History Characters / TNOGuangdong

The State of Guangdong is an artificial Japanese colonial state carved out of China post-WWII, created for the sole purpose of becoming a playground for unchecked Japanese capitalism. The unnatural state is filled to the brim with crime, corruption, and poverty, all overseen by the established Japanese electronics Zaibatsus, their subsidiaries, and new, homegrown corporations trying to find a place for themselves. While China and Japan view Guangdong as a farce and an inconvenience respectively, ambitious enterprisers see Guangdong as the perfect next step to their businesses: a place where corporate visionaries can become national ones.

* CyberpunkForFlavor: Leans into this aesthetic more heavily than even Novosibirsk. While it lacks the high-technology and cyberspace aspects due to the timeframe, Guangdong is set in the highly urbanized Pearl River Delta, ruled by a pervasive corporatocracy of [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japanese electronic zaibatsu]] and rife with crime, poverty and government corruption, giving it all the trappings of a proto-cyberpunk state. Ibuka's path provides the clearest example, where, according to his vision, Guangdong becomes a cutthroat meritocracy that prioritizes the accelerated development of said high-technology over the well-being of its denizens.

* CorruptPolitician: Matsuzawa's Yasuda conglomerate is one of the Big Four zaibatsus in Japan and the largest of the corporations in Guangdong. As such, Matsuzawa's pockets are deep, allowing him to buy favors in the Legislative Council and accumulate more power for himself. For instance, in the aftermath of the Yasuda crisis, Matsuzawa tries to use his position as Chief Executive to pressure an accountant to overvalue Yasuda's assets for the upcoming auction.

* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: Matsuzawa Takuji was the president of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuji_Bank Fuji Bank]] from 1975-1981, having joined the company when it was still known as the Yasuda Bank, the center of the Yasuda zaibatsu before its dissolution. In TNO, he becomes the representative director of the Guangdong branch of Yasuda Holdings, and can be elected to the position of Chief Executive in Guangdong.

* GoodIsNotNice: The Guangdong rioters do have a noble goal in mind: to end the repression of Chinese and Zhujin citizens at the hands of the Japanese Zaibatsu. Unfortunately, their methods are violent and will get innocent people killed in the process, especially if the Chief Executive lets their frustrations reach critical levels.

The State of Guangdong is an artificial Japanese colonial state carved out of China post-WWII, created for the sole purpose of becoming a playground for unchecked Japanese capitalism. The unnatural state is politically dominated by Japanese electronic zaibatsu, and is filled to the brim with crime, corruption, and poverty. While China and Japan view Guangdong as a farce and an inconvenience respectively, ambitious enterprisers see Guangdong as the perfect next step to their businesses: a place where corporate visionaries can become national ones.

* AmateurSleuth: Waiting outside of the Guangdong government complex in pursuit of a story, she overhears a conversation between two Fujitsu aligned Legislative Council members just as she is about to give up. During this conversation, they complain about how Guangdong cannot compete with Manchukuo by playing nice and hearing out the common folk. Intrigued, Yoshiko goes to a bulletin board to pick up the trial as she takes note of a particular town being subject to development.

->'''Party:''' Rippoukai - Zaikaiha[[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.[[/note]]

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: The gangs in Guangdong use legitimate businesses, like tenements, as a front for their opium trade.

->'''Role:''' Consul-General of Japan in the State of Guangdong, External Secretary[[note]]Foreign Minister[[/note]] (Takeda [[spoiler:and Nagano]] cabinet)

->'''Role:''' Military Commander, Chief of Intelligence[[note]]Security Minister[[/note]] (Nagano cabinet), Head of Government (Takeda cabinet)

->'''Role:''' Chief of Operations[[note]]Economy Minister[[/note]] (Takeda and Nagano cabinet)

The Representative Director of Yasuda Bank's Guangdong Branch, also serving as Guangdong's current Chief Secretary. He closely supports Chief Executive Suzuki efforts to wrangle Guangdong's corporations back under Tokyo. However, Yasuda unravels under the Yasuda Crisis and Suzuki exits Guangdong in disgrace, he is forced upon the Chief Executive seat by Yasuda's rivals in a bid to get rid of them for good.

The current Chief Executive of Guangdong, a former IJA general backed by both Tokyo and the influential Yasuda Bank. Disgusted with the greed of the Four Companies, Suzuki vows to bring Guangdong back under Tokyo's control. But with the political situation in the Tokyo worsening by the minute, he may just find himself blindsided by the political fallout of events affecting Tokyo and Yasuda.

The Representative Director of Yasuda Bank's Guangdong Branch and the current Chief Secretary of Guangdong, Matsuzawa assists Chief Executive Suzuki in Tokyo and Yasuda's efforts to wrangle Guangdong under their control. As Yasuda unravels under the Yasuda Crisis and Suzuki exits Guangdong in disgrace, he is forced upon the Chief Executive seat by Yasuda's rivals in a bid to get rid of him—and Yasuda—for good.

* AlternateCharacterReading: Cities in Guangdong, except Hong Kong and Macau, use the Japanese ''on'yomi'' readings of their Chinese names.

* PleaseSelectNewCityName: Many Chinese cities were given new Japanese names under the Guangdong regime.[[labelnote:Full list of city names]]Kōshu (Guangzhou), Makao (Macau/Aomen), Momei (Maoming), Santō (Shantou), Sanbi (Shanwei), Tōkan (Dongguan), Shōkan (Shaoguan), Keishū (Huizhou), Kōmon (Jiangmen), Chōkei (Zhaoqing), Honkon (Hong Kong/Xianggang), Kōnei (Xingning), Seien (Qingyuan), Yōkō (Yangjiang), Unfu (Yunfu), Baishū (Meizhou), Kagen (Heyuan), Keiyō (Jieyang), Chōshū (Chaozhou), and Shingi (Xinyi)[[/labelnote]].

* TheOneThingIDontHateAboutYou: Suzuki's meddling in the economy was despised by the other large corporations, [[spoiler:but Matsushita concedes he was right to have Chief Executives control prices on essential items. In his reconciliation path of the Guangdong riots, he must reinstate this power in the Consumer Goods Control Amendment.]]

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Under Fujitsu, Yamauchi brings Nintendo back into the forefront with Yokoi's help, but it could go to waste in the Guangdong riots, which will destroy his largest factory and deal an irreversible blow to the company in the persistence route. However, this can be {{subverted}} in the reconciliation path, where negotiations have preserved most of the company's assets and its video game business can restart operation.]]

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:Contrary to Ibuka's change of heart in his reconciliation ending, Yoshiko has no regret for her defense of the Chief Executive and blatant favoritism towards Fujitsu. However, she knows that she'll be fired if she continues down this path, so she reluctantly agrees to her manager's demands that she moderate her stance.]]

* PassingTheTorch: [[spoiler:In Ibuka's persistence ending, the Kanton Koron's manager decides to move to the Home Isles and passes ownership of the business to Yoshiko. Placing her nameplate on her desk, Yoshiko eagerly awaits the chance to turn Yasukawa into a renowned name in Guangdong.]]

* UnfulfilledPurposeMisery: [[spoiler:In Ibuka’s reconciliation ending, Yoshiko feels that Fujitsu and the society she worked so hard to advocate for has betrayed her. As far as she is concerned, being forced to moderate her articles is the equivalent of the unfulfilled potential of the aristocratic daughter she once used to be, chaperoned around at the use of other people. She even briefly considers to start her own pressing business, but reckons that the Yasukawa name has lost all meaning outside of Guangdong at this point.]]

** Lam's cynicism reaches a new low in Ibuka's Guangdong, Years of being rejected by everyone have shattered his faith that his actions can change anything, turning him into an emotionless wreck who's only focused on his job and nothing else. [[spoiler:In the persistence path, not even seeing his old home village, now renamed "Shenzhen Research and Digital Accessories Park", being remodeled is enough to faze Lam, having no optimism that he can stop it or recover his old life.]]

** [[spoiler:{{Downplayed}} in Ibuka's reconciliation ending. After years of denying that he has a home outside of his job, Lam finally works up the courage to take a month-long break and revisit his home village, embracing his old Chinese name. There, Lam reunites with the loved ones he left behind years ago, taking the first steps to recovery.]]

** [[spoiler:If Ibuka chooses the reconciliation path and the CCL were negotiated with, the Lee family gets a fairly happy ending, Chun returns home with no charges against him and a remorseful Hei gives up his toxic membership in Fujitsu to start his own engineering business. Better yet, Chun accepts Hei's apologies and invites his little brother on a walk to catch up, mending the rift that has developed between them. The only downside is Wai needing to work an internship before entering college, since Hei no longer has a stable income, but there is a cautious hope that things will get better.]]

* GildedCage: [[spoiler:It's the title of an epilogue event, if the CCL were negotiated with in Ibuka's persistence route. Chun will be placed under house arrest for his leading role in the riots where Fujitsu promises that these accommodations are temporary and that he will be relocated to more permanent facilities repurposed from Hitachi buildings, but Chun doesn’t expect this to be followed through with. When Hei visits his temporary holding place, he finds the room's smallness extremely uncomfortable.]]

* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:As his relationship with Hei falls apart in Ibuka's path, Chun finally disowns him in preparation of the Guangdong riots, reluctantly accepting that he is now the enemy. However, Chun takes it back in Ibuka's reconciliation ending, especially if the CCL were negotiated with.]]

** [[spoiler:If the CCL are dismantled in Ibuka's persistence ending, Hei writes a letter to an arrested Chun, seemingly indicating he wants to reconcile with his older brother. Unfortunately, the letter turns out to be a passive-aggressive message informing Chun that Hei's collaboration with Fujitsu has been vindicated, with his family now being moved to a better home and Wai preparing for college. Hei then patronizingly talks about his disappointment that Chun won't get to enjoy the rewards he's reaped, making no guarantees that they will stay in contact and even hinting that he'll become a Zhujin very soon.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: Hei develops a really bad ego working for Fujitsu and having his achievements praised, [[spoiler:going as far as to apply for Zhujin membership to secure his position there. However, an enraged Chun punches him across the face for his betrayal and the angry mobs he faces in the Guangdong riots is enough to disillusion his continued occupation in Fujitsu. In the reconciliation ending, it sticks and he returns home without becoming a Zhujin.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Hei gives up his Fujitsu membership and Zhujin application in Ibuka's reconciliation ending, recognizing that it isn't worth giving up his dignity and now expressing his deepest apologies to Chun.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:On the cusp of unconsciousness after being beaten by some rioters, Hei realizes that he doesn't want to be part of Fujitsu anymore and thinks about rejecting his Zhujin application form. However, this can turn into an IgnoredEpiphany in Ibuka's persistence ending, with Hei having secured the money to move his family into a better residential facility and secure Wai's college entrance, no longer regretting his membership in Fujitsu.]]

* RejectedApology: [[spoiler:{{Downplayed}}, if the CCL were dismantled in the reconciliation path. No longer wanting to work for Fujitsu, Hei visits Chun in detention and profusely apologizes for turning on his family for the past few years, which Chun doesn't readily accept, but is willing to forgive him at some point in the future.]]

* StartMyOwn: [[spoiler:No longer working for Fujitsu in the reconciliation ending, Hei informs Chun that he's going to start his own engineering firm, confident that he can make it work through his own intellect.]]

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: As Hei's successes are flaunted in Fujitsu's path, Wai is overshadowed by the accomplishments of her older brother, with most of her classmates only seeing her as Hei's little sister and not her own individual. [[spoiler:In Ibuka's persistence path, Wai's accomplishments are finally recognized, partially thanks for being Hei's sister, so she excitedly awaits the chance to go to college and determine her own future.]]

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: [[spoiler:Ibuka's reconciliation ending briefly mentions that Leong has developed a cough due to his deteriorating health, rendering his days numbered.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: In Ibuka's persistent response to the riots, Fang is mortally wounded by a bullet and forced to retreat to the wrecked Hengli Residential Facility. Though she bleeds out and dies, Fang gracefully accepts her fate and expresses happiness that she died for a worthwhile cause.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: One of the CCL's coordinators is suspected by Lam to have placed explosives on a tramway that killed seven children in protest to the corporate regime. The coordinator denied it then, but Ibuka's persistence path reveals that he was responsible for the act and has no remorse for what he's done.

** When Komai anxiously calls him in Ibuka's persistence ending, Nagano would've normally asked why he has such a "womanish manner", implying that he holds some sexist beliefs.

** He fears that a persistent Ibuka is starting to become too disloyal to Tokyo, but he doesn't do anything against him for the moment because his superiors are too busy and he can't take matters in his own hands without committing treason.

* BigDamnReunion: After seven years of separation, Lam reunites with his family in 1953. His blue uniform takes everyone by surprise, but he is embraced by them before being invited inside and he specifically talks with his uncle about the new work and how the locals now have to go fishing due to declining Republican trade.

* DisappearedDad: Lam's first memory is of his father saying to his mother "they're finally doing it. We have to help, somehow." It is revealed in the 1936 flashback that his father went to America with "dreams in his head."

* ExcuseMeComingThrough: The first 1951 flashback establishes that Lam has now been in the police force for two years and quickly escalates when he gives chase to a burglar. The chase goes through the dense slums of Kowloon with their maze of apartments, living areas and stores as Lam has to barge through crowds and counters laden with street food. Eventually the criminal runs into a porter carrying heavy boxes, which allows Lam to apprehend him.

* FallenOnHardTimesJob:
** By 1942 the Japanese have plundered the entire silk business, with even the wooden boards going into disrepair. The village which once sold its silks to the global market now has to send its children to fish in hostile waters for a measly pay.
** After the collapse of his silk firm in 1949, Lam is forced to go back to working in the Hong Kong ports where he guards a warehouse run by the Japanese and involves dirty money.

* FromBadToWorse: By 1938 the Second Sino-Japanese War is raging and the Japanese have landed at Guangzhou. Stories of Japanese soldiers pillaging towns make their way to Lam's village and on a walk with his uncle they see smoke on the horizon. They arrive to see the town still intact, but a confrontation is occurring with Japanese soldiers who forcibly take silk from the villagers. Lam's uncle chases after the soldiers and, after two minutes of uncommunicative exchange, the Japanese officer shoots Lam's uncle through the foot and marches off.

* HappyFlashback:
** Lam was born in a house near the Han river owned by the family clan. Lam's first memory is in 1926 of his mother telling him about the history of people of Chaozhou and Shantou, how they had settled here from other regions and have been involved in the silk trade for centuries, and how how he is a descendent of these pioneers.
** A flashback of a family trip in 1931 with his mother and uncle, taking the snaking coastal road from Chaozhou to Shenzhen as construction workers labour away working on the road and only stopping when the car would peter out. Upon arriving they decide to eat chicken rice at a bustling market, where his uncle talks of the history of local Chinese nationalism.

* HopeSpot:
** By 1949 Lam has used his father's money to set up a silk tailoring firm in Kowloon, which profited from the massive boom of Japanese investments in the post war years and also continued his family's work in the silk industry. However, all this comes crashing down when the Japanese Prime Minister announces "Guangdong to be a new Manchuria" and Lam has to sell all his assets and declare bankruptcy, before going back to working on the port.
** If Morita's amendments to the Labor Standards Ordinance fails, Yoshiko will ask if people in Guangdong are always this sad, to which he will bitterly state that this time is worse because people had their hopes up.

* LossOfIdentity:
** As a Zhujin officer, Lam faces an identity crisis with his Japanese superiors seeing him as an outsider and the Chinese seeing him as a traitor.
** The 1955 flashback expands upon this as Lam finishes his shift and mulls over where Officer Hayashi ended and Lam begins. He comes to face that he is - much like the radio playing in dual ballad in Cantonese and Japanese - a being of two natures. The final flashback, in 1957, shows us Lam reflecting upon all the changes he is experiencing such as the new metro line. Reflecting upon Hong Kong and the people who built towers of concrete to escape the busy inferno on the ground, Lam asks himself if he is nothing more than the molded creation of the monstrosity that is Guangdong.

* ThePromise: At a family reunion in 1933, stories of China's history are being shared, from exploration to the far reaches of China's silk. Lam's uncle then says that he will continue the family business of threading silk in the Chaozhou style, to which Lam nods in agreement. Decades later this promise lies shattered.

* PushPolling: The 1956 flashback shows Lam answering a "Zhujin Census Form" which skews in favor of the Sphere and Japanization. The first two questions, his background and contributions to the state, are answered honestly enough, but the final question asks for his opinion of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and whether or not it has benefitted Guangdong, to which Lam writes about how the influx of Japanese capitol has raised the standards of living. Throughout all of this, Lam must write in perfect Japanese to show that he's been assimilated in their culture and implicitly prove his loyalty to Japan. By the end it isn't clear where the truths and fictions lie.

* RangedEmergencyWeapon: During the immediate post-war years, Lam carried an army-surplus Nambu which he used to ward off bandits which preyed on the still weakened state of the ROC's poor army. By the time he is forced to go back to working in Hong Kong's ports, he still has this pistol and uses it to send a pack of burglars running from the warehouse he guards.

* YouAreACreditToYourRace: In the 1952 flashback, Lam gets congratulated by his Japanese inspector for destroying the a Triad ring in Chaozhou, earning him high praise from as up as the Chief Executive. Even so, the media can't help but show some unintentional patronization to their latest hero, calling his achievements "an exemplar for what they call a 'Zhujin.'"

* {{Irony}}: In our world, Nintendo and Sony are the two biggest remaining Japanese rivals in the video game market. In this world, it's Morita's stewardship over Guangdong that can result in Yamauchi going into the toy business and setting Nintendo on the path to becoming a video game company.

* OpenSecret: Guangdong police officers will usually stop people under the pretense that they are shoplifting, even though everyone knows that it's just a way to racketeer a bribe from the "suspect". Even the children see this illusion through.

* DirtyCop: The Guangdong Police Force consists of little more than blue-clad, jack-booted thugs with endless pockets and little oversight. There are many instances of police officers extorting civilians for money. During the Yasuda crisis the number of bribes from the Triads and Yakuza only goes up as officers are desperate to maintain an income.
* TheDreaded: The Kenpeitai are feared across Guangdong for their kidnappings and "questionings" of suspected criminals. Even the Legislative Council has reason to be anxious about them, since they could pose a threat tot heir power.

* FiringDay:
** Reflecting the hyper-competitive environment of an Ibuka-led Guangdong is, a minor business manager lays off multiple workers simultaneously in the "The Manager is King" event, deeming them incompetent for not meeting his absurdly high expectations to "exceed the call of duty".
** Job security is even worse in Hitachi's Guangdong. At any moment, a vulnerable company can be bought out and absorbed into Hitachi, depriving thousands of a job and stable income. A salaryman from the Kanton Sasshin Corporation finds this out the hard way.

* IndustrializedEvil: The presence of the Japanese corporations have inflicted horrific damage to the Guangdong province, as the cities are converted into soulless, industrialized cogs in a nationwide machine. A prime example of this than Kōshu, formerly Guangzhou and now a mess of neglected slums and bustling factories.

* ManBehindTheMan: A consortium of Japanese corporations and local business magnates hold immense influence in Guangdong's Legislative Council. That being said, the Kempeitai constantly remind both the citizenry and nominal rulers on who their real masters are.

* MobWar: The struggles between the Yakuza and Triads, on top of serving as proxies for the Japanese elite and Chinese workers respectively, mirror the strife emerging across Guangdong's society. It also doesn't help that the central government isn't powerful enough to stop them for good.

* PoliceBrutality: The Japanese corporations are allowed to employ "liaison officers" in the Force for security purposes, with varying degrees of brutality depending on who they work for. Of special mention in one of Matsushita's events, Hitachi's men are exceptionally cruel, acting more like soldiers than security officers and happy to employ deadly force.

* PrisonersWork: Looking at past amendments, it can be gathered that the big four of Guangdong make use of contracted incarcerated labour, [[EvenEvilHasStandards although attempts at expanding their use of it have been rejected]].

* SuckySchool: Many rural schools are in appalling condition with overworked staff and overcrowded classrooms in derelict buildings. Uniforms, books, desks and other things within a classroom are often in disrepair.

* SuperficialSolution: Subject to the horrors of Guangdong, many attempt to commit suicide to avoid a life under the corporations. This is so widespread that the government has started handing "anti-suicide" nets to the corporations so that the workers can survive their suicide attempts and remain employed by the corporations. The people of Guangdong have since gotten numb to the sight of individuals being pulled out of the nets.

* WretchedHive: Even compared to Kōshu and Honkon, crime in Makao is especially bad, with Yakuza and Triad bosses using street violence and corruption to tighten their grip on the underworld and terrorize the citizens, while propping up a vast casino industry to enrich themselves. In Ibuka’s path this can be undone with his aggressive crackdown on crime and gambling, with all of the great casinos demolished and replaced with office blocks.

* ItIsDehumanizing: [[spoiler:Carrying out brutal suppression tactics for Fujitsu to put down the riots, Lam is repeatedly identified as LC049, dehumanizing him and showing how little the corporations care for him, beyond doing their dirty work.]]

* TraumaCongaLine: If Matsuzawa sides with Ibuka and fully repeals the RLSO, Chun's sister Wai gets pulled from school because the family cannot afford it anymore and then gets hit by a truck leaving her in critical condition. Lee doesn't even have time to grieve with long hours at the factory.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: If an Inspectorate-General led ICAC is ordered to arrest Sagawa, a member of the Legislative Council will inform him, leading him to take the first flight to Tokyo and to flee from prosecution, with the Japanese government refusing to extradite him.

* AppealToWorseProblems: If Suzuki seeks to gather support from Sony for the RLSO, he will remind Morita of the threat that Ibuka poses towards the ordinance.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Dissatisfied with the criminal elements existing in Guangdong, Suzuki pulls up a previously discarded public review of the panopticon, a philosophical metaphor coined by Michel Foucault to describe how people will naturally abide by the rules of an institution because they have become conditioned to believe they are monitored. However, Suzuki misinterprets it as a model for how to develop an intelligence network so he can root out criminals.

* MarkOfShame: With the vote of no confidence passing, Suzuki receives a note about being fired, acting as a letter of farewell. However, Suzuki considers it nothing more than a symbol of betrayal and his failure.

** He relents Li's request to let Morita attend their meeting together because he needs their help to court the approval of the Cantonese-Japanese demographic and turning one of them away will make the other less cooperative.

* VillainHasAPoint: When receiving the first experimental weapon proposals, Suzuki scoffs and makes some accurate criticisms about them. The compatibility of Sony's rifle with other ammunition is useless for the Sphere, the lightweight 'flechette' ammo of Matsushita's rifle is logistically unsound for no benefit, and the battery for Fujitsu's night vision rifle needs to be carried around in a heavy, burdensome backpack.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: As word spreads of a new Chief Executive replacing him, Matsuzawa reflects on the fact that it will likely either be Morita, Matsushita, or Ibuka, the same men who set him up as a caretaker. The thought both depresses and amuses Matsuzawa.

* BadassBoast: After assuring Suzuki that he'll support his RLSO proposal, Matsuzawa sternly warns that he uphold his side of the agreement, reminding him that Yasuda has a "long memory" and will be around far longer than either of them. The final comment leaves Suzuki a bit anxious.

* HopeSpot: Following Ibuka's plan and subsizing lost revenue seems to dispel the worst effects of the Yasuda Crisis, stabilizing the markets and the Guangdong yen's worth. This brief moment of respite for Matsuzawa ends almost immediately when a flood of calls reach his office, begging for more aid and leaving a mountain of paperwork for the Chief Executive to handle.

* ICantBelieveImSayingThis: If Matsuzawa decides to accept Ibuka's suggestion of cutting public spending in the aftermath of the Yasuda Crisis, he will express concern over how to convince the public. Ibuka responds by claiming that if we always need to convince people nothing would get done, to which Matsuzawa gives a half-hearted "if you insist".

* LetsGetOutOfHere: Matsuzawa makes a quiet exit from Guangdong after his business as interim Chief Executive is finished, taking whatever assets Yasuda has left and boarding a midnight flight to Tokyo, not to be missed by his peers.

* MirthlessLaughter: After months of no contact from Tokyo, they finally reach out and address him as the Interim Chief Executive. Knowing that he will simply disappear into history, all Matsuzawa can do is let out a hollow laugh before coming to terms with his future.

** He's hesitant to support Ibuka's proposal to mitigate the Yasuda Crisis because it will involve cutting civilian spending and suffer immense public backlash for it.
** Alternatively, Matsuzawa can accept Morita's plan to grant subsidies for Zhujin businesses and Chinese workers, alleviating the Yasuda Crisis' effect on their livelihoods. However, while Morita is motivated by genuine morals, Matsuzawa is only doing it because he wants to avoid Suzuki's past mistakes of oppressing the Chinese too much. Some citizens even recognize the insincerity of Matsuzawa's motives, but accept his help out of desperation.
** Matsuzawa may refrain from lying about the value of Yasuda's assets during the auction, despite the prime opportunity to save some value from its destruction. However, it's only because he doesn't want to risk a potential controversy if his corruption is exposed rather than a legitimate standard against cheating.
** Matsuzawa may keep the Yasuda auction as fair as possible and not favor the more powerful companies. However, it's mostly to avoid repeating the same corruption that crippled Yasuda in the first place, rather than out of genuine sympathy for the smaller businesses.

* TranquilFury: If Matsuzawa returns to Yasuda's old office Kōshu as Chief Executive, he only finds largely empty offices with accountants preparing to itemise Yasuda's assets. Seeing his life work undone brings anger to him, despite his best efforts to suppress it.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: While a group of Japanese executives are gossiping with each other, one of them brings up a missing member of their usual party, claiming that it was because he made a bad investment and has become no more wealthy than the average homeless person living on the streets. Everyone gives a brief chuckle to his misfortune before forgetting him and resuming their conversations.

* TakeThat: The only references to Shintoism in Guangdong's many events is in an event noting how disused Kōshu's 'leading' Shinto shrine is, only being cleaned for whenever Japan's Consul-General pays a visit. This is likely a reference to the [[https://old.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/comments/ufgk2c/shinto_ultranationalism_a_very_overlooked_part_of/ "Shinto Ultranationalism" post on TNO's subreddit]] which stated that Japan's victory in [=WW2=] would lead it to being a "ultra-nationalist fascist theocracy" with a leader that the Japanese population viewed as a "literal god-emperor", which was criticized for being an Orientalist view regarding Japan and not taking into account that Shinto was primarily used for propaganda value than spirituality.

* KickTheDog: He's the dog that gets kicked in a Hitachi run. Under Komai's rule, Nintendo goes into decline as a result of Hitachi's ruthless consolidation of the economy, being forced to leverage {{Yakuza}} connections and run barely-disguised brothels to stay afloat, before finally going bankrupt and being absorbed by Hitachi during the Oil Crisis and Riots while Yamauchi leaves Guangdong for good in bitterness and despair.

* SuddenDownerEnding: Fujitsu's route sees Nintendo following a largely similar path to OTL, with Yamauchi meeting Gunpei Yokoi and successfully entering Nintendo into the toy market, [[spoiler:until the Persistence ending, where the one-two punch of Ibuka's heavy-handed response to the Riots and Fujitsu's withdrawal of support leaves Nintendo's fortunes looking bleak]].

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Guangdong government is free to enforce whatever budget cuts they want on local businesses and factories, but they'll never apply the same policy to themselves. One Zhujin proprietor, who's just lost his factory, loudly lampshades this in one of Matsushita's events.

* TheAssimilator: In addition to Japanese settlers who have integrated into Cantonese culture, the Zhujin also include Chinese citizens who have assimilated into Japanese culture, adopting Japanese names and their language.

* TheCityNarrows: Parts of Kōshu are walled off and ignored by the Japanese to hide the poorest districts of the city. In Sony's route, Yoshiko is taken by Lam to personally witness how filthy and impoverished this portion of Kōshu is.

** Japanese settlers in Guangdong enjoy preferential treatment while native Chinese are second-class citizens, if they have the fortune of being educated.

*** Morita is the most ambitious in making the police force supreme over the Kenpeitai and, if successful, he will have the Kenpeitai restricted to their barracks while the police become functional members of Guangdong's communities.

*** Only Komai will favor the Kenpeitai and encourage the police to follow the Kenpeitai in unrestrained violence to tame Guangdong.

* NoOSHACompliance: Work accidents are commonplace in Guangdong because the corporations rarely invest in safety regulations. At one point, a worker loses his friend when he gets pulled into an undescribed machine.
* NobleTongue: Japanese serves as the official language of the State of Guangdong, being the language used by its ForeignRulingClass. During Morita's path this can be {{subverted}}, where Cantonese can be made a working language or even a full on secondary official language.

** The most blatantly corporate of them all is Matsushita, who doesn't even hold the notion of turning Guangdong into anything beyond a corporate playground, unlike the other three, and his end game turns Guangdong completely subservient to corporate interests and the ruling Japanese class.

* PetTheDog: Suzuki offers token workers' rights to the Chinese in an effort to placate dissident activity.

** Guangdong's government is formally a civilian government (called the Guangdong Civil Administration) advised by the Guangdong Legislative Council, but said government has in practice been completely taken over by corporate interests when the corporations took over the [=LegCo=] and drastically increased its power. Most of the seats in the [=LegCo=] are held by ''openly corporate-appointed'' representatives rather than political representatives. By the time Matsuzawa leaves, ''all'' of them are; None of the leaders will get rid of the corporatocratic system, with all of them dominating the markets in their respective paths.

* CyberpunkForFlavor: Leans into this aesthetic more heavily than even Novosibirsk. While it lacks the high-technology and cyberspace aspects due to the timeframe, Guangdong is set in the highly urbanized Pearl River Delta, ruled by a pervasive corpocracy of [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japanese electronic zaibatsu]] and rife with crime, poverty and government corruption, giving it all the trappings of a proto-cyberpunk state. Ibuka's path provides the clearest example, where, according to his vision, Guangdong becomes a cutthroat meritocracy laser-focused on the accelerated development of said high-technology.

* GoodPolicingEvilPolicing: The Guangdong Police and the Kenpeitai are rival security organizations, a reflection of the ethnic rivalry between the native Chinese and the foreign Japanese. However, while the Police is filled with corrupt officers, it also has good cops who want to do as much good as possible and try their best to end the violent opium trade war being secretly conducted. By contrast, the Kenpeitai are unambiguously evil, being staunch supporters of Hitachi and engaging in even worse manners of corruption than the Police, notably engaging in the opium trade.

* PoliceState: The State of Guangdong has a meager native police force, but the Kenpeitai has unrivalled surveillance and control of its people. [[spoiler:Failing to deal with the riots that spring up in the wake of the Oil Crisis makes this even worse, causing the [=IJA=] to impose martial law under an ultramilitarist general and begin razing the Pearl River delta to restore order, also serving as a Japanese spearhead for the coming Great Asian War.]]