Recap / Hitachi Guangdong

Guangdong Recap:
Index | Suzuki's Guangdong | Yasuda Crisis | Sony's Guangdong | Matsushita's Guangdong | Fujitsu's Guangdong | Lam Haau-cyun's Flashbacks | Opium Trade War | Hitachi Coup | Hitachi's Guangdong | Flavor Events | General Oil Crisis and Guangdong Riots | Imperial Japanese Army's Guangdong

Horror to which I live, horror to which I die.

"Easy, uninterrupted growth makes a society weak. It makes a society unruly, an unshackled beast that can move in any direction it wants, from degeneracy to any number of evil, intolerable beliefs. We have allowed this joke to go on far too long. None shall laugh at our new society, the one we shall craft."

— Komai Kenichirō

It's 1966, just moments after a successful Hitachi coup. To the excitement or dread of many, Komai Kenichirō has taken over Guangdong and laid the groundwork to transform the country under a brutal Manchurian labor system, with all dissent crushed by his hand.

The Chief Executive's first order of business is the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, legitimizing his coup and granting himself more executive power. Through fear and the sycophancy of his minions, the ordinance passes the Legislative Council, where Morita Akio, Matsushita Masaharu, and Ibuka Masaru collectively agree that they've found a common enemy in Hitachi.

Though Komai makes a grand speech that a new era is dawning for Guangdong, anyone not on his side can clearly tell that it's not for the better. All opposition to Hitachi is brutally crushed Komai takes the already oppressive corporate order to new lows:

• Kenpeitai security forces are rolled onto the streets and given little restraint in arresting dissidents. The jackboot is only strengthened with the Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance, controlling the press to only publish pro-Hitachi articles and hide their oppressive tactics.
• Using either Nissan or his own local security forces to enforce his will, Komai can either put up a facade of benevolence to maintain some good PR or drop the act entirely and rely only on fear to rule.
• On the economic side, Komai abuses his newfound power to corner the market for Hitachi. The economy is restructured to weaken Hitachi's rivals and manipulated into an ultimatum: either sell the company to Hitachi or face bankruptcy and have their assets fall into the government's hands anyway. Komai's scummy practices can be officially approved with the Financial Reorganization and Revital Ordinance, allowing Hitachi to buy up stocks and shares to dominate their rivals.

With his most immediate concerns dealt with, Komai can completely restructure the free-market system and replace it with the Manchurian system of exploited labor and ruthless industrialization. Many will die in the process, but Komai is apathetic to whatever human loss may occur:

• All government regulation in the economy is completely upended, including what few welfare nets existed in the previous corporate order. These cuts will be systematically mandated through the Revised Social Recovery Ordinance, which would also reset healthcare and education laws back to 1962 levels.
• Work quotas and hours are raised at the expense of the common worker, while Hitachi's grip on the economy tightens with the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance, forcing smaller businesses into signing contracts and subsidiary partnerships with Hitachi, lest they face retribution from the Yakuza or Komai's men.
• Komai's beneficiaries in Nissan and Mangyō are invited to Guangdong so they can assist his regime in two potential ways:
  • Nissan may start investing its resources to Guangdong's infrastructure, transplanting its horrific labor standards from Manchuria and possibly using the Entrepreneurial Recovery Ordinance to get rid of any red tape of legal codes inhibiting their involvement. In turn, Komai can either offer Nissan exclusive contracts for Guangdong's economic development or sell the country's private debt to them so they can manage the country's capital.
  • In the other route, Nissan executives are allowed to control Guangdong's economic institutions, including its stock exchange. Liquidated assets are sold to Nissan, with either government positions being given to their executives or more influence being given to them by transferring 15% of the social and military costs to the corporation.

Despite how much ruin Komai is bringing to Guangdong, no meaningful resistance in the government can be mounted because Komai extends the state of emergency to continue justifying his regime. With more executive power concentrated to his position, Komai can oppress the people however he pleases:

• A strict curfew is introduced and the Public Stability and Security Ordinance remilitarizes the security forces with Nissan's help. Those caught speaking or working against the regime are arrested to either be tortured or executed, with the government repression either openly advertised or kept an open secret to the public.
• Komai's auxiliary police units are manned by Nissan's own men to deal severe punishments for anyone deemed a traitor to the regime, either to be turned into forced laborers to work in Guangdong's rural areas or be prosecuted in rigged court trials. Overflowing prisons will be resolved by either executing those who have no further use to the government or be relocated to secret incarceration facilities. The security problem will finally be resolved with the Violent Crime Control and Incarceration Ordinance, which will deport masses of criminals to slave away in Manchuria.

Looking back on what he's accomplished, Komai feels proud of himself for building his own "Rome", but almost no one else can say the same. Though Morita and Ibuka continue a feeble protestation, Matsushita is hopeless that he can change the situation and submits to Komai's every order. Lam Haau-cyun is horrified by Hitachi's brutality, yet can do nothing but follow his orders. Yoshiko Yasukawa's writing is completely regulated by Hitachi, depriving her of any satisfaction with her journalism. Nintendo languishes under the dominance of the Manchurian businesses, so Yamauchi opens an illegal chain of love hotels where men can pay for prostitutes. Eventually, the business gets discovered by the Knepeitai and everyone involved is arrested, except for Yamauchi, where he's left to drink away his sorrows and sign off Nintendo's remaining private assets to Hitachi. Lee Chun, eldest son of the Lee family, bears the brunt of Hitachi's lowered work standards and seeks a means of somehow fighting back. Fortunately, many others feel the same way, with most Zhujin losing their businesses to Hitachi and most Chinese laborers working to the bone in their factories. Thus, they respectively form the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen and the Committee of Chinese Labor, who prepare for war with the Hitachi regime.

Before any open conflict can be waged, Guangdong is shaken by the Oil Crisis, which causes the price of goods to skyrocket and consumer spending to plummet. As taxes increase and government spending is cut, thousands march on the street against the Hitachi regime for leaving them so financially vulnerable in the first place, while the national coffers slowly sink by the day. The disaster is also a tipping point for Komai. Years of loyal service to Nissan and Mangyō has won him little glory and Komai feels disrespected as a tool for his benefactors, giving him the option of navigating the crisis without Manchuria's help.

Ever the servant for his benefactors, Komai can respond to the crisis through similar tactics seen in Manchuria, using the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance to authorize more police suppression, as well as the Public Order and Police Ordinance to arm independent Manchurian security forces and unleash them on the protests. Meanwhile, the national reserve will be recovered with Mangyō's help, increasing their influence to keep the financial situation stable. However, Komai can also deviate into more unorthodox strategies to handle the demonstrators, offering more benefits for those who stay loyal, cutting the budget on utilities in half through the Budget Reorganization and Responsibility Ordinance, and placing domestic communication lines under government suppression through the Civil Obedience Ordinance.

While the security situation is being addressed, more measures are needed to recover the economy. Komai can once more rely on his Manchurian connections to dig himself out, guaranteeing Japanese investments through the Capital Investment Security Ordinance, reserving priority payrolls for the Japanese, and relying on Nissan and Mangyō's bailouts to weather the storm. As another option, Komai can strike on his own, requiring registration from foreign businesses through the Guangdong Business Warrant Ordinance, cutting social security for the Chinese, and reducing Hitachi's budget and production levels.

Though Komai's measures restabilize the Guangdong economy, the people are more angry than ever over reduced wages, supply shortages, and the government's suppression of any dissent. So angry that Chun and many others joined the GFT and CCL, swearing to one day tear down the Hitachi regime.

The tensions finally boil over when a Hitachi factory lays off all their workers and incites an employee takeover of the facility, holding their superiors hostage. Thus begins the Guangdong Riots, where the GFT and CCL wage an all-out street war to depose Komai and the Japanese imperialists. To the shock of his subordinates, Komai vehemently refuses all negotiation with them and the only option he has is to take out the rioters by force. Police Commissioner Tsuchida Kuniyasu does everything he can to contain the protesters, from mass arrests to cordons on the street. Unfortunately for Komai and Tsuchida, their initial measures only embolden the rioters and inflate the marches. The Chief Executive's Manchurian allies are not impressed with the development and give him limited time to fix the situation before they start cutting their losses.

From here, Komai can adopt a more pragmatic approach to containing the Riots, knowing that open suppression would only escalate the situation. Instead, Komai traps the rioters in poorer areas where they can be easily picked off and sends spies to infiltrate their ranks, while winning back the public's goodwill by painting himself as the only bulwark against potential anarchy. The other option is for Komai to call off all restraints and permit the Police and Kenpeitai to attack the rioters with unrelenting brutality. As thousands of arrests are made, the courts are packed with trials to judge the demonstrators for treason; the courts are rigged to judge them all guilty and their sentences are publicly broadcasted to terrify the rest of the population to submission.

No matter the measures adopted by Komai, his Nissan and Mangyō benefactors doubt his ability to contain the Riots and send a delegation to inspect the situation. Knowing that the chaos would damage his credibility, Komai tries to manipulate their trip so they won't personally witness the Riots. If Komai relied too much on the two companies' help during the Oil Crisis, the gambit fails because the Chief Secretary, Miyazaki Kiyotaka, refuses to take part in the conspiracy, Thus, the Manchurian plane lands directly in Kōshu airport to see the street violence firsthand, infuriating them that Komai has let the situation get out-of-hand and tried to downplay its severity. As punishment, they take away much of the Chief Executive's authority so they can play a more direct hand in Guangdong's affairs. However, if Komai asserted enough independence during the Oil Crisis, his plan goes much more smoothly and the delegation is isolated from most of the violence in a secluded hotel. Though the chief delegate is suspicious and accuses Komai of withholding information on the Riots, he ultimately can't prove anything and Komai's authority in Guangdong is left unchallenged.

As time passes, the flame of the Riots goes out, as many are arrested and the others realize the futility in trying to depose Hitachi and retreat. Chun is not among those who give up so easily and, as he lies bleeding in an abandoned apartment, avoids capture by shooting himself with his last bullet. The Lee family is mortified by the death of their eldest son and, like the rest of the populace, are brought back under Hitachi's jackboot. Chun's siblings are sent back to work in the factories and Lee Hei is so disillusioned that he burns his old books and gives up hope that he'll be anything more than a laborer or consumer. Nintendo does not survive the Riots either and a depressed Yamauchi boards a ferry back to Japan, hoping for better financial endeavors there. Meanwhile, Lam is horrified by what he has done in enforcing Hitachi's will and, though he stays in the Police Force, will never forget the blood he's shed in the Riots. Yoshiko is just as cynical about her future, unable to pursue any higher opportunities in life beyond survival. When Lam and Yoshiko reunite, both realize how much they have changed since Komai ascended to power and have an awkward talk before departing and never seeing each other again. The only one who benefits from the situation is Hitachi, who are buying up their rivals and cornering the market with their endless number of products, built from the blood and sweat of thousands.

Though the future of Guangdong is dark, the one pulling the country's levers will depend on Komai's actions during the Oil Crisis and, by extension, how much goodwill he's lost with his Manchurian benefactors with the Riots. If he ceded too much influence to them, Komai's punishment during the Riots is left intact and the ones really controlling Guangdong are the Nissan and Mangyō executives who stand above him. They may sing empty praises for his handling of the Riots, but they really only see Komai as a useful proxy to control Guangdong and will dispose of him if he ever outlives his usefulness. All of Komai's feeble requests for more power are rejected, leaving him despondent that he's at the beck and call of people he considers inferior to himself. Though satisfied with his victory, Komai can never truly savor it without thinking of his masters back in Manchuria.

Komai's true victory comes if he worked alone in the Oil Crisis and successfully downplayed the Riots to the Manchurian delegation. With all the rioters dispersed, Komai is left as the undisputed king of Guangdong, so powerful that not even his benefactors can control him anymore. No longer the servant, Komai is free to indulge in his vices and greed, having secured his legacy as Guangdong's Pater Patriae and Julius Caesar. Hundreds of thousands suffer under his gaze and Komai is utterly apathetic to it, considering the entire country his personal dictatorship to rule forever.

Guangdong's only hope for liberation is the rumors of war between China and Japan. Many say that this will tear the Sphere apart and destroy Hitachi's brutal regime, but Komai isn't going to take this threat lightly. With or without his Manchurian allies, the Chief Executive begins arming the nation for war. The question remains to be seen if Hitachi will survive the conflict, but for the time being, Guangdong remains shackled to them, destined to suffer for the sake of Japanese imperialism and the greed of wealthy executives happy to exploit their suffering.

---

This route provides examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: In his personalist ending, Komai finds himself agreeing with Martin Bormann from Germany that the world is a struggle for life, but he thinks that his name is "Boruman".
• Achievement Test of Destiny: After mitigating the Oil Crisis with his own choices and asserting himself from his Manchurian masters, Komai's mettle will be tested in the Guangdong riots, where he must use his wits and politicking to manage the crisis without Manchuria's help. From Komai's perspective, history will judge his legacy based upon how he manages the crisis.
• Aggressive Negotiations: If Komai wants to ensure Matsushita’s support for the Social Recovery Ordinance, he sends a Hitachi delegation unannounced to Matsushita’s office to intimidate and threaten him into helping or else have something bad happen to one of his subsidiaries.
• Alas, Poor Villain: A Matsushita member of the Legislative Council gets his house ransacked by Komai's men and, even though Lam maintains an air of apathy, he can't help but sympathize that everyone is a victim under Hitachi and that his superiors tell him to drop the case because of Hitachi's influence.
• All Take and No Give: When Komai requests a bailout from the Oil Crisis, Nissan gives him a list of heavy demands of tax exemptions and capital grants, far more than the benefits they'll give to Hitachi. Komai interprets the list as a humiliation of his character and a massive insult.
• Allegiance Affirmation: When they first meet, a Chinese resistance cell makes Chun run errands for them as a test to prove his loyalty to their cause, since they can't trust him yet.
• Allegorical Character: One of the first events in the epilogue follows a nameless family who represent most of the Chinese populace under Hitachi: the couple try to console their crying baby after only three hours of sleep, they wonder if they should start screaming too, and they feel no hope for their future in the new Guangdong, one filled with back-breaking work and impoverished living conditions.
• Almost Lethal Weapons: Tear gas is one of the most frequently used weapons to break up the Guangdong Riots.
• Ambiguous Situation: Komai isn't sure why Zhou is so willing to let Hitachi run wild in China, whether it be out of genuine belief that Hitachi is helping China, personal gain, or another unknown motivation he's not aware about. Regardless, Komai enjoys turning China into Hitachi's latest domain.
• Anachronic Order: A brief example of an Oil Crisis event, which takes place in 198X and follows the perspective of an anonymous commission investigating the atrocities committed by Hitachi. Here, they describe the spike in poverty during the Oil Crisis and Hitachi's ruthless suppression of any crowds gone out of control, with the commission concluding that the event led to no reduction in Komai's cruelty.
• Apathetic Teacher: A Hitachi employee hates working in the Amazon because of the heat and humidity, so he's not in a cheerful mood when he and his colleagues are teaching the workers how to use a Hitachi bulldozer. He's especially jealous that his colleague is teaching inside of the bulldozer's air-conditioned cabin and feels nothing when the bulldozer tears away a part of the Earth to the workers' cheers. At most, he just wants to wrap things up and leave before the Hitachi crane is delivered.
• Appeal to Flattery:
  • Komai can entice Matsushita's support for the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance by flattering him, calling him a valued partner of Hitachi and offering laxer treatment for his company in exchange. Matsushita knows that he's only being reached out to because of his father-in-law's importance, but accepts the offer anyway.
  • Subverted if the same negotiation is taken with Ibuka, who rejects any talk of "favorable tax treatment" and flattery. To Komai's surprise, he can't cow Ibuka because Fujitsu can't afford to lose money in Guangdong and will accept nothing less than full fiscal independence. Komai ends up going through lengthy negotiations and compromises just to get his support.
  • With the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance's passage, several Hitachi salespeople try to smooth talk a business owner into selling his firm to the government, even poorly speaking Cantonese to appeal to him. When he still refuses, they drop the act and come again with security to make it clear that the offer wasn't optional.
• Appeal to Force: Komai uses force to guarantee the Emergency Regulations Ordinance's passage in the Legislative Council. One councilor stands up and demands another vote due to Komai's illegal tactics, but this act of defiance is swiftly stopped when Komai nods to three Kenpeitai men and the councilor sits back down in fear.
• Appeal to Tradition: Komai argues that there is no need to diverge from past ventures because they have been successful in the past. This justifies his attempts to emulate Manchuria and lead Guangdong to a "similarly grand future".
• Armor-Piercing Question: While advertising Guangdong's efficiency and technological superiority to a group of journalists, Komai is surprised to be asked questions concerning Japan or China and not about his own achievements, especially after he navigated the Guangdong Riots. The questions rattle Komai enough to wonder if he's just a minor player on the world stage.
• Armor-Piercing Response: If Komai sells some of the government’s debt to Nissan in exchange for giving them control of the national budget, Ibuka will accuse Komai of turning Guangdong into a puppet state. Komai responds that Guangdong has always been one and that everyone's opposition is a hypocritical stance based on the fact that they're not the ones in charge. Everyone attending is left bitterly silent with that response.
• Asshole Victim: The manager running Yamauchi's love hotels is a Yakuza member and he eventually gets caught by the Kenpeitai, dragged half-naked from the waist down into a police van, and hauled away with the other employees and three customers.
• "Avoid This Area" Effect:
  • One of Komai's first responses to the Riots is to roll out no-go zones around government buildings, corporate offices, and a handful of manufacturing plants, which are enforced by the Police and IJA.
  • Cordons are generally used to isolate the rioters to weaken them, which may also be extended to Hitachi's assets in an aggressive response.
• Bad Boss:
  • Lam's Hitachi boss during the Guangdong riots does not take kindly to delays, punching Lam when he fails to translate a phone intercept sent among the dissidents.
  • The CEO of PEMEX hates the time of year when annual production reports are handed in because the president will likely ask for unrealistic production increases the next year. When PEMEX starts using Hitachi computers and sees a 12% annual growth in operating profits, the CEO remarks that he might finally be happy for once.
  • The bosses at a Chilean mine are unsympathetic to their workers, forcing them to gather copper ore under dangerous conditions and at risk of losing their fingers from explosives. When Hitachi trucks drive by a miner and spew dust at him, he contemplates that his boss is getting computers made from the same copper he's mining and that they will decorate his office while his workers continue to squalor outside.
• Bait the Dog:
  • When a worker gets caught in a metal compressor and killed, the manager seems almost apathetic to the grisly sight and merely writes the incident down on his report, but he then tells the worker who told him of the incident that he can go. Not to go home, but to go back to work.
  • When Komai starts rewarding loyal citizens to mitigate the Oil Crisis, Lam's quartermaster informs the precinct that everyone has a 10% flat pay increase. Then, he follows this with bad news that they will no longer have leave and are expected to work every day to put down the riots.
• Bearer of Bad News: The chiefs of police act as this for Komai when they report on rising disorder in their respective jurisdictions during the Oil Crisis. Komai does his best to temper his frustration and he increases investments in local security services.
• Because I Said So: Komai denounces the rioters' cause as an injustice, simply because he and his allies are in positions of authority and that any protest against them is wrong.
• Believing Their Own Lies: In the path where Komai gives Nissan control of Guangdong's public services, he calls them generous patrons, ignoring their price hikes of public goods that forces people to start scavenging rotten food just to survive the next day.
• Beneath Notice: Defied. Komai vows that no corporate entity will escape his gaze and that they will either become Hitachi's subsidiaries or become fully integrated.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: When Chun and a CCL member are caught past curfew, the former narrowly escapes and sees his colleague dead, though he considers this a merciful fate compared to being arrested and tortured for information.
• Big Damn Reunion: Subverted when Lam and Yoshiko meet again after the riots. Years of Hitachi oppression have disillusioned both of them and the conversation they have is awkward and short. When they leave, they promise to meet again, but never do.
• Blaming the Victim: When three Chinese men are kill for merely breaking a curfew, Komai justifies that they had no place being on the streets at night and that they brought their deaths on themselves.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Komai's first order of business is the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to officially recognize his new position, ostensibly so that he can cut down on "uninterrupted growth" and centralize power to combat the "threat" of instability. However, it's very obvious that it's just an excuse for Komai to centralize his authority even further, made all the more obvious when Komai extends the state of emergency.
  • In his broadcast after the coup, Komai proclaims that it was his benevolence that led to his ascension and that he wishes nothing more than for stability and prosperity to return to Guangdong. Given his brutal tactics, everyone knows what he truly is, however.
  • Guangdong is a corporatocracy that already offers significant lenience in terms of corporate regulations, so Komai's complaints that said rules are asphyxiating is an obvious lie to maximize profits.
  • Numerous events show workers being horribly maimed or killed, yet Komai spins that they don't need further protections and are compensated by their meager wages.
  • Komai introduces the Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance as a necessary measure to stop sedition and anarchists from spreading their libel, but it's really just a way to silence any criticism against his regime.
  • As small firms are being taken over by Hitachi through the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance, businessmen are forced to sign a contract giving Hitachi permission to intervene in their business for any reason. The Hitachi sales people claim that it will only be used against "unsavory individuals" who will take advantage of the company's trust, but no one buys it for a second.
  • If the Capital Investment Security Ordinance is rejected, the Japanese financiers still sing his praises due to government censorship, even as they quietly pull out of Guangdong, knowing that the government can't protect their investments. The two-faced situation does not go unnoticed by Komai, who tries playing everything off with an effortless smile, but secretly swears that he won't be humiliated like this ever again.
  • In the focus "One Million Is a Statistic", Komai dismisses the widespread cries of tyranny and oppression, claiming that he came to Guangdong's aid against the "ghastly and all-devouring night". He further boasts that he's ascended Guangdong to new heights from its once-emaciated form, completely apathetic to his long list of crimes and vices.
  • Komai addresses the nation after the Guangdong riots, claiming that everyone's safety is Hitachi's top priority and denouncing the rioters as terrorists. Almost any outside observer would know that Komai is the true villain of the situation and has no care for anyone but himself. This speech booms across an eatery from the television and those present discuss whether Komai will retaliate further or is trying to dissuade any more people from joining the protests. Either way, they don’t buy into what he is saying.
  • Mangyō's visit to an independent Komai is deceptively arranged by the Chief Executive so they won't witness the violence firsthand and be convinced to get Tokyo involved. Rather than land in Kōshu, the delegation arrives in a distant airfield due to a "last minute diversion", even though a band has been set up to celebrate their arrival, with the Mangyō director pointing out that this is too well-prepared for a sudden improvisation. Komai tries to play this off as being prepared for any uncertainty, even as he tells them that they'll stay in hotels away from Kōshu and be transported in windowless helicopters. The facade of controlled chaos is kept up by Komai for the next few days, despite all requests to leave the hotel being refused and explosions being heard outside.
  • Hitachi propaganda continues to spew obvious lies in the epilogue, such as claiming that Chinese and Japanese children are living in equal, harmonious relationships and that the Kenpeitai are dutiful protectors.
  • One of the first things done by Komai is pass an economic reshuffling package through a grim Legislative Council, which ostensibly seizes private assets for the good of the state, but everyone knows it is Hitachi and its Nissan overseers that will truly benefit.
  • During a personalist response to the Oil Crisis, Komai makes a television speech to the populous where he tries to exude control over the economic unrest with a display of colourful graphs and calling for cooperation with the government. The father of a family watching the speech turns the television off, not wanting Komai’s propaganda to get to them.
  • The potential show trials during the Riots are intended to delegitimize the convicted as monstrous traitors, but almost nobody buys their guilty verdicts, which are handed out like candy in the courts.
• Blood Is the New Black: Some of Komai's foci uses blood to convey the horror of his policies, whether it be the worker abuses or the authorization for dissidents to be gunned down on the streets.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • As Komai militarizes the police under the Public Stability and Security Ordinance, he must choose between three possible amendments. The first two involve spending significant money on either increasing the security budget or prison funding, but the last is a mere anti-crime propaganda campaign, which is significantly cheaper and still an effective program.
  • Komai's plan to exert influence over a Speer-run Germany is incredibly mundane and effective, all at once. Hitachi first sells Germany a variety of construction equipment and becomes a prominent construction company there. Then, Komai starts buying up German construction companies, possibly with subterfuge, to be merged with Hitachi and builds a corporate empire off the newly loosened market regulations in the country. By the end of the decade, Hitachi has a controlling share in 53 German construction companies and minority shares in over a thousand European companies, making them the most prominent construction company in Germany as hundreds of buildings and even Hitler statues are built by them. Their presence in every German city has also boosted brand recognition which has allowed for Hitachi's consumer electronics to take hold and diversify their portfolio. Komai considers this to be a case of History Repeats, believing that the Manchurian-style war machine won Germany the war and now Manchurian-style products will benefit Germany again.
  • One of Komai's personalist responses to the Oil Crisis is the Guangdong Business Warrant Act, requiring all foreign businesses to get a warrant and pay a tax, if they don't integrate into Hitachi's economic restructuring program. It's by far one of his most restrained and mundane ordinances, but it's a strong legislation to control who gets to do business in Guangdong.
  • In Komai's pragmatic approach to the Guangdong riots, the number of police patrols are amped up around major rail stations and bus exchanges. Despite the mundanity of such a strategy, it's very effective at suppressing the rioters' logistics and making it harder for them to move supplies around.
• Bring It: When the Oil Crisis starts, Komai calls it an endurance trial that will further legitimize his legacy, even comparing it to the legendary Battle of Austerlitz.
• Broken Record: If more Nissan executives are brought into Guangdong and incorporated in the bureaucracy, Yoshiko keeps hearing the same talk of reducing waste and implementing the Manchurian model to maximize productivity and cut costs. It's so monotonous that Yoshiko nearly slams her head onto a desk by the fourth time she hears this.
• The Bus Came Back: Two factory workers, Kunghang and Kinhei, appear in the early stages of Komai's route, complaining about the nightmarish conditions in their factory and the cuts to their basic compensations. When a third of Hitachi's workforce is laid off, the two join the rioting assembly line workers who seize the factory and hold their managers hostage.
• Bystander Syndrome: As Wai works in a factory after the riots, two of her colleagues break after their first month of awful working conditions, where a young woman is hauled off for crying and an elderly man collapses, presumably dead. Wai can do nothing but ignore these as interruptions to continue to meeting her exceptionally high quota and feed her family.
• Call-Back: After passing the Business Warrant Act, Komai thinks back to the first time he arrived in Guangdong from Kōshu Hakuun International, recalling how disgusted he was with his surroundings and vowing to completely transform Guangdong in his own image.
• Cardboard Box Home: With the passage of the Revised Social Recovery Ordinance, a Zhujin man loses his job and lives in a cardboard box like the other homeless Chinese people who have faced similar troubles.
• Cathartic Exhalation:
  • Komai lets out a big sigh of relief, seemingly tired after finishing a call with a Nissan representative from Manchuria, having to choose his words carefully and thank Nissan for its help in building Guangdong’s industry.
  • If the Violent Crime Control and Incarceration Ordinance fails to pass, Lam lets out a sigh of relief whilst overhearing the announcement on the radio during a late-night shift. However, any respite is lost under the volume of paperwork he must go through ever since the Kenpeitai started mass dumping prisoners onto an already underfunded system in what Lam suspects is a deliberate effort by Komai to get the Legislative Council to reconsider "easing" the situation.
  • If the Social Spending Reconciliation Ordinance fails to pass, news of said failures reaches Chun and Wai over the television whilst they have dinner. Wai reacts with a sigh of relief, but such relief is short lived as things are not getting better leading Wai to support Chun in his CCL membership even if she is initially hesitant and worried about his safety.
• The Cavalry: To help secure his rule after taking power, Komai will have to choose between calling in Kenpeitai reinforcements from across the Sphere or get backup through security forces from his corporate benefactors in Nissan. The men from Nissan in the latter option arrive in Honkon after a coastal tour of China and Japan, with suited men scurrying off into the shadows behind the main delegation greeting Komai.
• Censorship Bureau: Komai has the option of creating an In-Universe example of this, founding his own censorship bureau to ensure that the press will not dare speak against Komai or Hitachi.
• Chekhov's Gun: The many cuts enacted during the Oil Crisis become relevant again during the Riots, as the spare money can be redirected into funding the security services and authorizing aggressive measures to end the conflict.
• Chewbacca Defense: If Komai takes a personal approach to solving the Oil Crisis, he outlines a "plan" of recovery to restore the people's faith in him, yet his scheme is premised on a series or confusing, colorful graphs which are more designed to confuse the viewer and give only the veneer of confidence to not seem vulnerable.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: In Komai’s pragmatic response to the riots, the rail and bus stations are swarmed with police and corporate security, leading Chun and some CCL members to smoke a pack of cigarettes, knowing that the fight will be much harder with cut-off logistics and will have to escalate with corporate guns and armor.
• Cliffhanger: Komai can achieve his wildest ambitions after suppressing the riots, but he knows of the rumors that China is preparing for war with Japan that would threaten to undo everything he's done. Thus, Komai makes his own preparation for the coming conflict.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Komai can mandate the use of torture as a legal punishment, which is a fate that befalls a union member who gets arrested and taken to a Hitachi building and beaten by eerie interrogators.
• The Con: Hitachi can potentially offer the Argentinian government a deal to modernize their railway systems, which have been historically unreliable and stifling business opportunities. Appealing to the notion that the Manchurians know how to make trains run on time, the Hitachi Rail subsidiary brings Guangdong-made equipment and Manchurian labor to change the railway gauges, as well as taking every opportunity to swindle the Argentinian government, adding triple digit markups for their help and forcing them to pour in more money than they should.
• Conscription: Komai often makes use of native Chinese laborers and security forcibly conscripted from Manchukuo. In relation to corporate security forces, these conscripts are more overworked and reluctant to listen to their Japanese counterparts.
• Conspicuous Consumption: To calm down the Oil Crisis protests, Hitachi presents their latest computer which has a sleek, modern design with incredible lights to accentuate its features and hundreds of advertisements to detail how pretty it is. Unfortunately for them, the campaign gets a mixed reception, with many deeming its presentation too obnoxious and trying too hard to seem impressive. Worst of all for Komai, they do little to calm the mobs down.
• Contrast Montage:
  • Miyazaki, Nagano, and Takashima have dinner together, and praise the fear and suppression being placed on the Chinese, which is contrasted with Song and Wang drinking to cope with the horrors unleashed by Hitachi.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Komai can abolish the last remnants of social security for the Chinese citizens. Komai’s signing of the document is brief, with him looking at the reports like a golden dish from the bureaucracy and forgetting about it the second the paper's gone. This contrasts with the very devastating impacts it has on those who were already hanging by a thread; with the already weakened welfare being dropped entirely, the people protest the government with placards and graffiti in alleys, and secret gatherings where the discontent is organized.
• Control Freak: The censorship of the Kanton Fujin Koron gets even worse if Komai responds to the Oil Crisis by empowering the security forces to censor the media, where Kenpeitai men start controlling what Yoshiko can write about and will not tolerate any complaints about it.
• Create Your Own Hero: Komai's contempt for the Zhujin and Chinese people drives the formation of the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen and Committee of Chinese Labor, respectively. They figure that, if they're going to die by Hitachi's hands, they can at least die swinging.
• Crowd Chant: To Tsuchida's horror, the first wave of government suppression against the rioters just makes them even angrier, with a no-go zone swarmed with thousands of protesters chanting against the government. The unadulterated fury makes Tsuchida reevaluate a new strategy to stop them.
• Crowd Panic:
  • As he's distributing water bottles, Chun sees a CCL protest get fired upon by the police and make them flee in a panic. Chun is forced to run with the crowd or else risk being trampled upon.
  • During an unrestrained response to the riots, a large group of demonstrators are fired upon for waving a CCL flag atop a Mangyō van. This sparks the crowd to panic and flee, leaving only the dead and the security forces on the street
• Cruel and Unusual Death: A factory worker gets slowly crushed in a metal compressor, haunting his coworkers with screams and crunches worsened by their apathetic manager ordering them to clean up the remaining bloody mash.
• Cruel Mercy: Under Komai's authorization, the Police can release their prisoners under the assumption that they are no longer a threat and could be used as an example to get good PR. However, the prisoners point out that this "mercy" is no relief, as they are now jobless, have no way to contact their families, and are left to fend for themselves on the streets.
• Cruel to Be Kind: When the Public Stability and Security Ordinance is rejected, Wai notices a police checkpoint on the route to her apartment and is rudely told by the officer to get lost because the road is closed. When Wai turns her back, however, the officer whispers to her that it's for her protection because the Kenpeitai are going to take over the checkpoint soon and she needs to leave as quickly as possible.
• Cutting Corners:
  • Komai can encourage companies, who are not under government oversight, to save money by lengthening shifts and skipping benefit payments to maximize production.
  • When Komai lets go of all restraints to stop the riots, Lam's lieutenant gives him a stack of confession record forms to review and send to the courts. He tells Lam that the jails are overflowing and need to fire these cases as quickly as possible, so Lam should skip the regular legal procedure and do anything with the forms, as the courts will accept whatever they're given.
• Darkness Equals Death: Once Komai implements a national curfew, every nighttime presence outside risks death at the hands of the Police or Kenpeitai. One event shows how three Chinese factory workers finishing a late night shift and trying to return home, with one hoping to check up on his sick daughter, only to be caught by searchlights, chased, and shot. The next morning their bodies are dumped it adjoining neighborhood to Make an Example of Them.
• Deadly Euphemism:
  • The Kenpeitai pay a visit to Yoshiko's apartment for being a journalist and a potential threat to Hitachi. When they don't find anything, the captain politely bids farewell to her, while simultaneously warning that she shouldn't publish anything "questionable" if she doesn't want to draw their suspicion again.
  • When several Matsushita Electric members oppose a Hitachi proposal in the Legislative Council, Komai confronts Matsushita about this and orders him to keep his representatives in line, while subtly threatening him with "Yokoi's negotiators".
  • In the epilogue, Hitachi is moving their products too quickly for a shipyard to keep up, so the crew chief requests to the foreman that the schedule should slow down to avoid accidents. Unfortunately, the foreman refuses and makes it clear that, if any accident or delay happens on the chief's watch, they will have to replace him with someone else.
• Death Glare:
  • If Komai starts giving money to loyal subordinates so they can survive the Oil Crisis, Lam buys a lot of groceries to stockpile for himself, which gets noticed by a poorer Chinese family and earns him their poisonous glares for collaborating with Hitachi.
  • Assigned to assist Kenpeitai agents during an apartment raid, Lam is instructed to look down the hallway while the Kenpeitai drag out crates from the raided room. While overhearing the agents discuss the people they’ve raided, Lam sees multiple people peek out of their rooms, glaring at him before ducking back in. Combined with the rising resistance, Lam gets the unnerving sense he is being watched and documented for his collaboration.
• Deadly Euphemism: When introducing the Public Order and Police Law, Komai makes an ominous comment that more security is needed to put down the Oil Crisis protests and that the nation will "wade in blood" if it means restoring Guangdong's place in the world and the Sphere. The comment terrifies almost the entire Legislative Council, including some of Hitachi's men.
• Defiant to the End:
  • During a Kenpeitai raid, one businessman refuses to go lying down, putting up a good struggle and requiring five men to bring him down. He even shoots a glare of disdain at Lam for backing up the Kenpeitai in this raid and standing idly by this injustice, so venomous that it shakes Lam for a brief second.
  • A Kenpeitai raid arrests several dissidents who refuse to talk or give up under heavy interrogation. Not that they could say much anyways, since they were just minor parts in a much larger movement.
• Dehumanization: Hitachi’s rule of Guangdong frequently dehumanizes people as disposable tools to be discarded at a moments notice, with Komai's favorite insults being comparisons to dogs, rats, and maggots:
  • When extending the state of emergency, Komai calls the opposition an infestation of maggots who must be exterminated.
  • Factory workers are compared to cattle, slaving away in nightmarish factories until they break.
  • The authorization of torture or executions will come with comparing the dissidents to rats.
  • To publicly suppress his opposition, Komai insults them as dogs who are either being frightened into obedience or using pack mentality to attack.
  • Dissidents are hoarded on to boats to Manchuria like sardines as they get seasick or panic and plead.
  • As Komai guts safety regulations, he compares people to coal in a furnace being fed enough to keep the flame lit up.
  • In reaction to the press reporting on his industrial abuses, Komai calls them rats.
  • In the Oil Crisis, Komai thinks that his people are assets he needs to control rather than sapient beings.
• Designated Bullet: Chun keeps a spare bullet in his pocket during the Riotsto spare himself from being captured by the government. During the very last event of the crisis, he's shot and lockedin an apartment as government security forces try to smash open the barricaded door, so he uses the last bullet with the knowledge that he is doomed either way.
• Determinator: Knowing that Komai is seeking any excuse to abolish her program, a social worker fills the hundreds of forms sent by the government to justify the department's continued existence. She fears that she can't fight forever, but that she can resist for as long as possible, purely out of spite.
• Despair Event Horizon: If Komai raises taxes on the Chinese to stave off the Oil Crisis, a young girl listens to her parents get into one of many arguments about how to handle the predicament, which depresses her to a point she can't even cry or give into her frustration.
• The Dictatorship: Komai's version of Guangdong is by far the most dictatorial of the Chief Executives. Hitachi billboards and loudspeakers sing praises of the government, everyone speaks in a hushed tone out of fear of being surveilled, Kenpeitai and police officers patrol the streets, curfews are strict, and all dissidents are arrested to either be executed or put into forced labor.
• Disaster Dominoes: Chun notices a loose bolt in the factory and tells the foreman about it, but his observation gets dismissed because they can't afford to fix it and not meet Hitachi's absurd standards. Come the next week, the bolt finally shoots out, causing the conveyor belt to suddenly speed up and injure multiple workers in the process.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • When three Chinese citizens are caught past curfew after working late, a Hitachi patrol shoots them and dumps their corpses in the neighborhood next to their factory, partly because of the rules and partly because of naked bigotry.
  • One of Komai's proposed amendments to the Violent Crime Control and Incarceration Ordinance is to expand the list of criminals who could be turned into forced laborers, including those who commit slander, libel, and criticism against any of the companies.
  • Three Matsushita members of the Legislative Council get assaulted by Yakuza thugs under Komai's orders, simply for protesting one of Hitachi's absurd proposals.
  • In the pro-Nissan response to the Oil Crisis, a detachment of police officers and Nissan thugs are unleashed on a crowd and permitted to assault them to the point of breaking their bones, simply because people started getting pushy waiting in the bread lines.
  • In Komai's unrestrained route to the riots, Hitachi personnel are allowed to fire gunshots into a CCL mob, simply for waving one of their flags and taunting the government.
• Dissonant Laughter: During a cabinet meeting, Komai barely pays any attention to a twenty-minute-long report or the presenter before giving an abrupt chuckle and celebrating his own success, confusing the cabinet member.
• Distracted by the Luxury: To downplay the severity of the riots, Komai redirects the Mangyō representatives sent to assess his handling and hosts them in a hotel outside the city, where their every need is met through fine food and luxury.
• Divide and Conquer:
  • Overcrowding in the prisons can be addressed by dispersing the inmates to remote confidential locations, dissuading any common sense of resistance organizing among them.
  • Komai's strategy to suppress the riots is to set up cordons and curfews that disallow groups of protestors to meet each other. Then, they will be encircled and driven to the poorer districts to further limit their movement and make it easier for them to suppress.
  • The police can subvert this same strategy from being used against them in the pragmatic response to the riots, mandating each patrol to have a significant number of officers so that they won't be picked off by snipers. However, this also comes with the disadvantage of an overstretched force that needs to conduct raids 24/7, exhausting their officers.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Despite being actively oppressed, the Zhujin wanted to keep their heads down and slowly bleed rather than risk their lives through violent revolution. However, when the Oil Crisis deprives them of their wealth and Hitachi suppresses all peaceful protests or means of assisting them through the crisis, the Zhujin have had enough and decide to join the riots.
  • As the price of food rises during the Oil Crisis and talk of Hitachi laying off a third of its factories circulates, a group of Chinese laborers rush into their factory's office and hold the corporate suits there hostage, creating the first spark to the Guangdong riots.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Once three Matsushita-aligned members of the Legislative Council oppose a Hitachi motion, Komai hires Yakuza thugs to assault and hospitalize them. Afterwards, Komai threatens Matsushita to get his representatives in-line, making a mock plea to not force his hand and rewrite his contracts with the government. Matsushita plays along and nods in fear.
• Dramatic Irony: As he reassures them that the Riots are winding down, Komai calls the IJA his esteemed allies, unaware of just how close they were to initiating a coup and handing him a death sentence, had they got their hands on him.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • Komai mocks Morita and Li for being reformists who hypocritically reject his plans to transform Guangdong, missing the point that their reforms mean appeasing the populace rather than ruling with fear.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Komai ponders why everyone is so rebellious without considering his naked repression and exploitation against them.
  • One sixteen-year-old citizen asks his cousin when the state of emergency declared by Komai will end, where the latter rhetorically tells him to look at the Kenpeitai building and ask who's next on the execution list. He doesn't get what she means and asks her when his parents will be released, only for his cousin to openly tell him that they never will because Komai is going to extend the state of emergency.
  • Tsuchida is convinced all of the rioters are backed by the Nanjing government looking to undermine them. While the Nanjing government offers secretive support to the protestors, most of those on the streets are protesting the injustices they have experienced first hand and have no connections to any foreign government.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • The suicide rate skyrockets under Hitachi, with one man recalling his neighbors either jumping out of their windows, cutting themselves, or willfully drowning in a river. While suicides have always happened in Guangdong, they become even more noticeable when Komai takes away the suicide nets and lets the corpses lie in broad daylight, with their families unable to claim them without being late to work and most others becoming desensitized to the bodies.
  • The number of suicides rises again after the Oil Crisis brings the economy to ruin, where no one has time to observe the bodies or they'll be late to work.
• Due to the Dead:
  • As Komai carries out rigged court trials against captured rioters and broadcasts them publicly, Chun watches with his fellow comrades and honors an old veteran among the executed, commemorating how long he's fought the Japanese and wearing his dog tags to honor his sacrifice.
  • Besides meeting to report on their activities and celebrate their victories, the GFT and CCL leadership also mourn those who have perished in the fighting.
• Dystopia Is Hard: One of Komai's solutions to the Oil Crisis' violence is to pass the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance, authorizing the Kenpeitai to set up even more surveillance and arrest anyone for even making a suspicious sideways glance. However, such a measure proves taxing in manpower and leaves them to the brink of being overstretched, which allows such dissidents to still grow in strength from the shadows.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Subverted. During the Oil Crisis, one resistance cell of all walks of life gathers in a dreary cellar with only a metal ladder leading down and pallets being used for a makeshift stage.
• Emergency Presidential Address: Upon taking over, Komai gives a speech declaring how he wishes for stability and prosperity in Guangdong, vowing to crack down upon all dissent in the country.
• Empathic Environment:
  • With Komai brutally securing his rule, the surviving populace keeps their head down in fear and dread of what will come next. Appropriately, the sky seemingly becomes grimmer and colorless to everyone, with clouds blocking any vivid sunlight.
  • Yamauchi is at his lowest point under Hitachi and it starts raining after his love hotels are closed and his only way out is to sell his assets to Hitachi.
  • Komai can respond to the violence breaking out from the Oil Crisis by authorizing more suppressive methods, all on a dark, stormy day.
  • As lines of dissidents are hoarded on to boats for Manchuria at Guangdong’s dockyards, the rain belts down from the night sky, clinging to their bodies as thunder reigns in the distance.
• Enemy Compassion: Defied. Komai knows that some members of the Police are sympathetic to the rioters and may join in, so he forces them to adopt a hard stance against the mass movements.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Morita, Matsushita, and Ibuka hate each other, but in a rare moment of unity, they shoot a disdainful glare at Komai after the Emergency Regulations Ordinance passes, knowing how illegitimate the vote was.
  • If Komai gives certain exclusive government contracts to Nissan, another brief moment of unified opposition comes from Matsushita, Ibuka, and Morita. While Matsushita is more timid in his response, Morita and Ibuka are visibly furious and accuse Komai of undermining the position of many Legislative Council members, who have built their careers on government contracts, along with a brazen attempting to give these contracts to Hitachi because they're a subsidiary of Nissan. However, since government contracts are the responsibility of the Chief Executive, there is nothing they or the Legislative Council can do to stop him.
  • Alternatively, if Komai offers Nissan to purchase government debt in exchange for control of Guangdong’s budget, Yokoi presents this plan to the corporate leaders, drawing the collective ire of Ibuka and Morita; they don’t want the state to become beholden to nameless bureaucrats in Xinjing. However, Matsushita doesn’t join them this time, presumably from a position of weakness, trying to justify the plan before getting shouted down.
  • A downplayed example by the time Komai turns his meetings with the executives into rubber stamps for his initiatives. Morita and Matsushita tune out of Komai's lecture and request for questions by staring at other parts of the room, while Ibuka stares at him defiantly. While all three are united in their frustration with Komai, they remain silent because there is nothing they can do to oppose him.
  • Morita, Matsushita, and Ibuka express joint protests to the passage of the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance, tripling the quantity of checkpoints and police patrols.
  • When a group of angry factory workers hold their managers hostage and protest Hitachi’s plan to downsize, Matsushita, Morita and Ibuka present joint criticisms of Komai’s handling of the situation and his refusal to negotiate.
• Et Tu, Brute?: When Matsushita, Morita, and Ibuka jointly condemn Komai’s handling of the hostage situation leading in the riots, Komai takes greatest surprise at Ibuka's critiques and claims that he expected better than for him to join the "bleeding-hearts" of the other two.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • To Komai's disappointment, most of Fujitsu's legislators are reluctant to support the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, despite aligning with their goal of cutting down on laziness and inefficiency. Aiding Komai is simply a step too far for them.
  • Most of the Legislative Council, and even some Hitachi men, are disturbed by Komai's proposal of the Public Order and Police Ordinance, which would allow Manchurian security forces to be employed in Guangdong to suppress the Oil Crisis protests.
  • Matsushita and Ibuka squirm over Komai's Civil Obedience Ordinance, finding its permitted surveillance too extreme. The only reason they can be convinced to support it is when Komai threatens to turn to Manchuria for help, if the law is not passed.
• Every Man Has His Price: Komai exploits Zhou's corruption to expand Hitachi to the Republic of China, letting Hitachi take up various construction contracts and sell their construction equipment, in exchange for Zhou getting a bribe and a personal cut from the profit. With Hitachi's generous offers overpowering the Chinese government's feeble demands for Zhou to stop, the corporation takes over China's already uncompetitive market.
• Evil Colonialist: Komai can invite Nissan executives to begin investing in Guangdong industry, exploiting the labor of thousands of people to satiate their wealthy lifestyles and slowly overtake the country with their capital. There are a couple of specific actions that significantly benefit these invaders:
  • Komai can give Nissan greater control over Guangdong's industry, slashing regulations on foreign influence and either handing government contracts to Nissan or sell them the government's debts.
  • Nissan can be granted influence over the country's financial institutions, including the stock market, so that any assets not bought by Hitachi will go to them. This also includes Nissan's bureaucrats entering the bureaucracy or the company seizing control of Guangdong's public services.
  • Komai gives significant power to Nissan representatives in the country's security services.
• Evil Gloating:
  • The last three focuses of the Riots tree begin with the same first paragraph, in which Komai boasts about his own achievements.
    Our Chief Executive is Guangdong's strongman. His authority over this delta is not to be questioned by anyone, let alone by traitors whose rightfully ordained place in life is to do what they are told, not bothering to question why or how. Nor should his ability to protect this glorious, beautiful State of Guangdong and her welfare and prosperity be held in any doubt.
  • Victorious in the epilogue and more arrogant than ever before, Komai calls himself "the strongman of the State of Guangdong, the sole guarantor of her beauty and prosperity".
• Evil Laugh:
  • Waiting to sign a document authorising the restructuring and exploitation of Guangdong’s economy, Komai gives a short speech boasting about the amount of wealth and prosperity they will generate for themselves bringing a chuckle from the advisors and business partners present.
  • The Nissan contingent sent to congratulate Komai for the passing of the Taxation and Economic Relief Ordinance takes enjoyment at the prospect of now having influence of Guangdong’s taxes and the profits they can make with it, politely laughing during their exchange with Komai.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Once the Civil Obedience Ordinance passes, Yoshiko overhears a Japanese woman talking to someone else about how face-to-face meetings are safer now due to the phone calls being tapped. Yoshiko tests the rumor and calls her editor on a public hotel phone, hearing the click informing her that someone is listening in.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: One particularly stubborn manager refuses to sell his business to Hitachi, spending long nights and developing eye bags as he tries to navigate their offers and loopholes to steal his life's work. He only submits when they implicitly threaten his children.
• Evil-Detecting Baby:
  • With all communication monitored by the Civil Obedience Law, a baby's cries alerts her mother on the same night that the police raid her apartment and arrest people who have been caught whispering dissent.
  • During a speech Komai claims that the safety of every man, woman and child will be guaranteed and that they should not be frightened by dissent, before going on the usual spiel about prosperity. The people of Guangdong don’t buy it and feel a sense of unease over it, with one family trying to listen whilst keeping a façade of happiness to calm their baby who cries as Komai’s voice captures the room.
• Face Death with Dignity: Thousands of rioters march down Tianhe Road and are quickly surrounded by the police, but they still advance and attack them to stand firm in their ideals, despite some dying in the confrontation. One woman, who has spent her life in a Hitachi factory and lost her job, leads a Crowd Chant against the Police and is gratified to be fighting for a higher cause in the CCL and among her friends, accepting her death when the riot police attack.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Inverted with the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, the Public Order and Police Ordinance, and the Civil Obedience Ordinance. These laws are programmed and balanced to always pass, regardless of what the player does. In-universe, it's because Komai uses bribery and intimidation to guarantee their passage, deeming these ordinances too important to risk rejection.
• Fair-Weather Friend: The Nissan executives reciprocate Komai's disloyalty to them, emphasizing that their help in the Oil Crisis is not cooperation between equal partners, but collaboration with Komai as the proxy.
• False Reassurance:
  • Komai tries to assure everyone that he has their safety in mind and that, so long as they don't disobey him, they've got nothing to worry about. All across Guangdong, no one is reassured by the Chief Executive's words.
  • Even though everyone recognizes how dire the Oil Crisis is, Komai gives a half-hearted speech that they need to remain calm and stay united during these trying times.
  • To keep the situation stable after the Guangdong riots, Komai can reassure the most powerful executives that their investments are still safe and downplay the severity of the riots while attempting to make the investors of a Victorian banquet hall feel secure.
  • In the independent scenario to the riots, a representative of Mangyō and Nissan calls Komai about their lost investments. The Chief Executive tries to assure him that everything will soon be under control, but the representative doesn't buy it, telling rumors that Tokyo might step in and having his concerns confirmed when Komai is interrupted by a nearby crash.
  • The rest of the independent scenario follows Komai's desperate attempts to convince a Mangyō delegation that everything is fine, in spite of the riots, while doing everything he can to shield them from witnessing the actual violence happening on the streets. He arranges their stays in distant hotels from Kōshu, transports them in windowless helicopters, and snaps at them whenever they request to leave the hotel in a shocking departure from his typically cheerful demeanor.
  • In the pro-Manchurian response to the Oil Crisis, Komai's work is interrupted with intrusive, painful thoughts about the ongoing chaos, so he stands up to recollect and reassure himself that a mere man cannot tame the rage on Guangdong’s streets. This is to calm himself before reaching for the phone and calling for support from his superiors in Mangyō. A similar event plays during a more aggressive approach to the riots.
  • Guangdong bursts into chaos during the Guangdong Riots and Komai tries to reassure the people that they have nothing to fear if they obey the government. What he doesn't mention is that some of his suppressive measures will put them in harm's way, regardless of how loyal they've been to the regime.
  • As Komai's pragmatic response slowly picks off the GFT and CCL, Chun tries to reassure one of his comrades to have faith and that Hitachi is suffering major losses too, but the latter merely responds that it's still not enough. Even Chun can't be roused from his own reassurance when he thinks about how his siblings might get arrested next.
  • Shortly after Komai’s takeover, Chun counts the number of Kenpeitai checkpoints on the way to work, noting that the increase is larger than he expected. All he and everyone else try is to avoid making even the slightest sign of disobedience on front of these checkpoints, not wanting to be dragged off for "questioning" and be unable to support their families. The only thing keeping them going is a basic sense of survival and the vain hope that things won’t get worse that most know is unattainable.
  • During the phone call with Mangyō during the riots in a dependent Komai path, Komai pleads with the representative over the phone that the phone updates are all that is needed since the situation is under control and he can give a perfectly good picture. Unfortunately for Komai, the representative forcefully states that they cannot rely on phone updates and will be coming in person to assess the situation.
• Fascists' Bed Time:
  • Since Guangdong is placed under a state of emergency by Komai, a strict curfew is set at night, with violators severely punished if they are caught outside. Three Chinese men get shot when they are found late.
  • Further restrictions on movement can be placed in a pro-Manchurian response to the Oil Crisis, with all violations deemed a serious legal offense.
  • A stricter night curfew is enforced during the Guangdong Riots, with violators arrested under suspicion that they are aiding the dissidents. Not only does this help encircle the rioters, but it also means less popular support from those who obey the new law.
• Fate Worse than Death: Komai can think that summary execution is too merciful on dissidents and authorize torture as the "proper" punishment, a fate so horrific that the populace will keep their heads down to avoid drawing suspicion.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • The Kenpeitai captain that visits Yoshiko's residence expresses politeness throughout the entire encounter and even extends his condolences for her father's death, while also making it clear that he won't hesitate to arrest her if she writes any more treasonous articles.
  • The contractors hired to build Yamauchi's love hotels are creepy and give him toothless grins, while politely starting the negotiations.
  • The Mangyō representatives seem polite to Komai when they rely on his aid during the Oil Crisis, but it's all an act to hide how craven and greedy they are. Whenever Komai fails them, they're quick to turn hostile against him and they outright drop the act, if Komai asserts himself too much during the Oil Crisis.
• Firing Day:
  • At any moment, thousands of workers can get laid off from a business if Hitachi kicks out their employers and assimilates the company into their own, rendering them all homeless. Among the dozens of fired employees, one event shows how a Zhujin office worker loses a mediocre job he had for five years and is given a few minutes to pack up his stuff, while he contemplates where he will go now to support his parents and pregnant wife. A salaryman from the Kanton Sasshin Corporation also finds this out the hard way.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Komai can implement quotas proportional to employees and incomes so that Chinese workers are replaced by the Japanese and Zhujin. A Chinese worker who has spent years cleaning buildings within the financial district is fired, sending him into the night with his luggage, traumatized and angry at being cast into certain poverty by an apathetic government.
• Fist of Rage:
  • Reading the economic reports of Guangdong’s deficit during the Oil Crisis and feeling the walls closing in on him, Komai feels frustrated by his indecisiveness and slams his fist into the table in anger. This causes some of the pages to fall on the floor and forces him to pick them up, before taking drastic measures and ordering a freeze of the budget.
  • If Komai was dependent on Mangyō during the Oil Crisis, he reacts to the report thirty days after the start of the riots with anger and clenches his fist. Komai feels personally insulted by the disobedience and formulates a plot to prove himself as an independent figure in the eyes of the public and his Manchurian superiors.
• Foregone Conclusion: Seeing the smoke of a burning factory, Yamauchi knows that Nintendo isn't going to survive the riots. Hitachi was already delaying it fate by selling its old stock and manufacturing equipment to Japan, and now there is a high chance of rioters destroying whatever Yamauchi has left. In the best case scenario, he's only delaying its doom. 100 days later and Nintendo finally shuts down.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Nissan representatives arrive in Honkon, their meeting with Komai is rather cold and withdrawn, despite being on the same side, foreshadowing that Komai's loyalty to them isn't as strong as it initially seems.
  • In his tree where he allows Nissan to build Guangdong's industry, Komai almost sounds exhausted when he talks with their representative over the phone, foreshadowing his discontent of serving as their puppet.
  • There are multiple events of shady men spying on the Kenpeitai, the police, and random citizens. Combined with Chun's recent recruitment into a resistance cell, it's all foreshadowing the upcoming riots.
  • If Komai introduces the Civil Obedience Ordinance during the Oil Crisis and implements an amendment to have habeas corpus suspended, a sudden protest occurs outside the Legislative Complex, with the riot police observing the enraged tensions and how the crowds are not dispersed as easily as usual with water cannons and orders. This provides a glimpse into the upcoming Guangdong Riots.
  • A snippet of what to expect from the upcoming riots plays if the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance fails to pass during the Oil Crisis, with protestors hanging banners and graffitiing while confronting the police and Kenpeitai. The IJA are irritated with the situation and Hitachi begins preparing for worst, knowing the Oil Crisis is far from over.
• Frame-Up:
  • In a blatant show of injustice, some people are arrested in Hitachi's Guangdong on trumped up charges.
  • If show trials are organized against the rioters, the police will falsify evidence against the prosecuted, supposedly proving their treason and securing their guilty sentence.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • For the Oil Crisis protestors, their already neglectful government gets even worse, who makes more cuts to their paltry welfare and leaves them to fend for themselves. Protesting such injustices also takes a turn for the worse when the government decides to hold back no punches and starts opening fire on the crowds.
  • From the government's perspective, the Guangdong riots start out as protests organized by the GFT and CCL before they escalate into a full-blown revolution of millions who downright want to overthrow the government after years of Hitachi oppression. It presents their greatest threat to national security and will require an extensive effort for Komai to put down, even compared to the other Chief Executives in their own paths.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Komai's attempt to shield the Mangyō delegation from the riots will depend on how much Manchurian aid he received during the Oil Crisis. If he asserts enough independence, the delegation will land in a distant airfield away from Kōshu. If he was too dependent, the delegation lands at the Kōshu airport to witness the violence firsthand.
• Gas Mask Mooks: With protests breaking out after the Oil Crisis, Lam and the rest of the police don gas masks and other riot gear to safely clear out the mobs with tear gas, while upholding the Hitachi regime. While training and resisting simulated blows against his shield, Lam hopes that the masks can conceal his identity from his fellow countrymen,.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: For the unfortunate souls who dare speak out against the reign of Hitachi and Komai, they will be harshly punished by being left to rot in a humid, pitch black prison, slowly losing their memories in the process. One event shows how a dissident locked in solitary confinement and handcuffed to the wooden floor wakes up and collapses from the overwhelming senses of pain, humidity and stench as he struggles to remember how he got here, where the scars came from and what happened to the other dissidents within his university.
• God Is Good: A successful Guangdong by Hitachi is called a hell on Earth that oppresses the masses to fuel a heaven exclusively for the very rich. An event states that the only comforting thought will be that any just god would never excuse these atrocities and will damn those who have indulged in Komai's cruelty.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Desperate to stave off the Oil Crisis in his personalist route, Komai orders Tsuchida to cross off any departments of government funding and halve the public service budget to funnel them to the police, regardless of what consequences may arise. Tsuchida thinks it's an awful idea, but he follows his orders so that his name doesn't get crossed off the list too.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Komai freezes the budget as a desperate means to prevent financial catastrophe, in spite of its potential short-term ramifications. If he's even more opportunistic, he can also turn to Nissan and Mangyō for help, even though it could risk him becoming their puppet, but also later allows him to remove the freeze and draw a new budget later.
  • In his pro-Manchurian route, Komai will call up his Mangyō superiors to funnel more backing into his unstable regime. It wounds his ego and he knows that his superiors will try to maneuver a one-sided deal in their favor, but he prioritizes recovery above anything else.
• Goodbye, Cruel World!!: Subverted. A worker nearing the point of suicide writes down their experiences to keep themself alive. In these writings the author ponders how many more people around the country are just barely surviving and describes the trauma of listing to bootsteps and screaming constantly with the apartment above being raided as they write. The writings conclude with the author entertaining taking their own life and detailing all the other people they have witnessed taking theirs.
• Gratuitous Latin: Komai's ascension to power is concluded with the reaction text "Oderint Dum Metuant", meaning "let them hate so long as they fear".
• Happiness Is Mandatory: A patriotic billboard seen in the ending shows a Chinese police officer happily supervise a group of smiling laborers, but those who look deeply into the policeman's eyes can only see sorrow and regret, as if he wants to say "I'M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING".
• Hate at First Sight: Komai takes an immediate dislike towards Zhou Fohai, based on his appearance, but he keeps his disdain private so that he can better exploit his corruptible nature.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose:
  • No matter what happens with the Economic Partnership Ordinance, Komai wins. If it passes, it gives Hitachi greater legal power to take over smaller firms. If it fails, it doesn't matter anyway because Japanese investors are going to praise him for protecting their investments and let him stay in Tokyo's good graces.
  • Komai thinks this trope word-for-word after passing the Financial Reorganization and Revitalization Ordinance, as the other big three companies try desperately to outbid Hitachi and prevent their assets from falling into their hands. However, Komai laughs at their futile resistance, knowing that they're just wasting their money and Hitachi will win over them in the end.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: If Komai promises to protect Japanese investments in the Oil Crisis, a Japanese man celebrates the announcement and declares that all of his financial troubles are over, even declaring this to his wife, despite usually finding her to be irritating.
• History Repeats:
  • As Sony's profit margins suffer under Hitachi, Morita comments that the whole situation is a repeat of Tokyo Telecommunication's own problems in the 1950's.
  • Not only does the Oil Crisis bear a resemblance to the Yasuda Crisis with companies collapsing and unemployment rising, but also to the founding of Guangdong, as the police report riots, looting, and murders not seen since the country's formation.
• Hope Spot:
  • With Chun gone in the riots and Leong's health declining, it's up to Hei to support the Lee family and he seems to land a cushy job with Matsushita Electric. The foreman seems bareable enough to an unenthusiastic Hei during the interview, only briefly ranting about most of his employees leaving to join the riots and seeming a little desperate for workers. Unfortunately, the details of the job are far less glamorous, where he'll need to work the entire day for mediocre pay and must move into their dorms, which are conditions he must accept.
  • After the riots and Chun's death, Hei recovers his old books and sketches, which hits him with a nostalgic wave of his adolescent years and hopes of becoming a tech prodigy. Then, Hei bitterly realizes that such dreams are futile in Komai's Guangdong, so he burns the books.
  • If Komai decides that arrested dissidents no longer serve any purpose and has them executed, an event shows how one prisoner is rudely awoken and after a few moments of his senses trying to readjust, he realises that he is being aggressively taken out of his cell. The prisoner thinks about how it is about time he gets moved whilst also reflecting on the moment he was teared away from his loved one. This hope is dashed once he is smacked across the head and given a sentencing for treason which he can barely make out over the ringing in his head before being subsequently executed.
  • Chun points out a loose bolt on a factory line to his superiors which is left entirely ignored for a week until the foreman tells him that maintenance will have a look at it by the end of the day, easing Chun’s nerves as he goes to have his lunch. This is immediately interrupted by the bolt shooting out, speeding up a conveyor belt and injuring multiple of his coworkers.
  • If the Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance fails, Yoshiko buys drinks for her colleagues to celebrate the next day, but when she arrives, she finds her editor carefully reading a hidden article that reveals that the editor-in-chiefs of major newspapers were rounded up for questioning on loyalty, destroying any celebratory mood.
• Hopeless with Tech: An Italian shipping overseer buys Hitachi computers in the hopes that they will make his job easier. Unfortunately, he struggles to train his employees with a new technology that doesn't use punch cards. He develops a bad headache from having to explain things up to ten times.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • If Komai publicly announces his oppressive tactics, two citizens hear a radio report of a cadre of journalists being arrested. Despite this, they still think Komai is a benevolent ruler cleaning the streets of crime.
  • If Komai offers benefits to those who have proven loyalty during the Oil Crisis, a young man returns home, unusually happy, with news of tax breaks and other economic benefits. His father unenthusiastically nods and thinks that his son is a fool for thinking such promises will change anything, especially from an openly treacherous guy like Komai.
• Hostage Situation: When Hitachi closes down one of their factories to mitigate the Oil Crisis, the workers attack their managers and hold them hostage, with Komai unwilling to appease their demands for several days.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Calling a Mangyō and Nissan representative in the independent scenario of the riots, Komai assures him that matters are under control, in spite of the ongoing chaos. When the representative demands for him to fly to Hsking to personally create a plan of action to the crisis, Komai refuses under the excuse that Guangdong would fall into anarchy if he leaves. The former is quick to point out the contradiction and immediately arranges a visit from Mangyō.
• Improvised Weapon: Chun and other members of the CCL are trained to produce makeshift firebombs, determined to make justice out of the years of backbreaking work they were subjected to.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Regardless of whether the Social Spending Reconciliation Ordinance passes or not, Hei and Wai will give their support for Chun to join the CCL and rise against the oppressive Hitachi regime. As far as they're concerned, the government just tried to cut all social spending and blatantly showed their disregard for the poor, so they might as well fight back.
  • Through either the Social Spending Reconciliation Ordinance or the Taxation and Economic Relief Ordinance, Komai can threaten/appeal to Matsushita or Ibuka to pass it through the Legislative Council, which play the same events in either scenario.
  • Believing that their money is threatened by the riots, a Mangyō director calls Komai to assess the situation and there are two variants, depending on Komai's actions during the Oil Crisis, that lead to the same general outcome. In the independent scenario, the phone call is tense, with the director expressing skepticism of Komai's assurances and sending a delegation, including himself, to examine the situation personally and craft a plan. In the dependent scenario, the director notes his confidence that the situation can be controlled, thanks to Nissan and Mangyō's extensive investments, but still visits against Komai's wishes because he can't trust phone updates.
  • Regardless of Komai's approach to the riots, his victory event is the exact same: the riots cool off and Komai smokes a cigarette in satisfaction that the chaos is over.
• Industrialized Evil: As if things already weren't bad enough in Guangdong, Komai takes the country into new lows by exporting the Manchurian model to the country, directly inspired by Mangyō. It entails ruthless industrialization, the unrelenting pursuit for productivity, and the destruction of thousands of lives just to turn the country into an economic powerhouse.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Zig-Zagged. If he asks for Nissan’s assistance in drafting a taxation revision for the Taxation and Economic Relief Ordinance, Komai is impressed at the level of detail in the report handed to him and how it will squeeze the Chinese and Zhujin from their wealth. However, he is frustrated that the whole thing was drafted without any of his input and takes greater offense at the fact that they added a list of suggestions of how to pass it through the Legislative Council, as if he couldn’t do that himself.
  • While talking about the embargo lift and Hitachi's offer to supply construction equipment, Erhard accidentally offends Komai during their potential meeting with a remark that, even if he thinks the proposals are sound, the equipment will have to go through qualification testing before being approved on government projects. Komai takes offense that they doubt the quality of his products, believing that they are better than their German counterparts. However, he maintains a polite tone so as to not jeopardize the talks.
• It Has Only Just Begun: Hitachi's unwelcome presence in China is communicated when their assets are destroyed. Despite this, Komai remains calm, as he sees China as a mere stepping stone for future expansion.
• Jerkass Has a Point: A lot of American politicians and business leaders decry Hitachi's expansion into the United States, pointing out that their low prices are the product of the slave labor they use to mass-produce them. They're mostly arguing against Hitachi's presence out of xenophobia, but they are absolutely right; out of any Chief Executive, Komai is the most prolific in his exploitation of Chinese laborers, actively oppressing them to extract as much work out of them before they drop dead.
• Job-Stealing Robot: In Bormann's Germany, a group of operators in a Reichswerke steel plant are responsible for managing the computers, making them replaceable when Hitachi's 8100 series mainframe hits the scene. The former employees are replaced with a group of computer specialists and their complaints fall on deaf ears.
• Just Following Orders: How one Nissan lawyer explains why he is giving instructions to remove the suicide nets to a group of bewildered surveyors.
• Kangaroo Court:
  • Show trials can be conducted against anyone deemed an enemy to Hitachi, rallying the public against them and striking fear in everyone else.
  • If Komai calls off restraints during the Guangdong riots, many will be arrested and tried in a special court hosted in any grand-enough hall, such as a repurposed boardroom of a former Cheung Kong subsidiary. In one trial, all sixty defendants found guilty and invariably sentenced to death, regardless of their crime and with no defense attorneys to appeal for clemency. Yoshiko is horrified by the sight and doesn't witness the actual sentencing because of it being a Foregone Conclusion, but she ultimately remains silent so she won't be next.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Right before signing a decree that would subsume hundreds of businesses under Hitachi's grasp, Komai turns to his yes-men and gloats about how this initiative will boost their own stations for many years to come, all in a gleeful, self-satisfied tone.
  • After the suicide nets are taken away, many Kenpeitai men laugh at the corpses they see of people who have killed themselves. In a morbid sense, though, the corpses would've preferred that reaction, since they will at least be remembered for a brief moment.
  • Under Komai's rule, Nintendo goes into decline as a result of Hitachi's ruthless consolidation of the economy, so Yamauchi is 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.
  • If Komai authorizes the execution of dissidents to have their bodies displayed in back alleys, a group of armed guards show no sympathy for the tied up and gagged prisoner crying and pleading for mercy, telling him to shut up before executing him.
  • Komai can choose to gift Nissan rule over many of Guangdong’s public services where all the utilities firms are bought up and prices are subsequently raised. Arguments are common with one Hitachi executive arguing that the price hikes are necessary because of increased work hours and hence increased demand even if the furious member of the Legislative Council doesn’t buy it. Elsewhere in Guangdong, people like the Lee family are forced to buy rotten food as prices rise and supermarkets run dry.
  • For the Oil Crisis, there is some benefit from rationing electricity to maintain factory production during the day. But Komai goes the extra mile by purposely cutting off electricity to the poorer neighborhoods, suspicious that they contain many dissidents and gleeful that the darkness means police raids can be more easily conducted.
  • Potentially scrapping all welfare for the Chinese people during the Oil Crisis also comes with Komai making a vile remark about what the Chinese even deserve.
  • In the unrestrained response to the riots, Komai can specifically order his thugs to deliberately break the bones of any protestors unlucky enough to get tackled and captured, leaving them neutralized in agony or unconsciousness.
• Kick Them While They Are Down:
  • Foreign commentators from New York, Germania, and London write obituaries for the Guangdong Civil Service, if the Capital Investment Security Ordinance fails to pass and Japanese financiers begin moving assets back to the Home Isles.
  • When the Honkon Police Commissioner reports his failure to contain the riots, Komai brings in his own reinforcements and calls the police weak, mocking them for how it takes an outsider to help them and promising to show the police “how it’s done” before Rudely Hanging Up.
• Kid Hero: Many of Wai's classmates join the Guangdong Riots and generously give Wai and Hei some food to support each other.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Sadly, one of the reasons why the riots stop is because most people realize that overthrowing Hitachi would just invite Japanese retaliation and a worse regime than the one they're facing under Komai, so they give up and accept the new world they live in.
  • During the riots, Yoshiko tries convincing the Kenpeitai patrol to let her pass the cordon and pick up her things from the apartment. When the Kenpeitai refuse, Yoshiko wisely turns back around, knowing that continued resistance would end badly for her.
• Lack of Empathy: Much like Komai, the Nissan executives have no sympathy or remorse for their gross exploitation of Chinese labor. As one person comments, the only thing a Chinese man can do under Nissan's watch is look out for himself, since no one else will stand up for him.
• Lawman Baton: Police officers are encouraged to use batons against the rioters, beating and arresting them without hesitation.
• Lockdown:
  • Many people avoid going outside, except to gather their necessities, leaving the streets eerily quiet. Komai thinks this is acceptable, since it discourages organized opposition to him.
  • As the riots intensify and the police cordon off the streets, the staff of the Kanton Fujin Koron lockdown the building for shelter. Unfortunately for Yoshiko, she can't bring her possessions to the lockdown, since her apartment is cut off by a cordon and the Kenpeitai patrol refuses to let her pass.
• Locked Out of the Loop: The police are kept in the dark about where criminal gangs are storing their drugs, so that the Kenpeitai can handle them alone. It reflects the expanded authority of the Kenpeitai under Komai's watch, so much that not even the police can stand up to them.
• Long Game: In a personalist response to the Oil Crisis, Komai cuts back Hitachi's production to match reduced product demand, giving up short-term profits to save their money for Guangdong's long-term investment.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Even if the Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance fails, Komai will still restrict the freedom of press by rounding up every editor-in-chief from Guangdong for interrogation about their loyalty. The only way to know about this loophole is a short article hidden by the Legislative Council's news, hence why a few people don't even realize that they're still being tricked.
  • To subjugate Guangdong under Nissan's boot, Komai will weaken the other "irritating corporations" through economic restructuring measures and buying them up with state funds when they're most vulnerable, while technically not taking them over with force
  • Zhujin-owned businesses are easy for Hitachi to steal by accusing their owners of owning "subversive elements" so that, even if their innocence is proven, they can have their assets and financial records immediately forfeited to the government and now effectively owning them.
  • The Legislative Council can reject the Revised Social Recovery Ordinance and Komai's plan to cut on government spending, but the Chief Executive bypasses this ruling by requiring each civil department to write hundreds of forms to justify their existence. If even one page or letter is out of place, Komai has reason to abolish them.
  • For any firm that rejects Hitachi's offer to buy them out, Komai can send the Yakuza to kill the owner and give Hitachi an excuse to take over the business.
  • The Economic Partnership Ordinance would force smaller firms to join up with a larger one and, since Hitachi is the biggest and most aggressive of them, it's another indirect means by which Komai can turn Guangdong into his personal regime.
  • Right before introducing the Civil Obedience Ordinance to authorize direct surveillance of domestic communication lines, Komai makes a vague statement about how security is necessary for stability and that more severe measures are needed in response to the Oil Crisis. Several Sony men realize that the vagueness is purposeful, which will allow Komai to justify anything, from mere censorship to outright execution of dissidents.
  • In his pro-Manchurian route to the Oil Crisis, Komai can exploit loopholes and commissions with fixed outcomes to scrap all welfare for the Chinese citizens, tightening the eligibility and general restrictions on resource distribution.
• Love Hotels: Desperate to keep Nintendo floating, Yamauchi opens at least three, tacky love hotels where customers can pimp out prostitutes who are also in need of a job. The Kenpeitai eventually discover this illegal business, shut it down, and arrest everyone in charge except for Yamauchi.
• Make an Example of Them:
  • Wrathful that anyone would dare oppose him, Komai can order the execution of several arrested dissidents to have their corpses displayed in the backstreets as an example for everyone else.
  • Komai can publicly broadcast the trials and sentences of arrested dissidents over the radio, where many are put to death and used as a warning to the rioters that their loved ones could be next.
• Meet the New Boss:
  • Subverted. The Nissan representatives who arrive in the Legislative Council are far worse than the people they replaced.
    Meet the new boss, worse than the old boss.
  • If Komai invites Nissan to invest in Guangdong’s industry, Chun’s usual factory foreman is replaced with a Japanese man from Nissan, who insults and threatens to fire his workers just as frequently as their old boss for supposed laziness. After, he subjects them to the same ill treatment under the watch of men with truncheons, leaving them them to toil away with only the thoughts of their families to keep them going.
• The Migration:
  • To attract foreign capital, Komai can lure Japanese investors to migrate from mainland China to Guangdong by presenting the latter as a more friendly place for investments, even though the already-present Japanese elites will hate the perceived assistance to lazy freeloaders.
  • In his personal response to the Oil Crisis, Komai realizes that droves of people are emigrating out of Guangdong and moving to the Republic of China for better opportunities. To prevent a drain on the population, he will have to offer more incentives for them to stay.
• A Million Is a Statistic: As seen in the focus of the same name, this is how Hitachi justifies getting rid of the anti-suicide nets. Since cheap labor keeps flooding into Guangdong, what's the point? If a worker die there is always more to take their place.
• Misery Builds Character: Countless innocent people have suffered under Komai's fist by the turn of the decade and the Chief Executive doesn't care. He remarks that their pain will build character and those who succeed will do so on what he deems a merit, whether it be their ethnic origin, monetary skills, or sheer luck.
• Misplaced Retribution: To combat the Riots, Komai closes businesses and emergency services in the areas where they are strongest. Many law-abiding citizens will suffer in the process, but Komai deems the collateral loss to be worth it.
• The Mole:
  • Komai can use moles to leak information from the rioters and identify leaders within the CCL and GFT.
  • During Komai's pragmatic response to the riots, Chun's truck is stopped by an an armored police van, forcing Chun and his comrades to open their boxes of firebombs and fight back. As he wraps his lacerated hand in bandages, Chun is suspicious that someone gave the slip to Hitachi because the Police would have no reason to expend resources into patrolling a quiet part of the city that they were traveling through. The recent uptick in recruits to the resistance gives him more reason to suspect that some informants slipped through.
• Mood Whiplash: A calm scene of a dissident creating posters for the people's liberation is suddenly interrupted when law enforcement break into his apartment and arrest him.
• Moral Myopia:
  • One Japanese elite urges Yoshiko to flee back to the Home Islands, commenting how angry the Chinese citizens are in Guangdong. She acts as if the Japanese elite are innocent people surrounded by a hostile enemy who want to destroy them, completely ignorant of the decades of oppression the Chinese have faced by said Japanese colonizers, especially ever since Komai took over.
  • A Turkish steel mill manager is ecstatic by how much time he can save by using Hitachi computers to sift through his mountains of paperwork. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for his many workers, who still toil away in a vain effort to compete with Reichswerke. As he leaves the factory, the manager goes as far to claim that the future for him and his workers are bright with the new technology.
  • Most Japanese firms are grateful to receive Komai's aid during the Oil Crisis, never considering that such benefits are not granted to Chinese districts. This neglect causes more Chinese people to join the CCL, thanks to recruiters like Chun.
• Motor Mouth: When he's not being actively monitored, a factory worker rambles to his friend about how terrible their working conditions are and the countless horror stories of people getting maimed or killed in accidents. His friend is too afraid to voice similar complaints and sometimes wishes that he didn't have to hear such disturbing information.
• Move Along, Nothing to See Here:
  • Dissidents are openly executed on the streets, with the Guangdong police forcing any observers to walk away because the area is closed.
  • A woman walking home through a poorer neighbourhood whilst thinking about what she can do to support her family gets interrupted by a police officer informing her that the area is closed off and that she should find another route in badly accented Cantonese. Behind the barricade she can see a body lying on the ground and four men standing against a wall being arrested, before deciding to comply and going another way.
• My God, What Have I Done?: If Komai deals with dissidents silently, Lam is distraught by the now empty prisons, as if the cells were emptied by divine intervention. It reminds him of his shameful idleness to Hitachi executing these prisoners, seeing the funerals of those who perished, and sadly giving the news of the prisoners' deaths to their loved ones.
• Never My Fault:
  • Chun's foreman ignores his request to fix a loose bolt, but when it shoots out and causes a work accident, he blames everyone on the factory line for the incident, calling out their "gross ignorance" and firing them without a hint of irony.
  • In the epilogue, a Hitachi foreman brushes off a complaint that the shipping schedule of new products is going too fast and could cause an accident, but also makes it clear that the crew chief will be blamed, if an accident does occur.
• New Era Speech: Komai's first address to the Legislative Council is a bombastic speech about ushering in a return to "the ancestral way of the Cantonese", referring to trade, entrepreneurship, and commerce. Even though these so-called "traditions" are abstract and completely in service to Hitachi's interests, some members of the council can't help but applaud anyway.
• Nightmare Sequence: Wai has frequent nightmares of one or both of her brothers being arrested by Hitachi men or Kenpeitai officers, begging her to help them before being carried off to the darkness.
• Nightmarish Factory: One event details how a worker gets unnerved having to focus on the conveyor belt on front of him whilst his co-worker explains how they are losing insurance and compensation before listing various factory horror stories. Once Hitachi forces everyone on half pay, people are effectively forced to show up hours early to work as any missed time would mean less wages to feed their families.
• Nothing Is Scarier: One morning after the Hitachi coup, an unaware Yamauchi doesn't hear a sound from the normally bustling streets and sees no morning commuters, street vendors, or police patrols. The only individuals present are the Kenpeitai officers, which creeps Yamauchi out and convinces him to clock off early.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse:
  • Hitachi can force Matsushita to support the Social Recovery Ordinance, but when the latter asks for something in return, the lead executive offers nothing and makes it clear that he has no choice but to accept, unless he wants something bad to happen to his subsidiaries.
  • For any business that Hitachi wants to take over, the choices are to give up the company and take an executive position in Hitachi or refuse and get butchered by the Yakuza or Kenpeitai, leaving their business to be handed to the government anyways. Eventually, this tactic of forcing smaller businesses to surrender can be weaponized in the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance.
  • Completely helpless and with no other financial avenues, Yamauchi is forced to sell Nintendo's private assets to the Kenpeitai men who demand his signature. Much as he would want to protest, Yamauchi knows he has no choice but to accept.
  • A personalist response to the Oil Crisis will offer rewards to loyal citizens and write off large portions of their debt to weather the storm, even if this will anger Komai's superiors. Those who stay defiant and refuse the offer will be forced to undergo fewer rations during a terrible economic period.
• Oh, Crap!: A group of salarymen burst into their manager's office once the Oil Crisis starts and informs him of the rapidly rising oil prices. After a brief moment, the manager realizes the danger and immediately makes a break for the phone.
• Older Than They Look: The harsh work conditions and livelihood in Komai’s Guangdong has made one 22-year-old woman worn out and wrinkled.
• Open Secret: If Komai orders a quiet euthanasia of all dissidents, everyone will figure out what's happened to them, but no one dares speak out in fear that they'll be next.
• Opportunistic Bastard: The Nissan car companies, potentially invited by Komai, just see Guangdong land as property to forcibly purchase and expand their business beyond Manchuria, destroying the homes of thousands of people who vacated the area to avoid Hitachi crackdowns and selling all the personal belongings still remaining in the properties.
• Order Is Not Good: Hitachi propaganda brags about how they've instilled order back into the country by cleansing it of crime and dissidence, even though it's blatantly clear that said order is downright oppressive.
• Overt Rendezvous: Matsushita and Ibuka meet in the newly opened Kowloon Park to discuss Komai’s request for support on the Capital Investment Security Ordinance, fearing that their usual meetings spots may have been bugged. Ibuka finds some irony in being the victim of the same surveillance he was advocating for.
• Passive Aggressive Combat: Komai can appeal to Matsushita to back the Social Spending Reconciliation Ordinance in a "friendly" manner. The two executives exchange pleasantries with each other, yet can barely hide their contempt over their phone call, with Komai despising his caller's newfound confidence and Matsushita dragging his feet to make a decision.
• Pet the Dog: Even though Komai is really only useful to them as a proxy to control Guangdong, the Manchurian bureaucracy still invites him as a guest of honor if Pujie takes over Manchuria and hosts a coronation to celebrate, where Komai is allowed to attend the entire event with Pujie's court.
• Plausible Deniability:
  • Komai can call for an expansion of Kenpeitai units by 50% after taking power, all under the guise of protecting Guangdong from illegal partisan activity. A newspaper article featuring Komai and Consul-General announces this measure and its justification, when it is really done to strengthen Komai’s rule.
  • There are consistent influxes in funds in the records of wire and bank transfers from Manchuria, clustering around votes in the Legislative Council. Coincidence can be used to dismiss the suspicious circumstances.
• Police Brutality:
  • As if the Guangdong Police weren't bad enough, the Kenpeitai are even worse, taking any hint or perceived slight as disobedience and good reason to be taken for "questioning", where they are beaten for hours.
  • The Guangdong Police aren't much better either, with the lieutenants encouraging brutality over de-escalation or rules of engagement. As far as they're concerned, earning the people's fear is how they'll get them to obey.
  • One of Komai's first initiatives is to clear the streets of perceived dissidents and raid their homes.
  • The police and Kenpeitai must use violent tactics and riot gear to put down the Guangdong riots, since they are far too outraged to negotiate with. The brutality can be escalated if Komai calls off all restraints and permits the use of any weapons to kill them.
  • Even the non-lethal police measures to the Riots will involve breaking the rioters' bones and inviting Nissan security forces to aid the crackdowns.
  • During the pragmatic response to the riots, a resistance member mentions to Chun how the police have escalated from just roughing up people and throwing stuff around, now barging into their suspects' rooms to beat them, tear down their walls, and burn furniture.
• Police State: With the Kenpeitai's backing and top position in the Legislative Council, Komai takes Guangdong to new levels in terms of police surveillance and suppression, all under the guise of advancing the pan-Asian cause.
• Polluted Wasteland: With thousands laboring in the factories and all regulations gutted, the very earth becomes poisoned with smog and chemicals, with the skies covered in smog and the water contaminated with brown chemicals.
• Powder Keg Crowd:
  • After Komai passes the Public Order and Police Ordinance, a massive demonstration of protestors march on the street, getting into a tense standoff with the police and crying out "Death to the occupiers, liberate Guangdong". All hell breaks out when the police fire into the crowd, eventually descending into tear gas and firebombs being thrown at the protestors.
  • During the Guangdong riots, a line of police officers stand-off against hundreds of angry protestors, with an open brawl finally erupting when someone throws a brick at an officer. The crowd disperses and flees when the police line moves forward, trampling some people in the process.
• The Power of Hate: Frustrated by the indecision of their superiors and the lack of medical personnel to help their injured comrades in the pragmatic route, the police take their anger out on a group of rioters and mercilessly beat them with their riot shields, covering the streets in blood and forcing them to flee.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Matsushita and Ibuka agree with Morita that Komai is worsening the hostage situation after his downsizing project. However, while Morita has moral qualms with Komai's stubbornness, the former two are more concerned that the situation will reflect badly on them to the Legislative Council and Tokyo.
  • As a show to seem more tolerant, Komai can pull back on Hitachi's surveillance and release some people who were unfairly imprisoned.
  • To seem more benevolent, Komai can modify the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance to be less harsh on the smaller firms and give them contract work from Hitachi rather than blatantly subjugate them or give greater government oversight of them.
  • In a rare show of compromise and pragmatism, Komai can win Matsushita and Ibuka's support for the Violent Crime Control and Incarceration Ordinance by letting them use the criminally charged as free laborers in their own factories.
  • Preparing the Financial Reorganization and Revitalization Ordinance to close or subsume other companies into Hitachi, Komai can accept a deal by Matsushita and/or Ibuka to leave their corporations alone in exchange for getting the bill passed.
  • Komai can let outside contractors handle the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance so they can spare Hitachi from doing the dirty work, even if it increasing their rivals' influences.
  • Komai addresses the people of Guangdong once the Oil Crisis hits. While he wouldn’t normally care to acknowledge the common people, he deems the Oil Crisis to be extraordinary enough that an appeal for cooperation is needed.
  • Unable to control the violence following the Oil Crisis, Komai can try to ease the atmosphere by promising tax breaks and economic benefits to those with a proven loyalty.
  • Disrespected as he feels by Ibuka's denunciation of the Budget Reorganization and Responsibility Ordinance, Komai begrudgingly still hears out of his demands and compromises for his support by pulling subsidies from Hitachi. He may need Ibuka's help to pass the law, even though he silently swears to get even with him later.
  • A response to the Oil Crisis is the Civil Obedience Ordinance, which could have an additional amendment suspending habeas corpus and allow security to arrest people without warrant. However, Komai may drop this amendment or moderate to just increased security funding because it may be too unpopular with the public.
  • One of Komai's amendments to the Guangdong Business Warrant Act is to subsidize local businesses to stave off the Oil Crisis and improve Hitachi's public image.
  • In his personal response to the Oil Crisis, Komai takes note of the masses of people emigrating to China, potentially threatening Guangdong’s future with a population drain. To prevent this, Komai offers token incentives for the people to stay in exchange for remaining loyal, while those who aren’t loyal get punished.
  • Even in his personalist response, Komai recognizes that he's still somewhat dependent on his superiors during the Oil Crisis. Though there is a risk that his superiors will try to cheat him, Komai may ask for a bailout or try to emulate Manchuria's industrial model to stabilize his dictatorship.
  • In the dependent scenario of the Guangdong riots, Komai plots with Miyazaki to divert the Mangyō investigatory team away from Kōshu so they can downplay the violence, yet the latter rolls back on the conspiracy and lets the delegation land in the Kōshu airport. He explains to an outraged Komai that such an action is outside of the IJA's jurisdiction and that the security forces can only provide protection to visiting dignitaries.
• Pre-Sacrifice Final Goodbye: Hei and Wai catch Chun about to quietly leave their apartment to join the Guangdong riots, after he wrote a note explaining where he's going. Knowing that he probably isn't going to come out alive, the two give him tearful goodbyes, with Chun telling Hei that he must be the new man of the house, since their father is becoming too old to work.
• Prisoner's Work:
  • Komai is happy to make use of incarcerated prisoners as labor for his resource extraction programs in the hinterlands, rather than leaving them to rot in the prisons. Under the Violent Crime Control and Incarceration Ordinance, thousands of dissidents are either enslaved in the Guangdong factories or loaded onto ships like sardines and used as forgotten, forced laborers by Nissan in Manchuria. He can also offer Matsushita or Ibuka to take in some of the prisoners as labour in exchange for political support, which Matsushita or Ibuka may or may not accept.
  • One event details an imprisoned individual forced to work to work in the scorching heat of an excavation tunnel, covered in soot and dust whilst saddened and angry at the government for doing this to him and at himself for leaving his mother behind in the countryside by moving to the cities for work, only having a velvet pouch to remember her by.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: By the end of Komai’s personalist route, he has his own entourage of loyal sycophants enjoying the view of the smokestacks of Guangdong from Komai’s office, as they think about how wise they were for following Komai and his every word.
• Propaganda Machine:
  • Once he assumes power, Komai will pass the Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance, which puts a muzzle on the already pro-Japanese media organisations in Guangdong such as Kanton Fujin Koron by forcing them to employ Hitachi staffers to review any articles deemed sensitive, effectively turning it into an arm of the government.
  • By orders of the Kenepitai, the Kanton Fujin Koron is no longer allowed to write an accurate account of life in Guangdong, forcing them to write praise for the government from that point onward. Matters can get even worse if the Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance passes and practically puts a gun on what the press can say about Hitachi. However, Yoshiko is somewhat relieved that this is the worst thing that's happened to them, as her superior convinced Hitachi to keep the Kanton Fujin Koron around; most other publications ended up getting shut down either because they refused to fall in line or because they were owned by Chinese people, who Hitachi is prejudiced against.
  • The Public Information and Disinformation Relief Ordinance can potentially establish a censorship bureau to silence any dissent and quash the people's freedom of speech under the excuse that they're committing sedition, leaving the government free to produce their own propaganda in favor of itself.
  • As part of his plan to militarize the security forces under the Public Stability and Security Ordinance, Komai can start an anti-crime propaganda campaign, with a Zhujin and Manchurian bureaucrat set to design it. The latter criticizes the former's proposed slogans as too ineffectual, believing that only terror can keep criminals in line. The Manchurian's concept spells out four large red words reading "YOU WILL REGRET THIS".
• Propaganda Piece:
  • In the epilogue, there is a general propaganda push by Hitachi to promote their products and associate them with Guangdong patriotism.
  • After the riots, Hitachi produces a propaganda cartoon called Huli and Friends, following a band of characters searching for treasure and praising the Samurai, an allegory for the Japanese, as valiant protectors who fight scary pirates and giant sea monsters.
• Psycho for Hire: To bolster security after the Oil Crisis, Komai can outsource war criminals from across the Sphere to do the job, something which disturbs even Ibuka.
• Psychotic Smirk: A Manchurian officer congratulates Lam and his colleagues for an exceptionally brutal raid, where some were beaten where some were beaten to the point of unconsciousness. When one of Lam’s colleagues asks what happened to the rules of engagement, the officer slightly smiles in sadistic amusement and replies that using fear is more effective.
• The Purge:
  • To gut government control of the economy, Komai fires most of the civil service, especially those who manage building standards and inspections. He specifically targets those who are too sympathetic to workers' rights, vowing to team them "the errors of their ways, willing or unwilling". In turn, many of the Zhujin bureaucrats will lose their status and be marked as Chinese again to work and die in the factories.
  • If Komai wants to bring Nissan into the Legislative Council, he will purge an eighth of the council and replace them with Nissan members, with one of them being Nissan's CEO of the Guangdong regional branch.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • The Legislative Council celebrates the failure of the Financial Reorganization and Revitalization Ordinance to pass, thinking that they've preserved their corporation's independence. Unfortunately, the victory is short-lived when Hitachi bombs some of their factories, making it clear that Hitachi will dominate them one way or another.
  • Even if the other three companies block the Entrepreneurial Recovery Ordinance and stop Manchurian investments from flooding the country, they're still left vulnerable under Hitachi's boot. Their advertisements become cheaper, they have less people in their ranks, and their products are being overtaken by Hitachi goods, making it clear that this victory was far from a long-term accomplishment.
• R-Rated Opening: One of the first events once Komai takes power is from the perspective of a Chinese man going to his apartment and noticing that the square outside is now empty. As he is heading up the steps he hears a series of gunshots and muffled screams and pleas from his apartment block. Three men from the Kenpeitai exit the building and he makes it to his apartment, breathing a sigh of relief.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Frustrated by the chaos brought by the Oil Crisis and the Guangdong riots, Komai makes it clear in his unrestrained path that he will accept no negotiations, ranting to his cabinet that he will fire anyone who suggests such a course of action and slamming his fist into the table. By the time he's done shouting, everyone remains eerily silent in fear.
  • In the independent scenario of the riots, tensions between Komai and the director implode on the last day of the former's presentations. Furious, the director accuses Komai of imprisoning his delegation in a hotel and giving them an inaccurate assessment of the riots. In turn, Komai drops his disingenuously positive attitude and reassurances to snap back that he along controls Guangdong and made it profitable, so he's no longer going to take the Manchurian companies' verbal abuse. The explosive exchange ends with the director leaving the presentation angrily.
• Ransacked Room: A Matsushita member of the Legislative Council finds his entire house destroyed by Hitachi's men to intimidate him.
• Reaction Shot: In the midst of the Oil Crisis, Komai informs everyone that there may be future cuts and he pleas for “heightened cooperation”. During this speech, Lam isn’t impressed by Komai stating the obvious, a woman worries about how she will provide for her family with cuts, and a CCL member in a bar scoffs at the notion of cooperating with Komai.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Komai will implement measures to deport many of Guangdong’s dissidents to Manchuria to be brutally worked to the bone for his benefactors with little chance of returning.
• Red Scare: Komai insults the rioters as communists and foreign agents trying to unlawfully depose him.
• Reluctant Retiree: To make room for Nissan executives to back their own subsidiaries, Komai forces multiple people in the stock market to retire. No one is allowed to speak against this, lest they dare invoke the Chief Executive's wrath.
• Reminiscing About Your Victims: If Komai receives news that Hitachi has secured a majority in the Legislative Council, he joyfully thinks about what his opponents are doing in reaction to the news. He envisions Ibuka lashing out, Matsushita wandering in a daze and Morita and Li panicking. Any notion of a combined effort to undermine his position is dismissed, believing that Hitachi will be the only company operating by the time he's finished.
• Rousing Speech:
  • As a large group of Reichswerke workers huddle around a Hitachi radio in their dormitory, they listen to an announcer talk about the hundreds of new jobs created and the 10% rise in Reichswerke's stock price. One of the workers stands up and exclaims that it is nonsense, pointing out how their bosses threatened to cut their wages by 10% if they didn't surpass the previous year's output and the lack of pay rises. The speech resonates with those present, as the nominal "German Workers' Party" has left the working class destitute, only spouting talk about their Aryan blood.
  • As the Oil Crisis ails the country, the Chinese resistance balloons with new members, where they are galvanized by a speaker in an underground assembly who urges the people to fight back and risk their lives for liberation. Even before the speech finishes, the audience is so enthralled and loud that the speaker has to quiet them before they get caught.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • While Komai is drafting the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance to contain the chaos of the Oil Crisis, he looks at the growing pile on his ashtray and likens the image to his current predicament; the ash represents the anger people have long felt towards Hitachi and are now unleashing with the Oil Crisis as a catalyst.
  • The final event of Komai’s main tree sees him look before Guangdong atop a soaring skyscraper, watching the common people of Guangdong go about their lives whilst reflecting on how he has bent Guangdong to his will since the days of Suzuki and Matsuzawa. His position at the top of the skyscraper reflects his position as triumphant over Guangdong. The small appearance of the common people reflects his philosophy of people being disposable and widespread. The event ends with his descent down the skyscraper, hinting towards the imminent challenges he will face with the Oil Crisis and subsequent riots.
  • The newly constructed Miranda Dam straddles the border of Portugal and Spain, becoming a symbol of Iberian unity in the process. When Hitachi computers are bought for the dam and increase its energy output by 23%, the Iberian Union feels stronger than ever.
  • If Hitachi expands to China, many compare the Hitachi logo, dawning the newly constructed buildings, to an all-seeing eye watching over its prey, a presence felt in places like the Yangtze river. Another interpretation is that it is a symbol of Hitachi's ensured dominance, a promise that China's leaders will fall to their clutches.
• Sadist: Invited in Komai's unrestrained response to the riots, a Nissan security head cheerfully informs the police that they will take the fight to the rioters and treat them as partisans to be violently butchered, all with a eager look to his eyes. He also goes the extra mile of telling the police not to hide behind their shields and fight the rioters directly.
• Sadistic Choice: A father is confronted with the difficult choice of going to work and risking arrest or staying home where the family's savings will eventually run out. To the dismay of his daughter, he picks the former choice and disappears when he heads out.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Some Japanese elites flee Hitachi's oppression by immigrating back to the Home Islands under the pretense of "better opportunities back home".
  • Zig-Zagged if nationwide taxes are raised during the Oil Crisis. Komai reckons that the Chinese people are too poor to just upend their lives and leave, so his new tax policy on them is of little concern. What's more problematic is the capital flight of Zhujin and Japanese citizens who can afford to leave, so Komai needs to consider offering incentives to stay.
  • In the government's first response to the riots, the police don't do much to suppress them, running away while the Kenpeitai and Hitachi thugs shoot at the protestors.
  • Defied in Komai's response to the Riots. He knows that some will try to escape the crowds when confronted with government security and explicitly orders that they be arrested too.
• Secret Government Warehouse: Since the cities are besieged with riots, Tsuchida and the police work in isolated safehouses with classified intel on the rioters, not unlike how their enemies use similar hideouts to conduct their attacks. The parallel annoys Tsuchida, though his subordinates are more determined to fight, now that they are close to finding the ringleaders.
• Selective Enforcement:
  • As Komai is folding smaller businesses into Hitachi, Matsushita approaches Komai with an offer on behalf of himself and Fujitsu, giving Hitachi sway on their boards and assisting the government in exchange for leaving them alone. Komai is surprised by the offer, but senses that he'll still struggle to get enough support in the Legislative Council for this move and will have to either accept or reject the offer.
  • Ibuka approaches Komai with a similar offer so that the Chief Executive has enough votes to pass the Financial Reorganization and Revitalization Ordinance. The terms dictate that Fujitsu will be left alone and Ibuka is more confrontational about this selective enforcement rule.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Desperate to find food for his children in the midst of the Oil Crisis, a father finds every store to either be closed down or cleaned dry, where he only manages to procure a single cup of yogurt. He then places his hopes that the superstore will have something and wonders if he'll have to fight other people for food. By the time he gets there, he finds the building entirely ransacked, with spilled products and broken glass strewn across the ground and a person lying seemingly dead from being trampled on.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: As Komai potentially mentions during the Oil Crisis, the senior bureaucrats of the Hitachi regime haven't gone outside for years, which he mocks them for while reviewing their payrolls.
• Shouting Free-for-All: With Hitachi competing against the Zaibatsus in Japan, Komai and his Mangyō superiors attend a meeting with the Zaibatsu leaders. The tense atmosphere is broken when a Mitsui chief threatens to crush Komai like an insect and displace Hitachi. Komai affably and passive-aggressively wishes them luck in the competition, which leads to an uproar descending of shouting insults, ending in the Zaibatsu chiefs storming away. Once the meeting concludes, Komai promises to Takasaki that he can beat them, thanks to their economic model.
• Sinister Shades: Two Nissan representatives who meet with Komai in his office proceed to discuss business with him in a tense and cold exchange, using their darkened shades to obscure their eyes as they look at one another after Komai asks if they are impressed with how he has run Guangdong. Komai for his part feels uneasy about not being able to read their reactions and judgement of him and his rule.
• Sinister Surveillance:
  • Hitachi employs some of the worst surveillance tactics out of any company in Guangdong, with any disloyalty uprooted with a visit by the Kenpeitai. Under the Civil Obedience Ordinance, Komai can delve even deeper into this strategy, allowing the government to directly control domestic communication lines for the sake of "security".
  • If Komai expands the security budget under the Public Stability and Security Ordinance, he will receive a letter from Tsuchida that they plan to increase the Police's manpower, improve their surveillance technologies, and coordinate with the Manchurians and the Kenpeitai for their patrols.
  • The use of surveillance is expanded during the Oil Crisis, as more security cameras are installed to crack down against crime.
  • Letters and telecommunications are surveilled during the Riots, in coordination with informants serving the Hitachi regime.
• Sleep Deprivation:
  • One stockbroker is pushed to the point of exhaustion by his company, and it takes some time for him to notice that the stock exchange building has seen the new arrival of Hitachi employees and their new technologies.
  • Towards the end of Komai’s pragmatic response to the riots, Lam is overworked and exhausted, struggling to decipher anything from a set of phone intercepts. A captain from Hitachi subsequently punches him for his failures and orders him to get everyone to work collectively, which Lam can only manage a salute in response and stumble out the door.
• Smash the Symbol: As Komai begins gutting much of the civil service, especially those regulating building standards, a Zhujin civil servant in the countryside walks along the Pearl River. Intentionally tardy on his last day of work, he angrily throws his government ID card and Japanese identity into said river. From then on, he becomes Chinese again in the eyes of the government, where he and his wife must move to the Three Pearls so he can be worked to the bone in Hitachi’s factories, despite being over forty.
• Smug Snake:
  • An IJA captain brought to put down the Guangdong riots arrogantly thinks that his past war experience in Singapore gives him the expertise needed to stop the crisis, lambasting his police subordinates' caution as cowardice and bragging about his medals. When he fires a water cannon at a crowd, the captain only gets five seconds to use it before he gets a slap of humility when someone throws a piece of debris hard enough to crack his head open.
  • By the end of Komai’s paths, Hitachi executives walk the streets of Guangdong, smug about all the wealth they pooled from the blood of their workers, with a grin to match. Said grin is worn when conducting business, buying out struggling businesses, and even threatening stubborn owners with a gun.
• Spiteful Spit:
  • If Komai releases some prisoners to seem more "tolerant", everyone stares at Lam with contempt and one of them will spit on him before they leave, knowing that the government has just taken away his job and livelihood, yet expecting him to be grateful for their mercy.
  • As the police's prison inflates with protesters during the Oil Crisis, one of the inmates spits on Lam for doing Hitachi's dirty work.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • After joining a resistance cell, Chun comes home hours after the curfew with extra food to give to Hei and Wai. When his siblings ask where he was, Chun replies that he was running errands, but Hei and Wai notice that he's not tired like he usually is after work, the earliest sign that he's joined a resistance group and found new purpose in fighting Hitachi.
  • During a lunch between Yoshiko and her editor, she mentions how the police have been getting more close calls and that the common people seem giddy when they talk about the police. That, along with a rise of suspicious people present around the place, tips off Yoshiko that resistance organizations are growing more powerful and there is nothing she can say about them, due to the Hitachi censors.
• Spy Speak: While the other workers are laughing at a joke of throwing a factory manager and his car into a steel roller, one of them whispers to Chun about getting drinks with people who think like them, which are code words for a meeting to join a resistance cell.
• State Sec: Loyal to Hitachi, the Kenpeitai's powers are expanded to crack down on "illegal militia organizations" and slowly overtake the Guangdong Police in influence, to a point that the latter start using the same weapons.
• Status Quo Is God: If the Guangdong riots are quelled, the surviving workers return to their mundane and oppressive daily routines: laboring in the factories non-stop, with their only relief being a single payday at the end of the month. Such is life in Hitachi's Guangdong and it doesn't seem like anything can change it.
• Stealing the Credit:
  • Subverted. Contrary to his usual lies, Komai can give Nissan greater control over Guangdong's industries and share the credit for Guangdong's economic growth between himself, Hitachi, and his bosses.
  • To Ibuka's dismay, the latest computer design launched by Fujitsu will be subsumed under a larger launch campaign held by Hitachi, featuring their own products alongside the computer and implicitly taking credit for it.
  • If Komai passes the Taxation and Economic Relief Ordinance, a representative from Hsinking thanks the Chief Executive for giving the Manchurian companies control of Guangdong's tax codes, stating that he's doing exactly what he's been ordered to. The comment offends Komai so much that his perpetual grin turns into a frown, knowing that they're taking credit for all the work he did to pass the law. Tellingly, if the ordinance fails, they're quick to blame Komai for the whole affair.
  • Especially by the Oil Crisis, Komai realizes that his Manchurian benefactors are keen on taking credit for his work in Guangdong, motivating an eventual betrayal of them.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • The parties hosted by the Japanese elites are far more restrained and quiet than they used to be, ever since Komai took over. Everyone tries to keep up the cheery atmosphere, but the overbearing nervousness of Hitachi's rule is too palpable to ignore.
  • When Komai optionally allows Nissan executives to take over Guangdong's finances and place orders in the stock market, a call seller tries to maintain an exterior of cheerfulness and polite helpfulness for his clients. He uses makeup and practices a friendly smile to hide how discontent he is to see Manchuria's growing influence and his colleagues get replaced for showing a hint of reluctance at the new changes. The seller recognizes that he'll be replaced one day too, but keeps up the faux friendliness to build up his savings.
• The Stool Pigeon: If Komai refuses to let up on the repression, the Guangdong Police is confronted with an overflow of prisoners, so they task Lam to find informants among them and offer freedom in exchange of becoming a rat for Hitachi, even though few will accept the offer out of spite.
• Stunned Silence:
  • In Komai's pro-Manchurian response to the Oil Crisis, a neighborhood is informed that electricity will be cut at several hours to ration energy, which leaves everyone in stunned silence for a few minutes over their forced "cooperation" and relief after expectations of worse actions were proven false.
  • Komai’s triumph and ascendancy to Chief Executive silences a usually rowdy Legislative Council as the smaller attending crowd braces for Komai to be sworn in.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Komai expresses such sentiment if Guangdong outcompetes Manchuria economically. When he is asked by the press if Guangdong is the new model Sphere economy, Komai replies that he has perfected what was started in Manchuria and coolly drinks a glass of sake, knowing that he will be remembered for this achievement.
• Survival Mantra: If the Public Stability and Security Ordinance passes, Wai notices the increase militarization of the security as Kenpeitai boots march on the streets, people are picked off the streets, and shrieking can be heard from the police station. She tries to reassure herself with the mantra that "Everything is fine", but it is impossible to calm herself down, no matter how many times she repeats those words.
• Take a Third Option: Matsushita and Ibuka aren't thrilled with Komai's request to throw their support for the Capital Investment Security Ordinance, where accepting would subsidize their companies to their Manchurian rivals, but refusing would make them targets for Hitachi. To save face, the two agree to present the request to their boards. If they refuse, Komai will be the one looking poorly from the situation. If they accept, they can shift blame on to their boards for forcing their hand.
• Taking You with Me: The CCL listen to Komai's potentially broadcast sentences, but Chun and a few others feel more determined to fight back, wishing to take as many of the Japanese as possible before they die.
• Tempting Fate: Komai slashes wages to mitigate the Oil Crisis and dismisses the risk of them joining the protests. It's a sentiment that does not age well with the more intense Guangdong Riots.
• This Cannot Be!: Everyone but Hitachi grimly and warily asks each other how Komai could become Chief Executive, who overhears their conversations, but doesn't care.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Reading news of the Oil Crisis' worst effects, Komai's immediate reaction is a heavy sigh and mutter to himself that "We must push on with resolve".
  • After relying too much on Nissan and Mangyō's help in the Oil Crisis, Komai's conspiracy to direct them away from Kōshu airport will fail and his attempt to storm out of his office is blocked by Mangyō executives and security guards. With the walls closing in, Komai clenches his teeth and leans against the door frame in quiet resignation, knowing that he's about to be drilled for mishandling the Riots and that he's failed to seize the reins of Guangdong.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • One Chinese woman is rewarded a small bonus from her boss having worked an exceptionally long night at the butchers, giving her the money to buy a pork shoulder and invest the remaining money to either the family savings or a gift for her children even though it comes at the expense of exhaustion and risking her life traversing late at night.
  • Hitachi’s board of directors gets into a three way argument over amendments for the Economic Partnership and Reconciliation Ordinance which intends to forcibly bring more companies under Hitachi’s control. There are those who don’t think any amendments are necessary, those who think Hitachi should be more aggressive in overseeing subsidiaries, factories and resources and finally those who believe smaller businesses should be thrown a bone with contract work. Which option is selected is ultimately up to Komai.
  • If Bormann is the Führer, a group of workers successfully lobby their managers to buy one of Hitachi's air conditioners, getting some relief from the heat of the steelworks. They're still working in horrific conditions with long work hours, some having worked there for decades, but they do get some respite.
• Too Broken to Break:
  • In Komai's unrestrained violence response to the Guangdong riots, a man's guilty verdict and sentencing is broadcast over the radio, yet a family who knew the defendant barely react to the news. They have spent so many years under Hitachi oppression that nothing can shock them at this point and it's best to just get used to it.
  • Also in Komai's unrestrained response, Lam stands among a crowd of his fellow officers and wonders if he should just drop his gun and desert. Despite knowing that everyone around him will shoot him for treason, Lam is too tired to care and the only reason he doesn't is because his thoughts are interrupted by an order to march forward and attack a mob.
  • To mitigate the Oil Crisis, Komai can raise taxes on the Chinese, driving a couple to argue what to do, since they can't afford rent. Their young daughter sits on the staircase and listens to their argument, but she's so broken and hopeless, that she doesn't cry.
  • As the Guangdong Riots wane, the entire populace is exhausted and have many of their small activities snuffed out by the Kenpeitai, condemned to backbreaking work in the factories. Despite this, most have lost their spirit to fight back and resign to their grim fights out of mere survival.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky:
  • As the Kanton Fujin Koron runs out of positive things to say about Hitachi, Yoshiko's editor tells her to just write anything. Even though audiences will react negatively to the lower standards, it's better than doing nothing or closing their doors, so Yoshiko reluctantly obliges.
  • On short notice, the police are given weapons and supplies from Nissan in the middle of the night. Lam opens the one dropped at his station to find hundreds of weapons and bullet-proof armor. Despite knowing that these come from Manchurian caches and risks association with Hitachi, the police accept these deliveries because their current arsenal is undersupplied and variant, making standardization very enticing. At least one officer sarcastically asks if they should put Hitachi logos on their uniform, but they are in no place to decline.
  • Once the Oil Crisis hits and investments from Japanese businessmen are threatened, Komai can attempt to pass the pro-Manchurian Capital Investment Security Ordinance and provide guarantees on said investments. It's a last-ditch move to save his office after running out of every other option.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yamauchi insists on keeping the love hotels, but his partners ignore the advice and give the buildings more creative architecture. The Kenpeitai end up noticing the hotels and shut them down, arresting the perpetrators for an unpleasant fate and leaving Yamauchi to helplessly watch from a bar across the road.
• Torn Apart by the Mob: Subverted. During the Oil Crisis, Komai travels in his motorcade and sees that the police are barely able to contain the protestors pushing through and calling him a tyrant. Komai fearfully reckons that, if the defense fails, the crowd will kill him, but the convoy restarts and he is driven off before that happens.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • A father tries to comfort his daughter that he will return from his job and get the money needed to keep their apartment and get food on the table. However, days turns into night and he doesn't return, leaving a very good chance that he was arrested or killed.
  • After the electricity to one neighborhood is cut to save energy during the Oil Crisis, everyone wakes up to a commotion one night to see that several of them have suddenly disappeared, some with ransacked rooms and others with completely untouched rooms. No one knows what happened to them or dares to find out why, since no one is particularly inclined to riot.
• Underestimating Badassery: If the Public Safety and Stability Ordinance fails to pass, Komai quickly realizes that the angry crowds emerging after the Oil Crisis are a much bigger problem than he anticipated, especially since they've beginning to anger the IJA into handling the crisis themselves.
• Unperson:
  • Everyone knows about the Kenepeitai's nightly raids and the many families who have lost at least one relative to them, yet no one speaks openly about it because Hitachi's surveillance can pick up any whisper of dissent.
  • Komai can lean further into this trope by having dissidents arrested without a single trace of their existence. One person laments the fact that no one will miss them and their family will have no clue of where they've gone.
• The Unsmile:
  • If Komai invites Nissan executives to visit Guangdong and participate in the country's industry, he dispassionately smiles at their presence, internally fearful that that they might not approve of his style of ruling the country.
  • In the Manchurian ending, Komai desperately requests for more autonomy from a visiting delegation of Nissan and Mangyō executives. Their leader smiles slightly at the request with absolutely no warmth, giving Komai his answer and disappointing him.
  • When the riots are suppressed, Hitachi men are once more free to buy out whatever company they want, wearing a pleasant smile on their face, even as they pull a gun on the people they are negotiating with to pressure a more favorable deal.
• Urban Segregation: Chinese citizens are not allowed in the financial district, except to scrub toilet bowls or clean dishes that the Japanese bankers ate their food from. Komai’s path solidifies the racial divide, with the Japanese and Chinese fearing to enter each other’s districts.
• Vehicular Kidnapping: If habeas corpus is suspended in the Civil Obedience Ordinance, the police break up an Oil Crisis protest and have several unlucky individuals taken away in unmarked black vans, never to be seen again.
• Victory by Endurance: By the end of the Guangdong riots, protests are still ongoing, but they have now been pushed away from the government centers and the security forces have become better trained, equipped, and ruthless. Facing stiffer resistance, the conflict devolves into a waiting game for who will tap out first. If the rioters are slowly burned out, Komai takes great satisfaction of the sounds and stench of rebellion slowly fading away into the distance and the protestors' leadership getting rounded up.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Komai’s rule over Guangdong is brutal and heartless. During the Oil Crisis, this comes back to haunt him, with Guangdong’s oppressed masses rising up to destroy him.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Ibuka is outraged when Komai gives exclusive government contracts or budget allocation powers to Nissan and potentially Mangyō in the latter option. He denounces it as yet another blatant power grab by Komai, which even his hated rival, Morita, agrees with.
  • When Komai proposes giving Nissan and Mangyō proportional control of Guangdong's budget allocations, Morita and Ibuka denounce this as an attempt to turn the country into a colonial experiment for Manchuria. However, Komai replies that Guangdong always has been an artificial experiment in service to foreign interests and calls them hypocrites who wouldn't complain about this, if they were on top. The room goes silent, unable to counter that retort.
  • In spite of Komai's talk that the Budget Reorganization and Responsibility Ordinance would rebalance the budget and cut down on welfare, Ibuka accurately denounces it as anything but another double standard where Hitachi will not be held to the same rules as the ordinance entails.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: One arrested dissident wakes up in a cellar he is unfamiliar with, as Hitachi can potentially relocate their captives to make room for their prisons and avoid cause for a mass rebellion.
• The War Has Just Begun: After completing his Oil Crisis tree, Komai receives a positive report that Guangdong is on the road to economic recovery, but he recognizes the growing demonstrations protesting his regime and that more work will need to be done to put them down. Notably, he is the only possible Chief Executive who recognizes the simmering discontent from the workers and correctly predicts that it will blow over soon.
• White Man's Burden: If the Entrepreneurial Recovery Ordinance passes and allows Nissan executives to start investing in Guangdong, they justify their presence and opulent lifestyles that Guangdong is a backwater province that needs their "benevolent guidance" to be repaired.
• Would Hit a Girl: Forced to work in an unbearable factory after the riots, Wai faces an abusive supervisor who slaps her twice for taking one minute too long on her break.
• Yes-Man:
  • Komai is surrounded by sycophants who laugh along with him and support his every decision, no matter how inhumane it is.
  • Discussed as Komai imagines the Legislative Council as another tool for Hitachi to expand its operations, having total financial domination to cow its members into unquestioning obedience.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Fearing that the Economic Partnership Ordinance will allow Hitachi to buy out Kanton Fujin Koron, Yoshiko briefly considers fleeing back to Japan, but she ultimately decides not to because she would have nothing, having invested everything in Guangdong.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Discussed if Komai fails to pass the Taxation and Economic Relief Ordinance, earning him a scolding from a Hsinking phone call and their doubts of his leadership makes Komai contemplate if he is replacable while he is Watching the Sunset.
  • If Komai relied too much on Manchurian aid in the Oil Crisis, a Mangyō delegation will personally witness the Guangdong riots and expose Komai's lies to underestimate the threat they pose to their investments. Despite perceiving this as failure, they decide not to replace him because it would be too disruptive, but they still take away a lot of his autonomy, having lost trust that he could be given full rein over Guangdong.
  • Komai becomes a victim of this if the Kanton Sasshin Fund's assets are frozen after Morita's personal crisis, with his superiors in Manchukuo refusing to send him more money and calling Komai out for using such underhanded tactics in the first place. This all comes after days confined within his own office apologizing and making promises to the long list of people who helped Komai in his scheme. Things get worse for Komai after the Guangdong riots and Morita and Li were successful in resolving their respective crises. Hitachi sales fall, costs rise and support from his superiors in Manchukuo is nearly entirely pulled as he receives another harsh critique on his abilities.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Fujitsu suffers the least of all the corporations under Komai's regime, but Ibuka knows that it's just to keep Sony and Matsushita Electric down, where Fujitsu will be targeted next when their usefulness has expired.
  • After arresting any potential dissidents who could pose a threat, Komai can potentially decide that they no longer have any use as political tools to instill fear in the population, so he authorizes their execution on grounds of treason.
• Zerg Rush: During the riots, Lam and his colleagues attempt to hold a formation against a wave of protestors rushing at them, so numerous that Lam gets cut off from the line and stuck in an alley.

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