment, and arguably his finest yet. Composed of only the most exceptional representatives in the Legislative Council, these individuals have proven themselves diligent, impervious, and unwaveringly loyal to Guangdong and Guangdong alone. They, and nobody else, are the ones to be entrusted with Guangdong's future - for what can you expect from people you don't know exactly what they're up to?
Corporate sycophants can decry it all they want as some "regression" to the days of Suzuki and his overbearing control over Guangdong's political life, and we say all the better. This is what they deserve.

Ideology: Corporatocracy^note Despotism, Corporate Statism^note Fascism (Persistence Path)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Few can compare with Ibuka Masaru's talent and relentless drive for excellence; even fewer can compare to his boundless ambition and political and business acumen. A relentless advance up the corporate ladder, endless lobbying, politicking, and economic maneuvering has made Ibuka few friends and many enemies.

From ostracizing Tokyo Telecoms co-founder and his one-time friend Morita Akio to merging with and consolidating his control over Fujitsu Electric, Ibuka's relentless ambition would see Fujitsu expand its operations to the Pearl River. An expansion that would see Ibuka clash with Morita's Sony in a legendary legal battle over control of Guangdong's radio market.

Those days, however, are in the past. Following the collapse of Suzuki's government in the Yasuda crash, Ibuka once more maneuvered Fujitsu into a position of dominance. Now, as Guangdong's undisputed master, Ibuka Masaru finally has the freedom necessary to finally bring about his vision for a new, transistorized, digitized world.

No longer restrained by the whims of his fellow executives or beholden to shareholders in Tokyo, Ibuka alone can see the future, and Ibuka alone can bring about the new tomorrow. With Guangdong as his canvas, his only limit is ambition, and Ibuka has no intention of coming up short.

In-Game Biography (External Secretary)^{Click to Show}Ibuka Masaru is known for two things - his towering command of electrical engineering, and his many, many 'opinions'. The former has served him well as the President of Fujitsu, the electronics subsidiary of the Furukawa zaibatsu, while the latter makes him an outspoken defender of the Four Companies' interests in Tokyo - and Nanjing, when he can be bothered to leave his workstation to venture into China.

Apart from his professional history, Ibuka is well-known for his longstanding feud with Morita Akio of Sony, after the two parted ways acrimoniously in 1952 following the acquisition of their joint venture, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, by the Furukawa group. In the years since, Ibuka has tirelessly sought to realize his vision of a transistorized future, rising through the ranks at Fujitsu and aggressively expanding its presence in Guangdong - no matter what Morita or anyone else thinks.

In-Game Biography (Financial Secretary)^{Click to Show}At first glance, the lateral movement of Ibuka Masaru from the External Affairs to the Financial Affairs portfolio is an unquestionable snub - the most outspoken opposition to the former Chief Executive, being forced to share power with his rivals. Yet Ibuka himself appears content with his position - in public. The new interim Chief Executive will be capably advised, he says, by the remaining tycoons in a strictly professional and meritocratic manner. There can be no playing favorites in the wake of Yasuda's collapse.

Of course, his insistence on 'meritocracy' has long been understood as a favorite phrase of his, with only Ibuka himself up to the task of saving Guangdong. Even if Matsushita maintains the appearance of neutrality, and Morita tries to make himself heard, Ibuka controls the pursestrings - and the numbers never lie. Tough times will require tough choices, and only one man can make them: Ibuka.

In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary)^{Click to Show}As Guangdong's Chief Secretary, Ibuka's appointment to the second-highest position in the civil government should represent a triumph - the reassertion of the Corporate faction's authority in the Legislative Council, with Matsushita at its head and with Ibuka by his side, and Hitachi's Komai waiting in the wings.

While the dominance of the Corporate faction is a welcome development, only a fool would think Ibuka is satisfied by this arrangement. Despite having the Chief Executive's position slip through his fingertips, Ibuka has not abandoned his desire to see Guangdong become the vanguard of the silicon revolution to the world. To the extent by which he can bring said revolution about through the ear of Chief Executive Matsushita, he will do so - for although he has no love for menial minds in positions of power, he concedes that they do have their uses...

70's In-Game Biography (Persistence)^{Click to Show}Deep down, Ibuka never quite left being a child. All those years that certain tinge of naïveté had coated his spectacles, through which alone he was able to see, and then make sense of, himself and the world around him. Only a child refuses to believe in lost causes. Only a child refuses to apply "normal physical and mental faculty" and "imbecility" to the same individual. Only a child gives his unconditional love to all those people, and wants anything more than putting each and every one of them six feet under.

Sure, he might've had his precious vision torn apart by the Riots and then reality shoved in his face - a reality infested with ingrates, dimwits, and asinine geopolitical tussles. He might've had the chance to mature and move on. The epiphany that eventually came to him, however, is of another kind entirely: if all this travesty, all this... depravity, is what it takes for someone to grow up, then he would rather not. He would rather be the child that always looks ahead. Japan, China, they're all free to drown in their own excrement. It's not his problem.

In a better time he would've been world-renowned as the brightest innovator of them all, showering in the spotlight and the wholehearted, unalloyed adoration of the planet; in another life, perhaps, Akio would've shared the glory by his side. The three-year-old child, however, paints over it all with abandon and a million drops of blood and tears - and upon the pure, pristine, reborn annals of Guangdong, blow by blow, joyously carves out the word that Ibuka Masaru shall be remembered by for the rest of his life:

SINNER

70's In-Game Biography (Reconciliation)^{Click to Show}What, then, has Chief Executive Ibuka Masaru's vision of Guangdong amounted to in the end?

What was this last decade but a quixotic crusade to prove himself infallible? To promulgate — with the same ruthlessness as the Inquisition and the Imperial cult — a dogma that everyone was 'supposed' to fight tooth and nail for excellence, forgetting bonds of blood and friendship, all in accordance with the diktats charted out in the top floor of Fujitsu?

Ibuka knows now - always has known, in fact - that what he proposed was no truth at all. There exists no such thing as 'objective' truth when it comes to personal relationships, let alone nation-building. The only reason Ibuka decided that he had to pull such a truth out of his ear then force it down everyone else's throats was so that he, with all his groundless, senseless self-assurance, could make it true.

So that he could lie to his conscience and feel better about it.

It was all thanks to the Providential way in which the Oil Crisis and Riots played out that Ibuka Masaru has snapped out of this decades-long trance. The scales are stricken perforce from his eyes, and Ibuka now knows for certain that there are more ways than his own to success, let alone to perfection. And when, as Heaven has predestined, China returns for its stolen Pearls, those days will also bring the final judgment for Ibuka Masaru — whether he deserves to carry on, or be stopped forever in his tracks.

And the Chief Executive, weary and contrite, would take all that he could get.

70's In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Independent Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}There is no feeling stronger in the mind of Ibuka Masaru than that of stiflement and futility.

Matsushita Masaharu has somehow, despite being the most unimaginative, innovation-scorning man in Guangdong, attained total control over its future. Worse yet for Ibuka personally, his ideals are being cherry-picked by the Chief Executive left and right to suit his own, 'survival-centric', uncreative ideas.

Wonderful, isn't it, to have slaved away for twenty years and to have nothing to show for it but a credential proving that he's playing second-fiddle for a future that isn't his own. How much longer, Ibuka Masaru asks himself, will he have to keep drinking from this bitter cup?

70's In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Fujitsu Puppeted Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}Finally! An opportune time has come for Ibuka Masaru, who finally feels the beginnings of success in his decades-long work to unlock Guangdong's true potential. That old survivalist curmudgeon Matsushita has finally stopped stifling Guangdong's actual potential and left proper leadership (read: Ibuka) the leeway to do all that needs to be done.

Of course, Ibuka cannot help but feel some doubt. It may well be too late, what with how the Chinese are getting uppity north of the border. But it matters not—if things go sideways it's a simple enough matter to blame Ibuka's jackass of a boss for holding on to power too long for his own damn good.

70's In-Game Biography (Chief Secretary - Sony Puppeted Matsushita cabinet)^{Click to Show}"What the hell is Matsushita doing?" are the words that issue forth from Ibuka Masaru's mouth semi-regularly these days.

That makes all the more sense when one realises that it's because Ibuka's decades-long rival Morita Akio has been handed the reins of Guangdong after Matsushita's failure. It irritates Ibuka so much. After all these years how the hell has Matsushita managed to not just double down on being a weak-minded little coward, but doing it the way Morita out of all people would?

If Matsushita really isn't brain-damaged and actually does find Morita's "model" more appealing then sure, Ibuka can still act; he'll move to sabotage it where he can. But if bleeding hearts end up being the end of Guangdong, then Matsushita and his lot have only themselves to blame.

The President of Fujitsu, one of the Four Companies of Guangdong. A talented engineer and ambitious businessman, Ibuka's upwards drive has propelled him from Tokyo Telecommunications in the Home Isles to Fujitsu in Guangdong, and also earned him a rivalry with Morita. As Chief Executive, Ibuka's political vision synthesizes his acumen in business and engineering—a technocratic, meritocratic vision that will push Guangdong into a better future, regardless of the cost.

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• 0% Approval Rating: By the time of the Guangdong riots in his path, Ibuka becomes the most reviled man in the entire country. While most of the country marches against Fujitsu, Ibuka is quickly becoming a pariah in the Legislative Council, the culmination of his Bad Boss tendencies and a leak that he invited Komai to Guangdong all those years ago. His temper tantrums and inability to take criticism doesn't help his case either.
• The Ace: His rise and leadership of Fujitsu has been nothing short of exceptional, as his proficient leadership allowed the corporation to become one of the largest in the Sphere.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Ibuka is a horrible boss and corporate dictator, but his time in the Kōshu tribunal is nothing short of heartbreaking. After denouncing the lie that is pan-Asianism, Ibuka confesses that he only put up with it so that he could build something meaningful in Guangdong. He praises his daughter as a hard worker and believed that he was forging a future where everyone could do the things she couldn't, with his only regrets that he failed this mission and that he's become no better than the IJA prosecutors who stand before him. It's even more saddening for Ibuka when the judge brushes off the sentimental speech as another count of treason and sentences him to death by hanging.
• All for Nothing: If the IJA overthrow him, Ibuka is petrified that all of the sacrifices and efforts he's done over the past decade will amount to nothing. He's not even sure if his latest effort to get his daughter to safety-in-exile will work, which drives him to tears.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • One of Ibuka's focuses is entitled Kindergarten is Too Late, which is the name of a book he wrote in our world arguing that the most important human learning takes place in infancy. In this timeline, this has been distorted into improving Guangdong's education services with early-age programs that competitively pushes students as far as possible.
  • The event in which Ibuka, when meeting with Salvador Allende, notes down the possibility of using computers to handle large amounts of economic data and Allende's response could be considered this to Allende's real-world attempt at computerized planning through Project Cybersyn.
• Ambiguous Situation: The Reconciliation ending leaves it ambiguous over why Ibuka gives up his ambition to dominate the rest of the Big Five and loosens the requirements for corporate entry. Ibuka thinks that he "had to do it", but he still isn't quite sure.
• Ambition Is Evil: As Morita points out, Ibuka's ambition is insatiable and he will stop at nothing so that he can "perfect" Guangdong in his own eyes, casually throwing away thousands of lives in the pursuit of this goal.
  Conviction is his raison d'être, as much as it has been the driving force behind his ascension to the helm of Guangdong.
• Arch-Enemy: Ibuka is not a nice guy to begin with, but he has a special hatred for Morita, owing to their complicated past.
• The Atoner: During his Reconciliation route, Ibuka realizes during the Oil Crisis just how horrible and abusive his system really is and tries to make up for it, while aware he probably can't and that Guangdong won't survive him trying.
• Awful Wedded Life: By 1955, Ibuka's marriage had severely deteriorated, to the point of a cold farewell and divorce. All of this occurs right before his move to Guangdong to pursue Morita for his TR-56 radio, but the divorce may have played a part in his decision to live life on his own terms.
• Bad Boss: Failing him is far from a good idea. Ibuka has no sympathy for incompetency and takes no excuses for setbacks, deeming them all wastes of time. At one point, he wishes he could drill a camera onto every one of his employees' heads so he can track their progress and loyalty to Fujitsu.
• Bait the Dog:
  • While wandering the streets and surveying for pickpockets, Ibuka thinks about the historical significance of Wende Road, waxing lyrical about how it was an important route where classical arts and antiques passed through. Despite his seeming appreciation for the site, Ibuka enthusiastically thinks about bulldozing it entirely to make way for new construction, apathetic to how sacrilegious it would be.
  • To the surprise of Morita, Ibuka voices his genuine support for the Public Order Ordinance. Unfortunately, it's not because he has a problem with police corruption, but rather because he wants to take down crime, which he blames on "childish humanism" and "soft hearted utopianism".
• Beige Prose: His writing style is very succinct and to-the-point, lacking most corporate jargon, while still having a professional tone.
• Believing Their Own Lies: While promising to crack down on the rioters and give a carrot to the populace, Ibuka wants to remind everyone of the improvements Fujitsu to their standards of living, economy, and human progress. While one could argue that he's technically right on the last two, his first claim just shows how deluded he is.
• Berserk Button:
  • Ibuka goes berserk over Cheung Kong getting invited to the Legislative Council, ranting to Matsuzawa about appeasing their "brainless drivel" and nearly punching him in the face out of rage.
  • Impeding technological progress is a huge on for him. If Morita's National Tax Rationalization Ordinance passes, Ibuka will explode with fury calling them bastards and claiming that the tax increases will damage the innovative engine of invention that is the corporations.
  • As Morita knows from bitter experience, Ibuka hates the thought of others taking credit for his ideas, no matter how trivial. In Morita's 1955 flashback, Ibuka learning that Morita and Li were profiting off of his work on the then-prototype TR-56 radio was enough to compel him to come to Guangdong and personally sue them both out of business.
  • Opium. Just smelling it is enough to infuriate him and get overdramatic about how it's a disease in the country and his own mind. Outlawing the drug is one of his top priorities in the seat of Chief Executive.
• Big Eater: Ibuka says as much in the event "Lunch at the Kantonken", exclaiming that his long hours in the lab leave him with a big appetite.
• Blaming the Victim: How he justifies his repression. As far as he's concerned, if someone is suffering from poverty, they're at fault for failing to dig themselves out.
• Break the Haughty:
  • The Guangdong Riots cause Ibuka to be snapped out of his childish vision as he watches his uncompromisingly dogmatic vision be torn asunder by those he looked down upon, which in his Reconciliation path, causes him to realise he is not infallible and leads him to abandon his social Darwinism for a kinder approach to governance.
  • If the IJA coup him, Ibuka witnesses his regime collapse before his eyes, with the lights flickering in Fujitsu HQ and his once esteemed products stolen or put in a landfill. The only thing a tearful Ibuka can do is call a smuggler to get his daughter to safety.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed. Hei admires the Ibuka he sees on TV, with his neatly combed hair and smug grin. When they finally meet in person, Hei is not impressed with Ibuka's disheveled look, cocky attitude, and disregard for the rest of the Lees, yet he still can't help but follow him anyway and lap up whatever praise he can get from the Chief Executive.
• Brutal Honesty: Of all the corporate leaders, Ibuka is the least silent of his complaints about how Komai is running the country. Whenever Komai tries to appeal for his support, Ibuka will usually quibble about his legislation and how it will negatively impact Fujitsu, much to the Chief Executive's chagrin.
• Can't Take Criticism: He knows the people hate his despotic rule, but he either thinks they're too sentimental or just plain dismisses all of their criticism. It says a lot that even Komai is better at listening to people than him.
• Captain Obvious: During a long rant in his office about Morita and the heartfelt plans that he claims will end Guangdong's prosperity, Ibuka states that he should spend more time on business and less on politics, to which a bored Matsushita will roll his eyes and ask him if he only realised that now.
• Churchgoing Villain: Despite Ibuka being a practicing Christian, he has no moral reservations about working the people of Guangdong to the bone, until the Guangdong Riots, in which he must either repent for his sins and work towards reform in the Reconciliation path, or condemn himself to always being a sinner and double down in the Persistence path.
• Color Motif: Blue. Fujitsu Limited's logo is colored blue and almost all of his focuses are that hue, symbolizing Ibuka's specialty in computer technology and his laser-focused devotion to advancing Guangdong for the modern age. This motif is even expressed in the skyline of Guangdong when he becomes Chief Executive, as white and blue neon signs begin to outnumber those of any other color.
• Commonality Connection. Masaru Ibuka and Salvador Allende have little in common politically. But, when Allende invites Ibuka to demonstrate a Fujitsu computer in Santiago, the Chief Executive piques Allende's interest when he mentions the full potential of using computers to manage vast amounts of economic data. Entranced, but with different goals in mind from Ibuka, Allende eagerly asks to buy his entire stock of computers.
• Control Freak: He has very high standards that he expects all Fujitsu workers to meet and will badger anyone who doesn't meet them, regardless of how unreasonable they are. While redesigning the Guangdong Government Complex, he berates one worker for being lazy and taking a break, despite the fact his contract allows him to have one.
• Corrupted Character Copy: The developers have described Ibuka's Guangdong as a corrupted version of Silicon Valley, turning the province into a center for high technology, but also subjecting its countless residents to hellish working abuses and poverty.
• Detrimental Determination: While Ibuka works incredibly to see his dreams of a meritocratic and technocratic Guangdong come to fruition as Chief Executive, it soon becomes clear that such a vision is both unrealistic and very harmful for both the Chinese population that he considers unfit for his new Guangdong and for himself, suffering mentally as he continues to lose what remaining human connections he had left. Taken further in his Persistence path where he puts all of his Guangdong under his sole control but is still as miserable as ever, while Guangdong begins to isolate it from the rest of the Sphere. Subverted in his Reconciliation path, where he takes steps to fix the worst problems of his regime and begins to reach out to those he scorned.
• Dirty Coward: When Tokyo Telecommunications sank due to poor sales and unpaid bank loans, Ibuka reluctantly accepted Fujitsu's offer to buy out the company, taking the coward's way out of certain bankruptcy. That said, Ibuka did try to find an alternative, even going so far as to trying to get loans from shady lenders, but backed out after seeing the excessively high interest rates
• Disappeared Dad: Ever since moving to Guangdong, Ibuka hasn't visited, or even wrote back to, his family in the Home Islands. Ironic since his own dad has been absent (read: dead) from his life as well, leaving him without anyone to really teach him how to be a proper father. Regardless, at one point in 1956, Ibuka realizes how terrible and absent of a father he has been to his daughter, writing an apologetic letter to her and calling himself "The Shittiest Dad Ever".
• Dislikes the New Guy: When Li is invited to the Legislative Council, Morita is overjoyed and Matsushita remains polite, but noncommittal. The only one who reacts with open hostility is Ibuka, who simply tells Li to not disappoint him.
• Disney Owns This Trope: Ibuka is extremely litigious and can easily bring down weaker rivals by sending a torrent of lawsuits, claiming that their products are stealing Fujitsu's ideas, no matter how frivolous. Most infamously, he tried to pull a lawsuit against Morita and Li's TR-56 because the former proposed the idea during his time in Tokyo Telecommunications, which Ibuka argues makes it Fujitsu's property. Worse yet, he can outright weaponize this tactic through the Guangdong Trademark Ordinance, allowing him to shut down any business under the pretense that they are "reverse engineering" Fujitsu products.
• Do Wrong, Right: He disdains the Guangdong police and Kenpeitai as too messy and disorganized in their work, in which his Modern Police Ordinance is intended to reform their tactics in a "cleaner" fashion and so they are no longer restrained by red tape.
• Dragon with an Agenda:
  • If Matsushita takes over Guangdong, he makes Ibuka his Chief Secretary and the second-most powerful man in the country. However, Ibuka's ambition isn't sated by this and still has ambitions to transform Guangdong to his vision.
  • By the end of the first decade, Ibuka becomes a lot more snappy towards the Japanese Prime Minister, asserting Guangdong's own interests as an independent entity. He rejects Tokyo's request to raise a standing army without being due a favor and openly tells the Prime Minister that Guangdong is no longer their asset. Since Guangdong's state-of-the-art technology makes them an attractive market to other countries, Japan has no choice but to appease his interests and continue funneling money into his regime.
• Drunk with Power: In his Persistence ending, Ibuka learns from the riots that only he is capable of guiding Guangdong and effectively takes over the Legislative Council with the Guangdong Future Act, subordinating its members to Fujitsu and concentrating all discretionary power to the Chief Executive (read: himself).
• Emergency Stash: Ibuka is well-prepared for an emergency like the IJA coup, having a secret safe with money and passports for smugglers to take his daughter into exile, in case his own life is at risk.
• Emperor Scientist: Ibuka's dream is for a Guangdong meritocracy that grants limitless opportunity for the educated intellectuals to explore sciences and engineering.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Alarmed by Yasuda's support for Suzuki reigning in the tycoons of Guangdong, Ibuka and Matsushita agree to work together against Suzuki so they can continue making consumer electronics without interference.
  • After Yasuda's collapse leaves a vacancy in the Legislative Council, Ibuka calls upon Komai and the Hitachi corporation to take their place, hoping to leverage them and increase his own influence, despite otherwise disliking them. During his own path, Ibuka appoints Komai as External Secretary as a counterweight to Morita and Li, as well as potentially license Fujitsu processors to Hitachi for political support.
  • Despite his hostility to crime, Ibuka works alongside Yokoi because his connections to the Yakuza and Kenpeitai are useful to taking down the Triads. Both know that this alliance is temporary and will turn on each other, once their common enemies are destroyed. The cooperation can be revived in the Oil Crisis, if Ibuka calls them to stop the mass immigration.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Perhaps the major positive quality to Ibuka's ruthless vision is that he is genuinely meritocratic, believing that intelligence and ability should matter more than heritage or ancestry. While the common Chinese workers who don't have the opportunities in life to get proper education and training are screwed even worse than usual, Ibuka extends lots of opportunities to the Zhujin population they didn't have before, providing them the education needed to turn Guangdong into a bastion of innovation. His plans clean out lots of incompetent and corrupt Japanese who only got their jobs because of their race or family connections, opening up room for sufficiently-capable Chinese to step in alongside Japanese applicants in the process. That said, this is heavily downplayed in practice since, for the most part, those with more money and opportunity have better access to the kinds of education and preparation to achieve high intelligence and ability, and therefore are largely from the Japanese ruling classes.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Morita and Ibuka used to work together under the Tokyo Telecommunications, but when Fujitsu began to buy their company out, Ibuka merged the company and joined Fujitsu so as to not lose his wealth, abandoning and betraying his friend to business desolation.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite having abandoned her to focus on Fujitsu, Ibuka still cares deeply about his daughter, Taeko, and regrets having left her without a father. Notably, if the Riots intensify to the point the IJA need to get involved, Ibuka's main concern is that his daughter is able to get out of Japan.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • When the Sōmuchō seizes power in Manchuria after Puyi's passing, Ibuka will internally condemn the sycophants of the Sōmucho who rush to Sakomizu's side so they can retain their power, not even having the decency to wait for the President's address to finish.
  • Ibuka does not have any particular fondness for Komai or Hitachi, viewing them as being too brutal for his taste, working with them when it is only strictly necessary.
  • Attacking the loved ones of an enemy tycoon is a line that Ibuka would never cross, going as far as to offer Fujitsu's help in tracking down Li's family when they are kidnapped. If Li's wife is killed, Ibuka is disgusted by the lack of sympathy displayed by Matsushita to Li's despair causing him to shut himself off from the rest of LegCo, rebuking him by stating that no one gets to choose if they will be the same after losing their loved ones. In this case, Ibuka understands Li's pain far more than he lets on considering the anguish he feels over abandoning his family to focus on his company.
  • To manage the Oil Crisis in Hitachi's path, Komai can hire private security experts to help maintain order in his Guangdong. Said experts are all war criminals. Despite his own penchant for ultraviolent policing, Ibuka is aghast as the 'experts' will likely cause more problems than fix them.
  • Ibuka despises cheaters. When Morita reveals Komai has been using illegitimate means to buy out Sony, Ibuka is furious and, to the surprise of everyone, sides with Morita to stop the Sasshin Fund.
  • Ibuka has no compassion for lazy or jobless people, but even he reacts poorly to Komai's introduced amendment to the Entrepreneurial Recovery Ordinance that would allow managers to create zero-hour contracts and force people to work with no promise of pay.
  • When the IJA takeover, Ibuka doesn't try to defend himself when Morita verbally chews him out for indirectly starting the crisis by bringing Hitachi to Guangdong and getting Li killed. Not even he is self-deluded enough to avoid blame for the catastrophe and killing Morita's friend.
• Every Man Has His Price: Subverted. If arrested in Operation 489, Ho assumes that he can charm and bribe his way out of Fujitsu's grasp, but Ibuka makes it clear to him that no bargaining will change his mind, seeing his capture as too valuable of a blow against Sony and Cheung Kong. The only reason he even visited is to get a close look at Ho and gloat about how unimpressive he is.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ibuka is perplexed as to why Li would oppose him, despite fitting his idealized image of a self-made Chinese man. The many human rights abuses under his belt is entirely unnoticed by him.
• Evil Is Petty: Ibuka filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Morita and Li for supposedly stealing his designs for the TR-56. However, this move is more so motivated by personal pettiness against Morita, eager to put him out of business due to their history.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: The combination of the Oil Crisis and the Guangdong riots exhausts Ibuka and he develops heavy eye bags from the strain.
• Faux Affably Evil: He can keep up an appearance of courtesy and charm for the cameras, but it barely hides his contempt for a select few individuals, like Morita. And, if he's remotely displeased in any fashion, Ibuka's affability completely disappears and he will launch a vicious temper tantrum.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Ibuka went from the co-founder of a struggling electronics company to the leader of one of the largest corporations in Guangdong and a potential corporate dictator.
• The Gloves Come Off: His Persistence route is about Ibuka reaching his wits' end with the Guangdong Riots, where months of protest drives him to liquidating all forms of dissidence without mercy, declaring that they have no place in the new Guangdong. Every security group, including the IJA, are given permission to run down the rioters.
• A God Am I: One of his events is titled "I Wear This Crown Of Thorns" and it describes his self-delusion of being Guangdong's savior creating a new "paradise", implying that he has a god complex to cover his self-doubt.
• Graceful Loser: The Zoning Ordinance is one of the few laws that Ibuka is okay with not passing, recognizing that it would have taken too much work to enact anyways and even smiling that the Legislative Council vetoed it.
• Hanging Around: During the Kōshu tribunal, Ibuka is sentenced to death by hanging on the grounds of treason, furthered by his final speech in the trial denouncing Pan-Asianism.
• Heel–Faith Turn: The language used during his Reconciliation ending suggests that his personal moral awakening was accompanied by a spiritual awakening, and that his plans to try to make things better have a strong spiritual dimension. Notably, his Persistence ending's bio describes him as embracing his role as a sinner rather than change.
• Heel Realization: Ibuka seriously considers if he's done terrible things, but only after his initial attempt to crush the Guangdong Riots fails. As the riots and his leaked invitation to Hitachi make him the most hated man in all of Guangdong, Ibuka's initial anger subsides into a startling realization that his own actions are responsible for his ignoble fate and, for the first time in a long time, accepts his own guilt as reality. This extends into a realization that his brutality is comparable to the violence seen in Germany and Manchuria, motivating his easing of security measures to show some dignity to his fellow human beings.
• The Hermit: During the riots, Ibuka isolates himself from everyone else, rarely leaving Government Complex. He only leaves once his personal crisis has resolved and the riots have been pacified, to find a Guangzhou in the process of returning to normalcy, with rubble being cleared and reconstruction ongoing.
• Hidden Depths:
  • There's a good reason why Ibuka doesn't even pay lip service to the Shinto ceremonies; he was born and raised a Protestant Christian. Beneath his prideful demeanor and talk of technological progress at the expense of everything else, Ibuka privately confesses his sins and desperately tries to assure his conscience that he's doing the right thing.
  • Even he doubts his positionality in the hierarchy, wondering if he earned it through his own merits or because of the intervention of Fujitsu and Furukawa, and particularly the engineers who showed him the ropes in new industries like computing.
    Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Whenever he wants to venture out in public without being recognized, Ibuka dons a black overcoat, hat, and a face mask. With this apparel, no one can recognize him, not even his own family.
• Historical Relationship Overhaul: Ibuka was best friends with Morita in OTL and stayed strong throughout their lives, commented to be, at least, as strong as any romantic relationship. In this timeline, Ibuka betrayed Morita by selling Tokyo Telecommunications to Fujitsu and later suing him for the TR-56. Thus, any semblance of companionship between the two is long dead, especially as both have competing visions for Guangdong.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: From a typical businessman in OTL, Ibuka is now a full-on villain in this setting, being a cruel social Darwinist and Corrupt Corporate Executive who will kill thousands to achieve his dream. His fall from grace comes from an exaggeration of his OTL faults, such as his reluctance to reveal his inner thoughts (which let him fall into Fujitsu's pocket without Morita's knowledge) and his naïveté (which makes him so willing to condemn all of Guangdong for a mission that will never truly succeed).
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Ibuka fosters a golden age of Chinese academics, who are granted more opportunities to learn about their country's history. However, Ibuka doesn't realize that this intellectual freedom fosters a spirit of rebellion amongst these scholars, who are now entertaining the idea of Chinese liberation from Japanese exploitation.
  • He allies with the Yakuza to take out the Triads, but if the mission goes too successfully, the Yakuza are given free rein to rule the underworld, having no further use of Ibuka's cooperation. Even when the Chief Executive threatens to bring up their crimes to Tokyo, Yokoi bluntly tells him that he can't, lest he appear as a failure in the eyes of his superiors.
  • His invitation of Hitachi as an ally in the Legislative Council can easily backfire if they coup him or his collusion with them is leaked.
• Honor Before Reason: Despite the threat of the Oil Crisis, Ibuka may turn down economic assistance from the rest of the Sphere, prideful that his own economic model is superior and that accepting handouts would betray his beliefs.
• Hypocrite:
  • If Matsushita offers welfare to the corporations in the Oil Crisis, Ibuka happily accepts whatever financial aid he can get, despite all his previous bluster about how welfare is a detriment to the economy. Yoshiko calls him out on it in an interview, in which he excuses the hypocrisy that it's not "relief", but an investment.
  • On face value, Ibuka's plan prompts universal excellence for everyone. In practice, however, the so-called welfare is strictly reserved for those who meet his draconian standards of competency and efficiency, with many, most of the all the Chinese, suffering as a result.
  • Ibuka talks a lot about self-sustainability, even though he brings in food imports from other countries in the Sphere to keep Guangdong fed, since homegrown food is becoming increasingly rare under his regime. His hypocrisy can get even worse during the Oil Crisis, now requesting money from Manchuria, like the beggars he disdains.
  • Ibuka disdains pan-Asianism as a shallow propaganda tool for Japanese imperialism, but as soon as it's convenient to get himself good PR, he happily promotes its ideals.
  • He gets cold feet over Komai's suggestion to add the Kenpeitai to the supervisory committee of the anti-corruption bill, calling it "naked overreach". However, his own bill is an act of federal overreach, authorizing the use of cameras and audio equipment to monitor everything in the Legislative Council and interfere with businesses who could threaten Fujitsu interests.
• I Work Alone: Even though licensing production to other companies in the Sphere will be more profitable, Ibuka may deny this offer and keep Fujitsu's in-house secrets out of pride.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • Overstretched during the Oil Crisis, Ibuka leaves his office in a guise and walks the streets of Kōshu to see how his policies have affected Guangdong. There, Ibuka sees that not much has improved and the people are still suffering under corporate rule, but instead of realizing the harms of his regime, Ibuka thinks that he just isn't working hard enough.
  • In his Persistence path, Ibuka realises his dogmatic vision for the world is unrealistic and childish, but instead chooses to double down on it, preferring to drown Guangdong in blood and tears than to abandon his crusade for an unattainable dream.
• Insufferable Genius: There's no denying that Ibuka is a genius businessman and politician, but his arrogance and ego make him detestable on a personal level. It reaches new heights in the Persistence path, where Ibuka disregards the opinions of everyone else, calls his word the objective truth, and commits to his unfeasibly childish dreams because he can't stand being wrong. It goes as far as believing that he's built a society greater than the Einheitspakt and their slave labor, and the OFN and their sympathy for civil liberties. This even extends to Japan, as Ibuka considers himself no longer beholden to them.
• It's All About Me: Ibuka's Persistence path sees him fully commit to his unworkable vision, in spite of all those who have tried to oppose him in the years prior. One of his focuses is just a self-important rant that there is no objective truth besides his own. He cements all of the Legislative Council under Fujitsu with the Guangdong Future Act and attempts to make Guangdong and Fujitsu inseparable on the international market, as seen with the lack of invites to the other companies during a technology expo. It doesn't even matter if Guangdong is destroyed in the upcoming war between China and Japan; Ibuka is happy that he got to live out his power fantasies here and will continue to do so for as long as he can. This is subverted in the Reconciliation path as he gives up his wish to dominate all of Guangdong's society.
  I was right, because I say so.
• It's Personal: The security portion of Ibuka's focus tree is centered around Operation 489, the Police's effort to destroy the Triads and arrest Stanley Ho, a longtime, major ally of Morita. While there is a pragmatic benefit to getting rid of Ho, Ibuka also has a personal stake to targeting him, since he helped Morita hide during the TR-56 lawsuit. If the operation is successful, Ibuka makes a point to personally visit and mock him.
• I've Come Too Far: Subverted. While overlooking a map of cities he's reconstructed, Ibuka initially wonders if the upcoming sacrifices will be too much to make and if he's gone too far. Then, with a wicked grin on second thought, Ibuka thinks he hasn't gone far enough.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Much like how he knowingly pushes on with his tyrannical and unrealistic system in his Persistence ending, Ibuka pushes on with his journey of healing and redemption in his Reconciliation ending even though he knows that nothing is likely to come of it for his popularity, Fujitsu, or Guangdong in the end.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • If Morita's Public Works and Infrastructure Ordinance is passing successfully, Ibuka will try to respond to Matsushita's claims that the investments are a no-brainer by joking that if opposing such measures makes him a lunatic then he should be sent to a mental hospital. As he proceeds to question why Matsushita would favour something that Li and Ho would stand the most to gain, he backs down at the sheer volume of jeers coming from Sony, Cheung Kong and Matsushita, knowing that he is in the minority on this position. This is inverted if the bill is failing to pass as Ibuka senses the Legislative Council is receptive to his argument and closes the speech by arguing that money should not be spent on those outside of the electronics industry.
  • The Reconciliation route has Ibuka realize that his ambitions are fundamentally unrealistic and needlessly cruel to the people. The point of divergence from the Persistence path is a public admission of his responsibility and withdrawal of his grand plans, followed by a genuine attempt to heed the rioters' demands and apologize to the Japanese business community.
• Join or Die: Fujitsu is a conglomerate that has integrated numerous smaller companies that were pushed against a wall by their business and pressured to join as a means of surviving in any capacity. Those who refused simply shut down and became history. This extends to Ibuka's work ethic in general; those who don't meet his expectations in the slightest are fired immediately.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Out of the executives, Ibuka is probably the most indifferent to the common citizens' suffering, believing that people come second to machines and that there is little room for empathy in a world of science. Relatedly in the Legislative Council, he rejects any notion of worker protections, like Morita's Public Health Ordinance, arguing that the government should only help the people help themselves up and avoid "unnecessary" spending.
  • As far as he's concerned, all firms are expected to survive the hyper-competitive market or else fire all of their workers and close their doors. Without any compassion offered by Ibuka, many businesses are run out of town and the remaining corporations are expected to increase their production levels, often at the expense of their workers.
• Laser-Guided Karma: If the personal crisis of Sony's route is resolved, Ibuka gets punished for inviting Hitachi to Guangdong, specifically by Matsushita, who intimidates him from collaborating with Komai again by threatening to expose their partnership and get Fujitsu blacklisted.
• Man Behind the Man: If given too much influence by Matsushita, Ibuka will take control of Matsushita Electric from behind the shadows, using the Chief Executive as a face for the Legislative Council, while personally representing Guangdong to the rest of the Sphere and redrafting law proposals in the Legislative Council to shape the nation to his own vision.
• Men Don't Cry: As he's giving his celebratory speech to becoming Chief Executive in the "Possibilities, Infinite" event, Ibuka feels tears welling up in his eyes, prideful of how far he's come. However, Ibuka represses this sign of emotion before anyone can notice. Subverted if the Riots get out of control, which leads Ibuka to cry into his arms alone in his office as he regrets the cruelty he inflicted on the people of Guangdong and having severed all meaningful human connections.
• Might Makes Right:
  • His crusade to modernize Guangdong will inevitably subject the people to even worse working conditions for the sake of a little more productivity and condemn thousands to a life of suffering if they can't keep up. Unfortunately, Ibuka doesn't care at all, deeming them a weakness on the country that deserve to be left behind. One of his focuses is even titled "Survival of the Fittest".
  • Not even the children are spared from this mindset. From the event "A Bridge Too Far", the teacher reflects on Ibuka's enforced curriculum in the school system, which puts the students through rigorous problems so that only the brightest and most determined among them can truly thrive in Guangdong; everyone else will simply be discarded and left with few fortunate prospects for the rest of their lives.
• Moral Myopia: His whole case against Morita's TR-56 is premised on the belief that it threatens Fujitsu's margins and could run them out of business. However, when it comes to Fujitsu outcompeting and bankrupting hundreds of smaller businesses through dirty tactics, it's A-okay for Ibuka.
• Motive Rant: Ibuka will berate Matsushita with one in the middle of Morita's economic reforms as he complains about the plans to support people on their own lands. He calls the plans "asinine" and that Morita "inefficient" and "sentimental" plans will bring down Guangdong's prosperity.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In his Reconciliation route, Ibuka has a personal crisis over his ruthlessly Darwinian worldview, and tries, whether or not it is too little, too late, to make up for what he realizes were decades of crimes against his fellow man.
• My Greatest Second Chance: After missing his first shot to become Chief Executive to Matsushita, Ibuka readily seizes his second chance when Matsushita is nearly overwhelmed by the riots and turns to Fujitsu for help, giving them the chance to puppet him.
• Never My Fault:
  • Ibuka's proposed future fund is rejected in the Legislative Council, having endured years of him overstepping their authority and are now lashing back. Internally, Ibuka denies all accountability for his own failure and curses everyone present, only keeping these thoughts to himself because he's too tired to do so.
  • When the Guangdong Riots first start, Ibuka is physically unable to admit any fault when Morita pleads with him to do so for his role in causing the chaos through both his actions as Chief Executive and for originally inviting the Manchurians to Guangdong, instead claiming that he built Guangdong up from nothing and that everyone else is at fault.
  • In the Persistence route, Ibuka will deny any responsibility for the situation and solely blame the Japanese communities for hoarding goods. He claims that, if they don't care about the future of Guangdong, then he shouldn't care about their livelihoods or security. Though the Japanese ruling class had their hand in China's oppression, Ibuka arrogantly denies any responsibility of his own or chance of self-reflection, setting him straight to the point of no return.
  • Even after puppeting Matsushita, Ibuka secretly wonders if he has enough time to reshape Guangdong to his wishes as China prepares for war. After thinking for a moment, he concludes that it would be Matsushita's fault regardless.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: It's implied that Ibuka's Reconciliation ending will not ultimately be a happy one, between the people being unlikely to care much for his personal transformation after nearly a decade of abusive meritocracy and Komai licking his chops at the thought of usurping Ibuka now that his resolve is wavering. Ibuka isn't ignorant of this either, but he resolves to forge head and try to make things better anyway, confident that even if he loses everything else, he has at least kept his soul and can strive for personal redemption. His ending slide outright says that Guangdong will probably fade away, but that perhaps it is better this way.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ibuka parades the Guangdong Anti-Corruption Ordinance as a necessary measure to clamp down on government corruption, but Morita accurately calls it out as an excuse for executive overreach, giving Fujitsu the power to control the Legislative Council and economy.
• Obliviously Evil: Ibuka is a mental Darwinist who sees nothing wrong about instituting a ruthless meritocracy over Guangdong, viewing it as the natural way of life. His pride is so bad that he's deluded himself into thinking that he's the hero fighting against the aggressive and hypocritical Morita. Ultimately abandoned in both his endings; he will ultimately come to see the error of his ways and either recoil from them or double down.
• Old Friend: When they used to be friends, Morita no longer saw Ibuka after he left the Wartime Research Committee, only to reunite after World War II in 1947. There, they quickly reignited their companionship, with Ibuka inviting him as a business partner for his new company.
• Order Is Not Good: Ibuka envisions an extremely orderly Guangdong where everyone is committed to their work and meeting their full potential, all while an empowered police quash all signs of dissent. However, it is clear that this state tramples on the few rights held by the workers and creates a hyper-competitive society that destroys their mental health, bodies, and even their family relationships.
• Pen-Pushing President: In the first few days of becoming Chief Executive, Ibuka is given a full view of how badly Suzuki has run Guangdong and has to deal with mountains of paperwork to mitigate the damage.
• The Perfectionist: Ibuka is obsessed with his vision of perfection and seeks to impose this vision onto Guangdong as a meritocratic engineer's paradise, one that eliminates human error, where mediocrity is punished and scorned while perfection is rewarded. Even upon being announced as successor to Matsuzawa, he can't help but notice all the design inefficiencies in the Legislative Council, lamenting about time wasted.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In contrast to his usual reactions, Ibuka actually supports Morita's Human Capital Advancement Ordinance because it fits his idea of a Guangdong meritocracy. If it passes, Ibuka quietly leaves with his entourage in acceptance of the outcome. If it fails, Ibuka has to force a smile.
  • If Li fails to save his family, Ibuka will feel sympathy for him, not wanting to imagine the pain he's going through. When Matsushita heartlessly rebukes Li's emotionally downtrodden state, Ibuka defends his isolation as understandable and is reluctant to exploit the power vacuum left by Cheung Kong's weakness.
  • At the end of one of his days, Ibuka appreciates the Fujitsu employees who greet him back at the headquarters, acknowledging that they have earned their success just as much as he has.
  • While reforming the bureaucracy, Ibuka may reward those with a proven loyalty than increase education quotas, granting a pay increase for those who survive the purges.
  • Despite usually being dismissive of failing businesses, Ibuka forms a Committee of Technology to fund struggling startups who have potential.
  • In contrast to most of the Japanese ruling class, Ibuka doesn't care if a person is Chinese and is extremely successful. He happily acknowledges that one-third of a year's college graduates are Chinese and commends Hei as the star student of his class. It can even lead Ibuka to standardize the education system and mitigate (at least, on paper) the systemic racism Chinese people face to get a good education. This also comes with giving additional engineering opportunities for either the Chinese or Zhujin.
  • Preparing to pass the Guangdong Education Ordinance, Ibuka overhears an old man complain about the lack of quality schools in the rural areas, which can potentially be considered by Ibuka and added to the amendment's priorities.
  • Secretly watching a high school graduation, Ibuka sees several Matsushita and Sony executives in attendance as well, which makes him fear that the recent graduates will be snatched up by these companies. However, Ibuka can relent on this fear and choose to let the graduates freely decide which corporation they want to serve.
  • Seeing two schoolboys assault another for being a "liability", Ibuka steps in and saves the victim. Given his general impatience for incompetence, this is a shocking move from him.
  • Though unsympathetic to everyone else during the Oil Crisis, he tries to take care of Fujitsu's engineers because he sees them as the future's vanguard, who have been unfairly harmed by outside circumstances.
  • In a rare case of government aid, Ibuka can offer promotions and subsidies to either the Zhujin or Japanese during the Oil Crisis, crediting either one for building his dream country in the first place.
  • Exhausted and seething from his security force's inability to stop the Guangdong riots, Ibuka drops one of his phones when he tries to hang up. Li picks it up for him and puts it back on the hook, in which Ibuka slowly nods in gratitude.
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • Downplayed in his Sinophobia. For any Chinese person who proves to be a hard worker or a visionary, Ibuka will pay no heed to their ethnicity and give them all the support they need to thrive. However, there are numerous points where his racism seeps in:
    • If Morita proposes to reform the civil service and allow higher positions for natives, Ibuka will express skepticism that there are any Chinese capable of filling the roles.
    • Undergoing a Villainous Breakdown in his Persistence route, Ibuka will bemoan how the Chinese are finally showing some ambition when they are tearing down the society he's carefully crafted. He questions why they couldn't be like Lee Hei or the Zhujin, and how China dominated East Asia for two millenia, before concluding that they want to "live like cavemen" without his guiding hand and that he will give them their wish by rhetorically bombing the CCL to the Stone Age.
    • The Persistence route also has Ibuka express anti-Zhujin prejudice before taking on the GFT, thinking them ungrateful and considering it a mistake to let "Chinese barbarians" into his society.
  • Befitting his social darwinism, Ibuka is an ableist, or seems to outwardly present himself as one. When he hears that one of his employees is underperforming, Ibuka insultingly asks his cousin if he is mentally or physically "retarded". Except he knows there's probably nothing wrong with said employee or his "idiot" cousin anyway - exactly what irritates him. It irritates him how people with supposedly perfectly normal faculties would rather hide behind "sob stories" as "excuses for mediocrity", absolving themselves of challenges, demanding tasks, or self-betterment opportunities that they take for granted and throw away as they please - all things Ibuka's own daughter Taeko has been robbed of for years by her own mental disability.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Unlike Komai, Ibuka is more willing to bend his principles and refrain from explicitly brutal tactics because they would stir too much anger from the people.
  • As he tells Morita, he will never appease the Triads or their gambling businesses, considering them "wasteful pursuits" that stand in the way of his technocratic vision.
  • He also institutes ruthless civil service programs to crack down on cronyism, incompetence, and corruption at the government level, since these things impede his vision. It's especially notable when he targets corruption within the Legislative Council, given their long track record of evading justice.
• Predatory Business: Through a combination of mass production, low pricing, and large advertising campaigns, Ibuka can monopolize any sector of the economy with his fancy inventions and drive out smaller business owners who can't compete with him. In the event "The Clock Ticks Onward", an owner of a clock business is forced out of a job because his business is overwhelmed by the introduction of Fujitsu's digital clocks.
• Prematurely Grey-Haired: Ibuka's hair turns grey from the stress and horror he experiences during the IJA coup.
• Properly Paranoid: Ibuka distrusts his subordinates for good reason, knowing that they'll try undermining him if given too much privilege. If he orders Komai and Yokoi to secure investments from Manchuria and Japan, respectively, he sends his police detachments to monitor them, which visibly frustrates the two.
• Psychopathic Manchild: In many ways, Ibuka's view of the world is a simple and childish one, where things are sorted into broad, primary-colored categories and thought of no more. He also has a huge ego where he thinks himself as the center of the world. His Persistence ending is described in his bio as realizing that his uncompromising view of the world is childish and stubbornly and spitefully refusing to grow up if it means learning to compromise.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ibuka acts as the red to Matsushita's blue, being passionate, fiery and uncompromising with his ideas. This is best seen when Matsuzawa invites Cheung Kong instead of Hitachi onto the Legislative Council, Ibuka storms into the Chief Executive's office to shake his first at Matsuzawa while Matsushita calmly and rationally explains why Hitachi need to be invited onto the Legislative Council to act as a balance to Cheung Kong.
• Redemption Rejection: Attaining Ibuka's Persistence path is dependent on him burying his feelings of remorse and continuing to indulge in his spoiled, narcissistic worldview.
• Rejected Apology: In his Reconciliation ending, Ibuka meets Akio and apologizes for all the grievances and abuses he's committed for the past two decades. However, Akio isn't in such a forgiving attitude and tells him that the rest of the country will also think he's too little, too late. Ibuka accepts this fact, but promises his old friend that this change of heart will stick.
• Repression Never Ends Well: It is made clear that Ibuka pushing away his positive human connections with Morita and his own family have only caused him pain and misery, with him opening up to the guilt he feels in his Reconcilliation path being portrayed as a positive, and him doubling down on it in his Persistence path being shown negatively as it leads him to become an emotionally detatched dictator who rejects any chance at redemption.
• Revenge Before Reason: If Morita's Financial Solvency and Liquidity Ordinance fails to pass, it will be because of Ibuka and Fujitsu employing this trope, killing a bill that would only benefit them to spite Morita.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Ibuka in OTL was a co-founder of Sony and served as the president of Sony from 1950 to 1971; in TNO, the OTL predecessor of Sony, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, was acquired by Fujitsu and Furukawa Zaibatsu in 1952, and Ibuka joined Fujitsu and eventually became its president. The Sony in TNO was separately founded by Morita Akio in 1954 as his second commercial venture, rather than a renamed Tokyo Telecommunications.
• Rule of Symbolism: Ibuka designed Fujitsu Limited's logo to be an infinity symbol, representing his grand ambitions, the countless opportunities he offers for those who prove themselves, and his own contempt that the downtrodden will always bite the hand that feeds them, no matter the circumstances.
• Sanity Slippage: Ibuka hasn't been a nice guy since he left Tokyo Telecommunications, but his sanity descends to new lows in his Persistence path, now isolating himself from everyone and giving unspeakably brutal orders for the police to attack and/or massacre the rioters.
• Screw Destiny: Ibuka thoroughly rejects the notion that Guangdong is doomed to be destroyed in the upcoming Great Asian War, believing that he holds the power to change its fate.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: If he decides to play the Yasuda auction fairly, Matsuzawa will reject Ibuka's request to give an advantage to "the ones most deserving". Ignoring Ibuka's feeble retort, Matsuzawa tells him that he'll have to make a blind bid, like everyone else.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Subverted. He sometimes comes down from his office and visits the streets in a disguise, witnessing how badly his policies are affecting most of his people and still not caring about them. To Ibuka, a boots-on-the-ground perspective is a far better gauge for his policy than reading about them in a report.
• The Social Darwinist: He is purely fixated on turning Guangdong into a meritocracy, where its most cunning and innovative members can thrive, while everyone else is left to squalor in the slums. [[spoiler:After the Riots in his path, he proves that this model can work (in his ind, anyway) and succeeds in weaving hyper-competitive values into Guangdong society as a whole.
• Sore Loser:
  • If Suzuki doesn't immediately invest into one of the companies in the 1962 product cycle and Hitachi's HITAC-201◊ takes away Fujitsu's market share in computing, Ibuka will convulse with rage and disbelief at being outcompeted.
  • If Ibuka fails to stop the passage of the ICAC Ordinance, he will angrily curse Morita and baselessly claim that he bribed everyone to vote for his legislation.
• The Starscream:
  • After betraying Morita and moving to Fujitsu, Ibuka wants to move the company to Guangdong, hoping it would be the first step in his plan to take over the company.
  • When a vote of no confidence is initiated against Suzuki, Ibuka guarantees the Chief Executive's downfall by bribing Matsuzawa, Suzuki's only and most powerful ally left. Playing on Matsuzawa's fears that he and his family will be left impoverished by the Yasuda Crisis, Ibuka leaves Suzuki with only twelve votes in his favor.
• State Sec: Ostensibly to make up for police manpower shortages, Ibuka establishes an elite militia of "microsecondmen" under Fujitsu control, using the latest technology to enforce Fujitsu's rule and break strikes. As effective as the microsecondmen are, however, the lack of a clear command structure, their large overlap with police duties, and their arresting "corrupt" policemen in droves inevitably leads to an Interservice Rivalry, and they're just as detached from the communities they police as Ibuka himself.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Ibuka is not happy to be working with Komai and only brings him onto the Legislative Council so that he can sideline Morita and Li, whom he hates even more. This is briefly subverted if Morita and Li's Public Finance Ordinance fails to pass as Ibuka will actually be celebratory towards Komai and accepts Komai's offer to have their families share dinner.
  • Ibuka only makes Komai his External Secretary as his Hitachi connections allow him to out manoeuvre Sony and Cheung Kong when it comes to politics.
• Tempting Fate: While working in Tokyo Telecommunications with Morita, Ibuka repeatedly expressed his confidence in outcompeting their rivals with their combined genius. Knowing the present, this confidence was woefully misplaced and Ibuka would eventually betray Morita to save himself.
• That Man Is Dead: Deep down, Ibuka still misses his friend Morita when they served in the Navy together, but now considers him long dead since Tokyo Telecommunications' closure and replaced by a sentimental thespian. Ibuka doubles down on this sentiment during his Persistence ending.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: As he drowns Guangdong in blood to quell the riots of the Oil Crisis on his Persistence route, Ibuka realizes that his personal vision is fundamentally unrealistic and inhuman and will require a huge human cost, but chooses to forge ahead with it anyway rather than compromise on it.
• The Unfettered: Ibuka is above doing absolutely nothing when it comes to building the Guangdong of the future, mercilessly implementing a system where everyone enjoys what they have earned, no more, no less, no matter how many unsavory deals he has to make or human rights or welfare measures he has to bypass, ignore, or eliminate. In his Persistence path, he refuses to allow even ethics or reality to serve as fetters.
• Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Ibuka is sorely disappointed in Matsushita's independent ending that he'll never realize his grand ambitions, pondering how such an "unimaginative" man could take charge of Guangdong's future and cherry-pick his ideas at best. In the end, Ibuka wonders how much longer he can continue "drinking from this bitter cup" after 20 years of coming up short. This is amplified if Sony puppets Matsushita, as Ibuka begins to consider sabotaging Matsushita's efforts if it will save any chance of his dream coming true.
• Up Through the Ranks: He was a cofounder of the failing Tokyo Telecommunications to leading Fujitsu itself by 1959. Ibuka has attributed his rapid rise to his work ethics. One of the first events in his path is him meeting several Fujitsu representatives in Honkon, who used to be his superiors, but now bow down to him “every fifteen seconds.”
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Unlike Matsushita or Komai, Ibuka earnestly believes he's crafting a better world where hard work and innovation matters, and everyone can achieve just as much or even more than what his daughter is already doing. Unfortunately, that dream comes at a heavy human cost, fostering an environment of murder, corporate greed, deportation, poverty, and ethnic conflict. It's up to Ibuka to decide if he will abandon his untenable dream or plant his head into the ground so he won't wake up to the reality of the situation.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • If Hitachi's HITAC-201◊ computer is subsidized over his FACOM-222◊ in 1962, Ibuka will convulse with rage and shock, making him more determined to undermine Suzuki in revenge.
  • If Morita's Public Health Ordinance passes, Ibuka will go on a furious rant in the Legislative Council against Morita and Li supposedly dragging Guangdong down to their level with their "bleeding-hearts".
  • In an event, Ibuka briefly loses his cool when he's informed of a failed trial with Tankou Semiconductor's latest silicon refining technique, insulting the project team for their failure. After blurting out two sentences of his rant, Ibuka recognizes his poor choice of words and recomposes himself to be more professional.
  • Ibuka's appeals for peace during the Oil Crisis become increasingly desperate and mad, as dissent and vandalism persist in spite of his calls. His second appeal claims that despair is natural but that one ought to push forward regardless and that disobedience will only maintain the status quo. Then, his third appeal pushes the same message, while also blaming people's supposed idleness for their situation and dismissing calls for greater freedom. This façade is dropped in the subsequent appeal, where he aggressively blames everyone for their situation, insults and threatens them. Afterwards he gives up entirely on weekly addresses.
  • Ibuka has the mother of all breakdowns during the Guangdong riots, blaming everyone but himself for the crisis, cursing the entire situation, and declaring that Guangdong is his self-entitled experiment. His ramblings are so desperate and erratic that the rest of the Big Five can hardly muster pity for him and leave Ibuka to wallow in his victim mentality.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Ibuka can realize just how flawed his worldview really is and, after a personal crisis, embrace more-humanitarian options for dealing with the riots.
• Virtue Is Weakness: He disregards all sentiments of "welfare" and "tolerance" as a hinderance that has no place in Guangdong.
• Visionary Villain: By far the most ambitious of the executives, Ibuka envisions a future where Guangdong becomes a renowned power on the world stage and runs on pure efficiency to maximize its productivity. Tellingly, his Persistence ending has him prepare to entirely remodel Shenzhen and possibly carry out this crazy plan beyond the Three Pearls, which only gets dropped after his Heel–Faith Turn in the Reconciliation ending.
• We Used to Be Friends: Once former partners, Ibuka has developed a hateful rivalry towards Morita, as Ibuka's Fujitsu and Morita's Sony are bitter competitors in the telecommunications and computing business. In his Reconciliation path, Ibuka realizes how awful he's been to Morita and hesitantly visits the Sony Corporation building to apologize.
• What Is This Feeling?:
  • While contemplating the Guangdong Education Ordinance and how much of the Chinese population will still be disadvantaged, Ibuka feels a brief moment of unfamiliar helplessness.
  • If the Guangdong Zoning Ordinance fails to pass, not only does Ibuka feel an unusual sense of shame, but also peace knowing that it would've be expensive and difficult to enforce such a drastic plan.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • He would never openly admit it, but he does miss Morita and their friendship, noticing his absence during cabinet meetings in protest to his regime. Ibuka tries to bury his feelings about the past by focusing on the future, but he isn't always successful about it.
  • Seeing a starved beggar grasp on to his raincoat during the Oil Crisis, Ibuka tries to shake him off and express a lack of sympathy for him, but he internally realizes that he's responsible for putting so many into a destitute situation and that his cause isn't as righteous as he really thinks.
• Workaholic:
  • Success is the only possibility that Ibuka will accept and he will spend countless all-nighters to see it through. When Morita announced the TR-56 radio, Ibuka moved to Guangdong so that he can have more direct control of Fujitsu, abandoning his family for his own job.
  • He's extremely dedicated to his work, having speng more time in his workstation as Suzuki's External Secretary than traveling to Nanjing for diplomatic missions. Once the Oil Crisis hits, Ibuka works many sleepless nights and cups of coffee to assess and control the situation, vowing to not let anything destroy the vision he has come so far to build.
• Wild Card: Ibuka is shrewd when he needs to be and is willing to cross loyalties and enmities, if necessary.
  • In the early days, Ibuka legitimately believed that Tokyo Telecommunications could've grown and thrived, but a consistent string of failures led Ibuka to sell out Morita and the company to Fujitsu, joining the winning side and firing his old friend under orders from his new masters.
  • Despite his burning rivalry for Morita, Ibuka can swallow his pride and occasionally partner with him over a mutual interest, such as passing the Financial Solvency and Liquidity Ordinance or helping him locate Li's kidnapped family.
  • Ibuka's agenda is for his own benefit and he's willing to execute it, even if it occasionally opposes Japan's overall interests. Case in point, Ibuka can expand into Germany and help them modernize their computer systems with a custom-built mainframe to identify market trends. Ibuka knows that this is aiding Japan's rival at a time when Siemens and their university projects are on the backfoot, but he figures that the benefits from the deal are worth it and pins the blame on Japan for lifting their embargo in the first place.
• Worthy Opponent: Ibuka achieves international fame in his Persistence ending as a gadgeteer and exceptional businessman. Even the German and American delegations have to offer their tepid congratulations for their rival.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: Ibuka is self-aware that he might fail one day, but he's confident that the few technocrats who've succeeded in his Guangdong will take his place and carry on his vision.
• You Remind Me of X: If Pujie takes over Manchuria, Ibuka will think about how similar he is to Morita, except less annoying because Pujie's not so obsessed with making a name for himself.

Komai Kenichirō

^{70's Portrait (Manchurian Path)}

^{70's Portrait (Personalist Path)}

Role: President of Hitachi Limited, External Secretary^note Foreign Minister (Ibuka cabinet), Chief Executive^note Head of State (Hitachi Coup)

Party: Rippoukai - Manshūha^note Legislative Council - Manchuria Faction: The Empire of Manchuria has developed its own brand of capitalism, alien to its comparators in Tokyo and Guangdong. One corporation dominates economic life, an inescapable colossus: the Manchurian Industrial Development Corporation (Mangyō, MIDC) and its many subsidiaries. Decades of forced industrialization under Japanese supremacism have made Mangyō - and its electronics subsidiary, Nissan's Hitachi - notorious for its callous disregard for life and morality, even as it advances the states' ends with a ruthless efficiency. And some in Xinjing wonder: instead of serving the state in Manchuria, could they instead export their Manchurian System to Guangdong?

Ideology: Reform Bureaucracy^note Fascism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}A new authority stands ascendant and triumphant upon the tumultuous stage of Guangdong, a towering figure now eclipses the Pearl River Delta in somber darkness, its penumbra extending far and wide. A goliath has stepped onto Guangdong's shores, a man who embodies the ruthless efficiency of the industries of Manchukuo, whose vision for the state is one of steel and sweat, one where the backbreaking toil of the workers allows for productivity to soar to heights never before seen. The iron cavalier of Hitachi - Komai Kenichirō.

On the exterior, Komai is a man who commands respect; urbane, polite, and charismatic. However, his pleasant character is merely a veil for the plans and thoughts he harbors within his mind, his conceptions of grandeur and prosperity which can only be attained through the bluntest and most unforgiving of actions. With him now sitting atop the ivory tower, holding the position of Chief Executive, the bustling streets of the Three Pearls have been silenced, the gates to the underground societies have been shut, Guangdong has entered into a new era, one of order, security, and efficacy.

With the merciless truncheon of the Kenpeitai at his side and the supervision of his Manchurian benefactors above him, Komai will transform Guangdong into a symbol of industrial success, by any means necessary.

In-Game Biography (External Secretary) ^{Click to Show}Plenty question why Hitachi's Komai Kenichirō, only recently invited into the Legislative Council, was selected to be the external face of Ibuka's regime. Komai was already seen as an outsider, seen as an agent of Manchuria's state-dominated economy in the freewheeling corporate ecosystem of Guangdong. Would being forced to defend Guangdong to outsiders separate Komai from his masters in Xinjing?

The truth is that Ibuka doesn't trust Komai one bit - but he would rather keep any potential assets close at hand. It would certainly be better than bringing his nemesis, Morita Akio, into Guangdong's government once again - and Komai's emphasis on efficiency and profit is a thought process Ibuka understands, even if it comes with a particularly Manchurian brand of brutality.

70's In-Game Biography (Manchurian)^{Click to Show}There are times when Komai Kenichirō can only laugh faintly at how ordinary his life must be, at least in comparison to his former competitors in the form of Morita, Ibuka, and Matsushita. All he really did was graduate from Tokyo Imperial, start working for Hitachi Limited in 1925, and work hard to advance through its ranks ever since. All those years, and here he still is, forever a corporate suit with little to no real agency. Some might point to all Komai has achieved for Pan-Asianism, but always he dismisses this disinterestedly. Everybody does Pan-Asianism these days, there's nothing special about him promoting it as well. Nothing special about him at all, save only for his title of President of Hitachi Limited, a throne made of paper.

Yes, he can relish in these ephemeral piles of gold all he want; yes, he can call himself Caesar as many times as need be. But every Caesar has his Augustus, seated far and high away in Rome, holding the true reins of the empire they share regardless of the illusion of autonomy. No matter how many dissenters Komai locks away, no matter how much wealth he sits upon, something will always be missing. Something that isn't just another directive from Xinjing.

As China prepares for war, and forever after until the day he dies, Komai will always remain the man from Manchuria, the junior emperor of an empire not his own. Nothing more.

70's In-Game Biography (Personalist)^{Click to Show}In the end, Komai Kenichirō can't help but to look back at the whole of his life in awe at how ordinary it must be, at least in comparison to his former competitors in the form of Morita, Ibuka, and Matsushita. All he really did was graduate from Tokyo Imperial, start working for Hitachi Limited in 1925, and work hard to advance through its ranks ever since. Nevertheless, here he is now, having brought Hitachi as well as Guangdong as a whole to new heights both financially and technologically while eliminating all forms of dissent and real competition. All this is beyond the wildest dreams of his so-called 'superiors' back in Manchuria, perhaps beyond even his own just 10 years ago.

All this, for his one simple goal: to be absolute lord of his own future atop a throne of his own making. Komai is Caesar, looking down upon his Rome, ruling 'in the name of' whoever the current Augustus far away up north might be. All the feigned subservience and platitudes of loyalty end there; the true Komai, Chief Executive of Guangdong, emblazons himself with the same power and relish as Julius Caesar, the very man for whom the title Caesar was named.

Perhaps, when the dust has settled and the vying, frothing vagabonds and miscreants north the border have been dispatched, the path will have been paved for another Komai down the line. And another, and another, for as long as time shall bear witness.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Persistent Ibuka cabinet)^{Click to Show}It should come as no surprise to anyone that, having promised to keep Komai Kenichirō in line back in 1964 when he invited him to take part in government, Ibuka has proceeded to do exactly that all these years later. Much as Komai thought he might be able to take advantage of Ibuka by enabling his worst excesses in hopes that it would bring his plans to a halt, this idea ended up backfiring as Ibuka became the sort of monster with a list of people he feels have wronged him - with Komai's name one among many on it.

With Fujitsu dominating Guangdong, Hitachi is seeing less and less business these days, a minor player in a market owned by Fujitsu. Really, Komai supposes he should have seen this all coming.

70's In-Game Biography (External Secretary - Reconciliatory Ibuka cabinet)^{Click to Show}All along, Komai Kenichirō had seen this coming: that Ibuka would fail to meet the needs of his great selfish vision. As the fulfillment of this prediction presents Hitachi with a great business opportunity, so Komai will not allow it to go to waste. He will do whatever it takes to put Ibuka's newfound softheartedness to use and pay him back for daring to think Komai could possibly be 'kept in line.'

Then, when Ibuka is inevitably defeated by the political turbulence created by his change of heart, Komai will laugh in Ibuka's face and tell him that, really, he had it coming.

The President of Hitachi, a subsidiary of the Manchuria-based Nissan. Invited to Guangdong following the Yasuda crisis, Nissan's Guangdong expansion brought the ruthless efficiencies of the Manchurian system into the Pearl River Delta. Backed by his Manchurian benefactors and IJA-based connections, Komai and Hitachi prepare to turn Guangdong's peculiar corporotocracy into a Manchurian-branded industrial state.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: His superiors are not happy with the Guangdong Riots under his watch, telling him that they may pull the plug on his regime for a lack of investor confidence. Komai profusely apologizes for the delays in reporting back and timidly requests for more time for the police and Kenpeitai to chase down the dissidents.
• Ambition Is Evil: Komai is not one to compromise on his ambitions, even if it means killing and maiming thousands of people. When he receives an economic report that Hitachi's profits have grown by 17% and will continue to increase, Komai just sees this as a sign that there's still work to be done. According to Komai, business is more than pure greed, but that it is also a drive to succeed, a drive to work for days on end, and a willingness to be as heartless as possible. It is these qualities that makes Komai believe that he can take over Guangdong and potentially supplant the Zaibatsus, if he expands to Japan. In his personalist ending, Komai becomes the sole dictator and self-proclaimed Caesar of Guangdong, having completely bent the nation to his will.
• Appeal to Force:
  • While other Chief Executives will negotiate with the other companies to pass their legislation, Komai doesn't bother with the formality and instead uses brute force and blackmail to pressure them into agreement.
  • Komai's treatment of dissent uses the overwhelming might of the Kenpeitai to inspire fear and obedience, cracking down on the press and activists. Most notably, Komai is the only Chief Executive who cannot possibly negotiate with the Guangdong rioters.
• Appeal to Tradition: Komai makes multiple speeches to the Legislative Council about maintaining and upholding the traditions of commerce and entrepreneurship within Guangdong. Though the audience publicly applauds him out of fear, they are silently confused by Komai's hypocritical notion of uprooting Guangdong's traditional free-market economy with a Manchurian one, along with the fact that he is blatantly pro-Japanese.
• Arc Villain:
  • For all three of Suzuki's successors, Komai will build up support for a Hitachi coup, which will need to be investigated and dismantled before he strikes.
  • During the Oil Crisis in Morita's path, Komai will manufacture a personal crisis for either Morita or Li. If Morita focuses, on public welfare, Komai senses an opportunity to manipulate investor confidence in Sony declining and attempts a hostile takeover of the company. Likewise, if Morita becomes less lenient on public welfare, then Komai and his Manchurian benefactors will kidnap Li's family to break his spirits.
• Asshole Victim: If the Guangdong Riots grow too large for Hitachi to handle, Komai will be killed by Lee Chun, one of the same Chinese that he brutally oppressed and treated as cattle. Even the IJA agree that his crimes were extraordinary and give him a posthumous sentence of death by firing squad.
• At Least I Admit It: When Li protests his opposition to the Rural Development Ordinance and calls it heartless, Komai points out that Li has no problem speculating on real estate and exploiting other people in the process, denouncing his position as hypocritical. Komai admits that he's just as cunning and ruthless, but is, at least, honest about his corrupt practices.
• Bad Boss: Komai is handily the worst Chief Executive to work for, as a Chinese citizen. Production quotas, excess working hours, and compulsory unpaid overtime are all ways of life under his direction.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If either Morita or Li fail to resolve their personal crisis, Komai will be put in a more advantageous position than ever, able to call in more favors, both above and below the table, from Manchuria. Though Komai isn't yet Chief Executive, he's more dangerous than ever.
• Beneath the Mask:
  • Komai is secretly insecure about his legacy. In his personalist response to the Oil Crisis, Komai worries that he'll be worth nothing if Hitachi falls and be in an even worse position than Morita was in the 50's.
  • Beneath his smug demeanor at the end of his path, Komai is secretly afraid that he's not as untouchable as he thinks he is and that he's just a cog on the world stage, especially with tensions looming between Japan and China that could threaten to destroy Guangdong.
• Bread and Circuses: Subverted in the epilogue. Komai doesn't bother with any distracting entertainment for the people he oppresses, since they're too broken to bother with continued resistance. For them, bread is a reward exclusively for those who work hard enough and circuses are a luxury most will never attain.
• Brutal Honesty: Komai doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's an awful boss to work for and doesn't care about the welfare of his workers.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Whenever he's anxious during the Oil Crisis or the Guangdong Riots, Komai smokes cigarettes to calm himself down. In a particular instance during the Oil Crisis, Komai will smoke cigarettes after optionally calling for Manchuria's help, covering the papers in front of him with ash.
• Color Motif: Sandy brown. Combined with the nightmarish imagery of his focus tree, the color adds to the hopelessness, pollution, and industrialized evil that embodies Hitachi's exploitation and brutality.
• The Consigliere: Komai's company Hitachi is the subsidiary of the Manchurian based megacorp Nissan, with Hitachi serving as it's tendril to subjugate Guangdong to Manchuria's will.
• Control Freak: Komai is eager to go the Guangdong to show "the uncultured brutes in the south" the superiority of the centralised Manchurian economic model over the free-market economy run in all the other paths.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Par excellence. Even without Komai's takeover of Guangdong, Hitachi are noted for having extremely brutal taskmasters and cutthroat business practices. Upon becoming Chief Executive, Komai forces through a series of ordinances to crush any competition to Hitachi and snap up the remains, guts business regulations left and right, and creates a merciless Police State which consigns dissidents to Hellhole Prisons or deportation to slavery in Manchuria. In the Personalist route, he becomes a full-fledged corporate dictator with a state and nation totally subservient to himself and his enterprise.
• Corrupt Politician: Komai often uses blackmail and voter intimidation to get his way in the Legislative Council. Of particular note, when he needs to pass the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, he instructs his staff to give him files on every single member of the Legislative Council to personally plan who to bribe or intimidate, using a blank check from his Mangyō superiors.
• The Corruptor:
  • Komai's stock in trade is feeding people's worst impulses to manipulate them into doing his bidding. He's positively gleeful when Americans, in the event trade embargoes are lifted via detente with Japan, betray their principles and buy his cheap and high-quality products built with human misery and slave-labor. And his plot to take power from Ibuka involves feeding and enabling Ibuka's worst impulses.
  • Hitachi's initial efforts to expand into the United States are met with resistance from politicians and business leaders, who point out that Hitachi can afford to have cheap prices because they use slave labor from Guangdong and Manchuria. However, the attempted boycott doesn't significantly stifle Hitachi's sales and Komai orders the company not to acknowledge the controversy to avoid drawing more attention to it. By the end of the decade, Hitachi's products are widely used by the American middle-class, since their extremely low price overshadowed the moral boycotts of their products.
• Corrupt Politician: Komai prepares for his coup by bribing important military men and Legislative Council members to his side, preparing a fake terrorist attack so that he can swoop in and take over in the midst of the chaos.
• Crazy-Prepared: Of all the corporate leaders, Komai has the most well-prepared emergency plan for the IJA coup. In the Government Complex, Komai has a panic room with two-feet walls of reinforced steel and concrete, way below the main floors and with three weeks of food supply, a phone, and reading material. Komai plans to stay down there until Nagano clears out the city of all rioters and gives him an opportunity to sneak out. The room even has four bodyguards and emergency power in case anyone tries to cut the electricity and break in. The only reason the plan doesn't work is because the emergency power doesn't supply the door and leaves it wide open for Chun to kidnap him.
• Creepy Monotone: Komai sometimes slips into a monotone voice, which just makes him even creepier to those around him.
• Dehumanization: Komai repeatedly refers to workers as animals or tools to be exploited and the Guangdong rioters as pests. In the latter case, he metaphorically compares the police his pest control, permitting them to use all sorts of batons, shields, and weapons to suppress them without mercy.
• Dirty Coward: If the Guangdong Riots grow too severe for the Chief Executive to control them, Komai will elect to hide away in a underground panic room, whimpering in fear as the automatic door fails and it is breached by those seeking his head.
• Dramatic Pause: Komai likes to use this during his speeches to the Legislative Council, drawing out his authoritative statements, staring around at the councilors, and intimidating them to remain silent. He takes glee in the fear he inflicts and can barely contain his sadistic enjoyment.
• The Dreaded: Komai is the chief executive officer of Hitachi Limited, a subsidiary under the Manchurian Industrial Development Company and a prime example of the worst excesses of Japanese capitalism in the aforementioned country. For this reason, there is a general level of fear surrounding Komai and what he might do to expand his influence into Guangdong, yet no one can kick him out because he's being supported by powerful allies in Manchuria. He's well-aware of his reputation too and accepts the empty support of his subordinates anyway, since it just means their loyal to him out of fear. It's also possible for him to publicly embrace this status and lean on this strategy for governance; it works well enough that everyone respectfully stands aside when they hear the loudspeaker of a Hitachi or Kenpeitai vehicle.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Komai feels disrespected by Nissan and Mangyō, only viewed as a proxy for them to control Guangdong and nothing more, a sentiment fuelled after the Oil Crisis. This ends up motivating his eventual betrayal of them in the personalist ending.
• Dystopia Is Hard: Komai's brutal tactics and theft of smaller firms turns almost every Chinese and Zhujin citizen against him, forming resistance cells that grow in strength during the Oil Crisis and finally rise up in the riots. Of all the Chief Executives, it will be most difficult for Komai to suppress them, especially since he lacks the option to negotiate with them.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Komai might be the most ruthless man in all of Guangdong, planning to turn the country into an industrialized hellhole akin to Manchuria and forging a new era of "order, security, and efficacy", no matter how many lives are lost.
• Enemy Mine:
  • He can be summoned to the Legislative Council in a cautious alliance with Ibuka, as both hope to use the other to advance their own agendas.
  • Komai proposes to Ibuka that he should support the Guangdong Business Warrant Ordinance, appealing to his desire to eliminate foreign rivals to Fujitsu. Ibuka is skeptical that the tax will impact his own company and line Komai's own pockets, but the deal is too enticing for him to flat-out reject.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In contrast to his usual self-satisfied demeanor, Komai actually tries to restrain the Manchurian security forces with, at least, some oversight, well aware of how bad things can get if they run accounted for. He only does so under pressure from his superiors in the Oil Crisis and finally forgoes this standard to suppress the more dangerous Guangdong rioters.
  • Even Komai is taken aback by Ibuka's callous suggestion to deal with Lui by arresting and cutting his head off without any sense of caution or hesitation.
• Evil Colonialist: Komai believes that the unimpeded slavery and economic control in Manchuria is a model for all of the Sphere to follow, criticizing the executives in Guangdong for not going far enough in his eyes.
• Evil Old Folks: Komai is approaching his 70's and is the oldest of the possible Chief Executives, as well as the most vile one.
• Evil Wears Black: Komai is welcomed into the Legislative Council wearing an orchid emblem-lined jet-black suit.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Komai makes his first major attack on Morita's administration during a speech against the Industrial Development Ordinance. During this speech he questions the logic of why they should invest in rural areas and that Sony should do their things without forcing it upon the other companies. He closes the speech by claiming that Morita should drop the bleeding-heart attitude if he really wants to compete with Manchukuo.
  • Komai does not understand the lighter hand that Pujie wants to adopt in Manchuria, if the monarchy is retained there. Instead, this deepens his resolve to model Guangdong after the old Manchurian system to prove it to be the superior framework.
• Evil Is Petty: Komai is free to indulge in his personalist ending and he lets his former superiors know it too. When his benefactors call him, Komai lets the phone ring for a few moments before picking up, playing ignorant to who is calling, and lying about being too busy to update them. He can barely hold back his glee as he sarcastically thanks them for reaching out and he breaks down in laughter when he hangs up and hears his superior's feeble protests.
• Evil Pays Better: Komai's ultra-centralized economy and easy relationship with corruption and the IJA let him achieve some of the highest growths of any chief executive, but at enormous human cost. But it's subverted to a point because he is unquestionably the most screwed when the Oil Crisis hits.
• Failed a Spot Check: Komai is too prideful and arrogant to even realize that his actions are inspiring the people to eventually rise up against him, publicly splattering messages denouncing him as a tyrant, murderer, and occupier. Even his subordinates realize this fact before he does.
• Faux Affably Evil: On the outside Komai feigns a refined and courteous to a fault persona, which belie his calculating malice underneath. This is in contrast to his corporate companions from Manchuria; whilst they are described by the businessmen of Guangdong as "stone-faced," Komai is described as "quite the affable character."
• Foreshadowing: If the Sōmuchō seize power in Manchuria, Komai will lament how he and Sakomizu both seem to be relegated to the role of Mangyō's errand boys while also wondering if there is nothing greater in store for him, foreshadowing his Personalist route, his personal best ending where he is no longer controlled by Mangyō and Nissan.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Though he's not the first Chief Executive, Komai calls himself the father of Guangdong, claiming a right and destiny to rule over the state after quelling the Riots. In his Personalist ending, Komai affirms this as Guangdong's claimed Pater Patriae.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Downplayed. Komai is certainly powerful, but most just saw him as yet another corporate leader in a nation full of them, if they even knew him at all. However, following the Hitachi coup, there is not a person in Guangdong who does not know and fear the name.
• Glory Hound: Komai likes to invite representatives from Tokyo, Mangyō, and Nissan to formal dinners in grand hotels, where they discuss business over the luxuries of fine food and music. Komai is especially gleeful at the attention he receives from the most powerful people in Asia.
• The Gloves Come Off: Brutal as he already is, Komai can get even worse during the Riots. After his initial attempt to crush them fails, the furious Chief Executive ramps up his countermeasures, whether through sheer overwhelming force or precise strikes at the rioters.
• A God Am I:
  • In one event, Komai smugly compares himself to the Greek deity Prometheus at he pats himself on the back for being the "bringer of enlightenment" to the people of Guangdong.
  • In the Riots, Komai compares himself to the Titan, Atlas, for carrying the burden of governing Guangdong without complaint.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • In Ibuka's Persistence ending, his plan to take power in Guangdong through encouraging Ibuka's worst excesses backfires, as Ibuka embraces his role as a bloody-handed dictator over a viciously totalitarian corporate state and begins assembling "lists" of everyone he feels has personally wronged him and taking revenge, including Komai himself.
  • Komai is encouraged via gameplay mechanics to cozy up to the Kempeitai and make use of the control they offer to improve his support at the expense of rampant corruption. But Komai is not immune to their displeasure; he can be as much a victim of Nagano Shigeto being put in control during the Oil Crisis as any other Guangdong leader and he will be no less screwed in that scenario, even if angry Chinese get to him before the IJA does.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: As seen in numerous events and his Personalist route portrait, Komai loves smoking cigarettes and his favorite brand is a Manchurian one, which he first smoked in the Second World War. He's also the single most despicable executive in Guangdong, with the cigarette communicating his Corrupt Corporate Executive image and allegiance to Manchuria.
• Gratuitous Latin: He frequently uses Latin phrases to glorify himself and his personalist ending has Komai compare himself to the legendary Roman figure, Julius Caesar.
• Hate Sink: Komai is the most personally despicable Chief Executive, willing to sacrifice countless lives in a manner as brutal and callous as possible without even being able to claim he believes in a somewhat noble vision like Ibuka. He even outclasses Nagano in the loathsomeness stakes, since Nagano at least cares about the men under his command - to the point of genuine anger at the way the PTRG treats them as guinea pigs - while Komai ultimately doesn't give a single rat's ass about anyone but himself and takes all of Guangdong society over the Despair Event Horizon.
• Hated by All:
  • Komai is the most feared and hated of the executives in the Legislative Council. When he's brought into the Legislative Council, Matsushita remains brief but is obviously trembling, Morita barely conceals his disdain behind his greetings, Li is exceptionally anxious about Komai's arrival, and Ibuka reminds Komai of his place behind a "shit-eating grin". None of the Chinese and Zhujin are happy to see him in Guangdong either, with the latter sending Matsuzawa a scathing letter condemning his invitation and threatening to take more "drastic measures" if he continues pushing the wrong buttons.
  • Komai sinks even further into this status if Morita's personal crisis is resolved and Komai's scummy attempt to take over Sony is exposed. In reaction to this news, the Legislative Council erupts with fury and all the other companies agree to freeze the assets of Komai's Kanton Sasshin Fund. Ibuka, his closest ally, even goes so far as to call Komai a "son of a whore".
• Hates Rich People: Inverted. Komai despises vagrants and beggars as wasteful and a burden to the nation. He even thinks that family payment schemes are a fraud for the poor to get free money and that social spending is a waste of resources. The Entrepreneurial Recovery Ordinance, intended to give Nissan more power in Guangdong, can have an addendum allowing managers to hire people with "zero-hour contracts" that promise no minimum hours or pay. A pro-Manchurian response to the Oil Crisis also revolves around raising taxes and slashing welfare for the Chinese citizens to exploit them as much as possible.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: The greedy, monstrous Komai of this mod's story bears little resemblance to his real-life counterpart, who just appeared to be a regular businessman. At most, he was a member of the controversial Club of Romes, a think tank that advocated a reduction in the global population, but this was for neo-Malthusian reasons and it is a far cry from his entirely selfish motives in the mod.
• Horrifying the Horror: For a sociopathic monster that speaks and behaves like an Evil Overlord, Komai is just as terrified as the other potential Chief Executives when Muto's coup succeeds in Japan. Primarily, he dreads to imagine what the general has planned for Guangdong.
• Hope Crusher: Life in Guangdong is already pretty bleak, but Komai in particular instills an atmosphere of utter terror, dread, and despair over the people.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Rumors of a growing resistance movement are noticed by journalists like Yoshiko, but they never report them to the government because of their restrictions on free press. It doesn't help either that Komai's underfunding of the police allows said dissidents to grow in strength, which blows up in his face during the riots.
• Hypocrite:
  • If the Rural Development Ordinance is about to pass, Komai will protest that they are only passing the initiative because they all benefit from training farmers into miners and expanding their workforce. Matsushita interrupts and correctly points out that Komai is only mad because he couldn't get this deal for himself and would've jumped on it otherwise.
  • With giant Manchurian corporations looking over his back, Komai laments how they have exploited Guangdong for their gain, even though he has no problem doing the same thing himself. The frustration is more so rooted in his discontent of taking their orders and being their minion rather than any genuine moral qualm.
  • In a personalist approach to the Oil Crisis, Komai targets the bureaucrats by reviewing their payrolls and budget allocations, remarking that they need to be reminded of their place and need to get their greed in check. This, coming from the most greedy and arrogant person in all of Guangdong.
• I Am the Noun:
  • In the personalist route to the Oil Crisis, Komai completely reorganizes the economy without the help of his Manchurian benefactors, declaring himself to be Guangdong and that the land belongs to him and him alone. The sentiment of Komai being Guangdong is reinforced in the personalist ending.
  • Having secured his rule from the riots, Komai overruns the market with Hitachi products, and drives his competitors into obscurity and left to fight over scraps, to the point he declares that the market is Hitachi.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Fear is the primary motivator used by Komai to keep his subordinates and people loyal. He knows that the other corporate leaders hate him, but he smiles anyway, knowing that they're too afraid and powerless to actually challenge him. Even more so, he relishes that the general population fears him, taking it as proof of how far his authority reaches.
• I Work Alone:
  • There are a number of amendments he can make to his ordinances that appeal to a certain faction, but Komai usually has the option to reject these compromises and push the ordinance through the Legislative Council on his own.
  • Komai's personalist response to the Oil Crisis and Riots boils down to him rejecting support from his Nissan superiors and forging his own path, becoming independent in the process.
• It's All About Me:
  • He exploits and oppresses hundreds of thousands of people to transform Guangdong into his own personal kingdom, yet expects those same people to cooperate with the government during the Oil Crisis and bear the necessary cuts to stave off the crisis. If anything, his main concern during the Oil Crisis is not the well-being of others, but the threat the crisis poses to his rule.
  • After slashing everyone's wages and hanging most of the populace out to dry, Komai can invest the accumulated money for his own gain in a massive sales drive, promoting his products and glorifying himself as the hero of Guangdong.
  • The only reason Komai wants to cut ties from Nissan and Mangyō is because he thinks that they're stealing his credit for making Guangdong the success story it is.
• I've Come Too Far: Seeing government finances crumble during the Oil Crisis convinces Komai that he needs to take whatever suppressive measures need to crack down on dissent and protect his position, regardless of the casualties.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Even if Li's family is saved in his personal crisis, Morita's cabinet won't be able to punish Komai for orchestrating the kidnapping, since the Manchurian government can protect him and hide all evidence of his involvement. If they want a realistic chance of taking him down, they'll need to organize public campaigns against him.
  • In the IJA coup for every route but his own, Komai is given lighter treatment compared to the other corporate leaders and sent on the first plane back to Manchuria.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • Komai loses a lot of resources in his failed Hitachi Coup, but otherwise, comes out relatively unscathed from his blatant insubordination. Tangible consequences can finally hit him if Morita's personal crisis is successfully resolved, as Hitachi's stock goes down and Komai gets scathingly rebuked by his superiors back in Manchuria. By the end, Komai loses a lot of the support and goodwill he had in Manchuria, making him the latest laughingstock in the corporate world.
  • If Sony negotiates with the Guangdong rioters, they can finally make Hitachi pay for all their deception and work abuses by sending the Police to arrest Komai's men and punish them for their gross work abuses.
• Karmic Death: Fittingly for the Chief Executive that is the most brutal to the Chinese population living in Guangdong, should the riots escalate to the point where the IJA takeover, he is the only Chief Executive killed before he can be put on trial, killed by the same Chinese he treated like cattle - at the hands of Lee Chun.
• Kick the Dog:
  • As if deporting dissidents wasn't bad enough, Komai goes the extra mile by stuffing them in cramped prison ships, abused by the guards and forced to undergo seasickness.
  • Komai regards regulations and social spending as an impediment to businesses, placed by fools and traitors to the nation. Thus, he ruthlessly purges the bureaucracy in the name of unimpeded profits.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Komai has the option of passing the Social Security Reconciliation Ordinance, which would almost entirely gut social welfare for the Chinese on the basis that they are replaceable. When handed a selection of reports, Komai fixes their results to alter requirements of welfare eligibility, redirecting most of the money to his brutal security services.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Komai expresses no sympathy for the awful environment, pollution, and working conditions he's brought in Guangdong, taking great pride from the economic growth he's created at the massive human cost and denouncing resistance as sedition. As he says upon raising quotas, wages are "earned, not granted".
  • He considered government regulations to be a decadence and a handicap on past administrations, so he purges the bureaucracy of anyone who sympathizes with the workers.
• Led by the Outsider: Even more so than Morita. Komai is not even present in Guangdong at game start and only arrives after the Yasuda Crisis, upon Ibuka's invitation. His leadership marks a drastic turn in brutality and away from the traditional free markets towards a Manchurian-style, state-directed economy. Furthermore, most of his decisions are at the behest of his superiors in Manchuria, reinforcing the notion of him being an outsider.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste:
  • Komai exploits the Oil Crisis to cut himself free of Nissan and Mangyō's strings, using their vulnerability to make himself Guangdong's sole king. Komai also sees opportunity in handling the riots as a moment to secure his legacy in history without Mangyō's support and prove his mettle. Whether he succeeds or not is up to the player.
  • Komai suggests that the Guangdong Riots could play to Hitachi's benefit in the independent confrontation with the Mangyō representatives, claiming that Hitachi's opponents will be weakened in the struggle.
• A Million Is a Statistic: He compensates his abusive working standards with the high number of potential workers in both Manchuria and Guangdong; if someone gets injured, Komai can just fire them and hire a new one in their place. For added cruelty and disregard, Komai scraps many building regulations like suicide nets and basic ventilation, since profits matter more to him than individual lives.
• Moral Myopia: Seeing the beauty of Honkon's skyline, Komai thinks about how the rioters are destroying his "precious pearl", ignoring how his own actions emboldened them to such violence in the first place.
• Never My Fault: Despite being responsible for the Guangdong riots happening in the first place, Komai refuses to take any accountability and instead blames the incompetence of others for starting the crisis.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Komai seizes control of Guangdong after a series of bomb attacks are launched throughout the nation, forcing the current Chief Executive to resign so that he and the Kenpeitai can take matters in their own hands to combat these terrorists. Unbeknownst to the public, Komai was the one who orchestrated the whole incident to eliminate his rival and seize power for his own selfish gain. His blatantly self-serving ambitions are highlighted again when he extends the state of emergency to combat "terrorism", with everyone in the Legislative Council following along, some out of admiration, some out of fear, and most out of confusion.
  • Throughout his reign, Komai proclaims that his extreme actions are needed to defend the state from traitorous rebels and to lead Guangdong into a new golden age dedicated to prosperity and the pan-Asian cause. However, all of his personal interactions and monologues make it clear that he's only making Guangdong a better place for himself, not even for the Manchurian companies he serves.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • If he receives news of the Sōmucho taking over Manchuria, Komai's perpetually smiling demeanor will crack as he thinks about being overshadowed by Sakomizu, which is not helped by the turbulence that affecting his plane back to Guangdong.
  • In a shocking turn from his usual affable front, Komai expresses outrage at the Financial Supervision and Regulation Ordinance's proposal in Morita's path, highlighting how severe this legislation would be and potentially getting it overturned by objecting to excessive government oversight.
  • Komai finally drops a government subsidy during the Oil Crisis to fund research and the development of synthetic resources. This contradicts his usual penny-pinching governance and risks annoying his Manchurian superiors, a strong sign of how dire the crisis is.
  • Komai realizes how serious matters are getting in the Oil Crisis when he witnesses some policemen try to put down a protest by attacking one demonstrator, only to get swarmed by five more. For the first time in a long time, Komai actually fears that he's not in control of the situation and must do something to alleviate the people's anger.
  • The serious threat of the Guangdong riots is exemplified when Komai has to answer to his superiors in Manchuria. In contrast to his smug demeanor, Komai is fidgeting in fear when his benefactors express their disappointment and he has to nervously request more time to stop them before they pull the plug on his regime.
  • In a rare moment of breaking his affable character, Komai expresses worry that a persistent Ibuka is becoming too independent and will turn on Hitachi.
• Perpetual Smiler: Komai is grinning smugly in all three of his portraits. Just about the only situations in which his good cheer fades are Ibuka's Persistence ending or an IJA takeover; in both scenarios he's just as screwed as everyone else.
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • Besides being a morally bankrupt executive, Komai is racist towards the Japanese living in southern China, deeming them "uncultured brutes" and "savages" who are too soft to follow the brutal, economic model in Manchuria.
  • Komai has no compassion for the Chinese either, whom he considers no better than "cheap labor" and "beneath his notice at best". Whenever frustrated, he occasionally says anti-Chinese racial slurs and he vehemently opposes Morita's plans to reform the civil service for Chinese admission or Ibuka's proposal to expand education, at one point claiming that there are no good Chinese professions in Guangdong or Manchukuo.
  • The Zhujin are not spared from Komai's discrimination, who views them as a contemptuous social construct who are no better than the Chinese. As he passes a number of pro-Japanese ordinances, countless Zhujin-run businesses are seized by Hitachi and their managers are sentenced to labor in the factories.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • There are several opportunities for Komai to ease on the repression, purely so that he doesn't anger his people too much. When fire meets fire, Komai drops any mask of civility or benevolence.
  • Komai can throw Hitachi's support behind Morita's ordinances, provided that he be given more influence and benefits.
  • Komai strongly disapproves of Katakura taking power in Manchuria, considering him a "glorified oxen in uniform" who will ruin the "prosperity" of Manchuria with his stupid militant ventures.
  • Komai can swallow his pride and ask Mangyō for help to reestablish order after the Oil Crisis. Much as he would like to rule on his own, the work proves too much for him to handle alone.
  • When the first wave of police repression fails to stop the Guangdong riots, Komai can avoid escalating the violence and use more modest Divide and Conquer strategies because further suppression would only embolden the protesters.
• Pride Before a Fall: After being an arrogant snake throughout his entire route, his pride is taken down a notch in the Manchurian ending, where he's forced to obey and praise the superiors he considers inferior to himself. In a Mangyō boardroom, they give him the minimum praise for stopping the Guangdong riots and grant him almost no time to speak for himself, despite being an "honored guest". Meanwhile, he's expected to give a speech on how great Mangyō is and watch them piggyback off his achievements, showing how low he's fallen.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: If Ibuka licenses out Fujitsu's products, Komai will thank him for giving Hitachi their processors and make superficial compliments to the Chief Executives' commitment to the pan-Asian cause. Ibuka, for his part, finds the entire act annoying, only playing along to keep Hitachi dependent on Fujitsu.
• The Puppet Cuts His Strings: Initially Komai just acts as a executor of the rulers of Manchuria's will - to subjugate Guangdong to their economic model and whims - should he brave the Oil Crisis and labor riots without over-relying on Manchurian support however, he will be able to cut his strings and become the uncontested dictator of Guangdong answering to no one.
• The Purge: The purges get even worse after he takes over, with hundreds rounded up for "crimes against the state" and sardine packed into ships to be deported to Manchuria.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Though Komai can stave off the Guangdong riots, he won't feel much satisfaction in his victory, if he relied too much on Manchuria's aid during the Oil Crisis, where his benefactors take away much of his autonomy for letting the riots happen in the first place and lying about their severity. In the aftermath, Komai cringes as he bows to his superiors and he tastes nothing but defeat when his feeble request for more independence is silently snubbed off.
• Reminiscing About Your Victims: Having lost most of his power in the Manchurian ending, one of Komai's few comforts is thinking about the other corporate leaders he's outplayed. He recalls the sneering arrogance of Ibuka and deems him nothing more than a pawn now. He views Matsushita as a stooge piggybacking off his own accomplishments. And, most satisfying of all to him, Komai remembers Morita's cries of outrage towards Hitachi's abuses, insulting him as an unrealistic dreamer, a parasite, and a fool.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Subverted during the Oil Crisis. Komai can protect Japanese investments through the Capital Investment Security Ordinance, in spite of how much it will cost the government. However, it's not because he cares for the people he's helping, but rather because it's going to help him stay in Tokyo's good graces and add to his own legacy.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
  • In his first event, Komai recruits several Legislative Council members through bribes, giving him the momentum needed to take over Guangdong for himself.
  • Even Komai recognizes that the implementation of Manchurian security forces to handle the Oil Crisis is too far for the Legislative Council to approve of, so he uses bribes to secure the Public Order and Police Ordinance's passage.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: With most of Guangdong suffering in the Oil Crisis, Komai announces that Hitachi will close one third of its premises in the country and relocating to the more economically stable territories in Manchuria. Many are outraged that Hitachi is going to leave the rest of Guangdong to burn, but Komai claims that Hitachi fights for itself, not the country.
• Sinister Shades: Komai's portrait for his Personalist route feature a pair of these.
• The Sleepless: During the Oil Crisis, Komai frequently works in the middle of the night and feels exhausted.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • Despite potentially relying on Manchuria's help to deal with the Oil Crisis, Komai deludes himself into thinking that Guangdong belongs to himself and that crushing the riots will prove himself to be superior to Manchurian allies. By this point, it's too late for Komai to do so and he'll forever remain their subservient proxy to govern Guangdong for them.
  • On the international scale, Komai isn't quite as important as he thinks he is, even after impressively overcoming the Oil Crisis and Guangdong Riots. During a press conference, the journalists ignore most of his work in Guangdong to get his opinion on the looming conflict between China and Japan, the much larger players who have the world's eye. This perception eventually catches up to Komai and his allies, who feel simultaneous pride and grim acceptance that their victory might be shorter than they expected.
• The Social Darwinist: Downplayed. While not a proper Social Darwinist like Ibuka, Komai uses the term "survival of the fittest" to describe the upper class who have expanded their wealth under his reign.
• The Sociopath: Easily the most sociopathic of the Chief Executives. He has a charming exterior, lies and manipulates constantly, remorselessly expresses no concern for anyone but himself, uses violence to get his way, and justifies his horrible actions on the basis that workers are replaceable.
• Sore Loser:
  • Komai strongly opposes Li and Morita's proposed Civil Service Ordinance and if it passes, he walks out of the Legislative Council in a fit of anger.
  • He does not take well to the Violent Crime Control and Incarceration Ordinance being rejected, so he orders the Kenpeitai to dump their prisoners into the underfunded police prison system, manufacturing a crisis so that the Council can reconsider passing his legislation.
  • One of his worst reactions comes when the Budget Reorganization Ordinance fails to pass, leading Komai to curse everyone in the Legislative Council and swearing that they will regret opposing him.
  • Upon receiving news of the Guangdong Business Warrant Ordinance's failure, Komai hides in his office and rips the documents apart out of pure rage, not because of the potentially lost money, but because he can't stand the idea of someone rejecting his ideas, and that Morita and Ibuka were smugly looking at him in victory.
  • A more downplayed case is failing the Capital Investment Security Ordinance. Though any lost Japanese investment can easily be replaced with Manchurian capital, Komai is still upset at the setback because it wounds his pride and, though he tries moving on, the sting of defeat does not go unforgotten.
• The Starscream:
  • Komai has no chance of taking over Guangdong immediately after the Yasuda Crisis, but he works behind the shadows to build up his influence, waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the sitting Chief Executive.
  • Wanting to satiate his ego and feeling disrespected by his superiors in Manchuria, Komai plots to reassert his autonomy so that he is the sole master of Guangdong. If he expressed enough independence during the Oil Crisis, Komai gets his wish and can now toy with his superiors on the phone with sarcasm and lies, knowing that they can't control him anymore.
  • In Ibuka's Reconciliation ending, Komai is back to his treacherous ways, recruiting Nagano and Miyazaki in a plot to overthrow the Chief Executive. With the upcoming Great Asian War, they believe he's too indecisive to save Guangdong and now want him gone.
• Taking Up the Mantle:
  • When Katakura takes power in Manchuria, Komai expresses grief that the Manchurian economic model will perish under his hand and vows to carry its legacy himself in Guangdong, finishing what Xinjing started.
  • If Pujie succeeds Puyi, Komai believes that he now carries the torch of Manchuria's economic model because he thinks it was foolish decision for the bureaucrats and businessmen to hand more power to the Aisin-Gioro family. Without their perfect puppet in Puyi, Komai bemoans that the Reform Bureaucrats can no longer mold Manchuria to their wishes when Pujie is in power.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: The entire reason he is in Guangdong, as befitting a country that helped codify this trope. Komai's masters in Manchuria have recognized the competitive threat free market Guangdong poses to the totalitarian, Kwantung Army dominated command economy of Manchukuo and want to head it off at the pass by sending Komai to be their man able to take over the country from the inside.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • After arrogantly preparing an experimental Hokkaido sake to celebrate the Hitachi Coup's success, Komai's high hopes are deflated, if the Kenpeitai and the Army decide to pull out of the operation. Left alone and having wasted most of his capital on a scrapped plan, Komai is in disbelief and shock at this setback.
  • If Komai becomes victim to an IJA coup in his own path, he takes refuge in a saferoom underneath the Legislative Complex. Once the power is cut and the door doesn't close, he frantically orders his guards to protect him and proclaims "this can't be the end".
• The Unapologetic: Komai refuses to apologise for his role in starting the Oil Crisis riots and blames Morita instead.
• The Unsmile: He's constantly smiling, often as a sign for people to applaud his actions. It's creepy at best and downright ominous at worst. It becomes even more sinister in his personalist ending, a twisted expression communicating his arrogance and final triumph.
• Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: His Manchurian ending leaves him resentful that he remains the junior partner to his Manchurian benefactors, a mere tool and average corporate suit with no real agency or authority to speak of. No matter the wealth he has generated or the things he has accomplished, he still lacks the one thing he really wants: power.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Komai's decision to close some of Hitachi's businesses in the Oil Crisis is the last straw for many of the workers who will lose their jobs with this move, strengthening the countrywide riots by the GFT and CCL.
• Victory by Endurance: One of Komai's strategies to stopping the Guangdong riots is to quarantine the demonstrations and let the Kenpeitai discreetly pick off their leadership, starving them out until they submit.
• Viler New Villain: Hitachi are invited to Guangdong following the collapse of Yasuda. They arrive in Kōshu en masse, assisted by the Kenpeitai and masses of overworked men from Manchuria and set themselves up in the now vacated Yasuda building, a metaphor of Yasuda being replaced by an even more oppressive corporation.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Komai builds influence through the use of misinformation, having the news media play up Sony, Matsushita, and Fujitsu stumbling in the stock market, while simultaneously praising the "Manchurian quality" of his products.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Forcing Hitachi to review its every payroll during the Oil Crisis, Komai loses his composure when he thinks his subordinates are making excuses for why Hitachi has been so debilitated. He roars with anger and blames everyone for ruining his delicate work, only calming down when he pinches his nose to stop embarrassing himself and dismisses the fearful attendees.
  • When a mob of Chinese workers riot and hold a factory hostage, Komai has a sudden outburst at the other corporate suits criticizing his unwillingness to negotiate with them. He calls all of them "misbegotten bleeding-hearts" and, in his angriest tone yet, declares that he will never concede anything to them, which shocks everyone present.
  • When a Mangyō delegation is sent to investigate the Guangdong riots, Komai tries to preserve their confidence in his abilities by ordering their plane to land in a distant airfield, away from the street violence that would reflect badly on himself. However, if he relied too much on Manchurian aid during the Oil Crisis, the conspiracy fails and Komai violently expresses his outrage, knocking a glass off his desk and ranting about being surrounded by morons. He's so pissed that he calls Miyazaki to drill in his failure to divert the delegation.
  • Komai does not react well to Ibuka's Modern Police Ordinance restraining the Kenpeitai's authority. Amidst his Sinophobic comments, Komai rants that the Kenpeitai are the only people capable of preserving the status quo and that their authority is now being superseded by the police.
• Villainous Gold Tooth: His Personalist portrait shows that he has a gold tooth, further communicating his greed and arrogance.
• Villains Out Shopping: When he's on break, Komai likes to smoke a cigarette and admire the beauty of Guangdong's cities from the balcony of his residence.
• Violence is the Only Option:
  • Uniquely, Komai is the only Chief Executive who lacks the option to negotiate with the Guangdong rioters, even telling Tsuchida to kill them if needed. It's the only sensible possibility, since Komai is exceptionally brutal and will never compromise on that, while the dissidents are beyond furious for talk.
  • Even if Komai is not in power, he regards the hostage crisis in one of his factories to be Hitachi's responsibility, refusing the pleas of the other tycoons to negotiate with the workers.
• Virtue Is Weakness:
  • He believes that sentimentality has no place in the world and argues that the downfall of the Western European nations was because they made concessions to the working class. He insults Morita's lighthandedness as indulgence in "wanton waste" and sees Ibuka's change of heart in his Reconciliation path as a weakness he can exploit to destroy and usurp the chief executive.
  • Komai expresses that tolerance is an Achilles' heel that's destroyed so many prospering empires because they let "subversive elements" grow, which may be his justification for cracking things down further. The only reason he'll potentially entertain this virtue is because he wants to feign benevolence and disarm any opposition in exchange for their cooperation.
• Visionary Villain: He seeks to completely transform Guangdong under a Manchurian slavery economic model, viewing Nissan and Mangyō as models to aspire towards, while comparing himself to Prometheus or the architects of Rome.
• We Sell Everything: Komai's megacorp Hitachi is renowned for the vast number of different electronics it sells, far surpassing the other megacorps of Guangdong.
• What You Are in the Dark: Beneath his bluster and arrogance, Komai is secretly afraid that his legacy and achievements were only half-built by himself, with the other half attributed to the Nissan and Mangyō bureaucrats who support him. If Komai addresses the Oil Crisis by allowing Nissan to restructure the tax codes, he sits by himself on a balcony, pondering this question before a Mangyō bureaucrat startles him with a positive report.
• Wicked Cultured: By far the evilest of the possible Chief Executives and his boardroom utilizes late Victorian architecture, with gold and luxury permeating throughout the place. The banquets he hosts also plays classical music, from Wagner to the Blue Danube Waltz, and shares luxurious, illegally imported cuisine, like casu marzu from Sardinia.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Komai is not above threatening the children of business owners who refuse to sell out to Hitachi. When one stubborn man repeatedly refuses his offers, Komai sends photos of his household and children to threaten him into submission.
  • In Li's personal crisis, Komai orders his family to be kidnapped and threatened, which includes Li's son.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After failing to pass the Taxation and Economic Relief Ordinance and getting scolded by his Manchurian superiors for his failure, Komai begins to wonder how replaceable he is, giving a good chance that they might discard him if his usefulness expires, much like the thousands of Chinese workers toiling in the factories.

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