How Japan Would Respond to Monster Invasion/American Intervention?

Just something that makes up a part of the world my story is set in that I need some help with.

To summarize, the result of a teleportation experiment conducted as a joint project by both the Japanese and U.S. branch of a MegaCorp accidentally released a few monsters out into the city. Seeing that they can't contain the situation by solely relying on the Japanese forces, the MegaCorp sends in a militia of American soldiers to try to either kill or capture the monsters. In this world, the MegaCorp is also a PMC distributor as well.

So my question is this. How would the Japanese populace view both the monster attacks and the fact that American soldiers are being deployed into the country to deal with the threat?

edited 11th Feb '18 3:43:37 AM by LDragon2

So first off, what is an "American Militia", and how does a private company have access to such a thing?

The Japanese Self Defense Forces are a well equipped, modern military. If they cant handle the threat, it seems unlikely to me that a group of private soldiers could. In any case, the Japanese government would never allow the deployment of foriegn troops on their soil without their explicit permission, and due to international treaties, neither would the US. If the Japanese gov't invited these guys in, then I imagine the local populace would accept that. If not, then they better be prepared to fight their way to the monster, because whatever forces the Japanese can still deploy will seek to detain or stop them. Also, they would face arrest if they returned to the US.

Of course, someone might do this anyway, if the world was about to end and the government wasnt listening. Some good narrative tension there.

In Fictionland, the Evil MegaCorp can always field private armies and insert them wherever it feels like. That's just part of the established rules, no matter how little sense it makes. (Hint: it makes no sense.)

Thats because, in the near future, everyplace is a corporate dystopia.

Even so, it implies that military sovereignty simply vanishes as a concept, which is laughable.

I too am curious about how a PMC is fielding a "militia" — the two concepts are antithetical. Do they recruit rednecks with their AR-15 knockoffs and air-drop them over monster-infested areas just for the lulz?

Come to think of it, I'd probably pay to watch that. If regular military forces can't handle the monsters, then the right-wing gun nuts would get shredded, and it would be very entertaining.

edited 12th Feb '18 7:15:55 AM by Fighteer

Sort of an "American Foreign Legion" kind of thing. I'm genuinely surprised no one has based a movie on this yet.

The JSDF and the US military are pretty closely integrated as well, especially the JMSDF. If Japanese units are fighting it's a pretty safe bet US units will be there too, especially considering the US military has 50,000 troops in Japan and maintains close to 100 facilities, including major ones like Kadena AFB, MCAS Iwakuni and US Fleet Activities Yokosuka. You wouldn't need to bring in PM Cs, the actual military is already there.

That said, I don't think many Japanese citizens would be too happy with the US military performing combat operations in their territory. Relationships with the US military have been strained as of late.

Dang, I really need to brush up on my military definitions, as a PMC and a militia are apparently dfifferent.

Anyways, in my story, while several monsters have been unleashed, a war zone hasn't yet broken out, as the MegaCorp wants to keep the situation contained. However, they recognize that it could all go to hell very quickly, hence why they start bringing in overseas troops (in this universe, they have strong ties to both the Japanese and American governments).

edited 12th Feb '18 8:28:35 PM by LDragon2

In the US in particular the term militia is often associated with with the militia movement of the '90s, which is a far right survivalist/paleoconservative/libertarian/conspiracist movement. It's pretty kooky and the term is very loaded at this point.

As for soldiers in Japan, while I can imagine a shady Mega Corp sending in "security forces" on the down low, if they were working with the government I'd imagine JSDF or US troops would be first on the scene.

edited 12th Feb '18 8:34:47 PM by archonspeaks

Here's the thing, though. If there are ALREADY monsters attacking Japan and it's not being kept a secret, the government is definitely involved in taking these down. No government in the modern world would leave such a thing entirely to a Megacorp, particularly the one that fucked up so badly in the first place.

Unless you're somehow going to have it set up sot hat Megacorps are the de facto government and the actual government of Japan is somehow completely fucking useless and at the mercy of private enterprises.

If you absolutely want/need to have the Megacorp involved in taking care of the monsters, they're going to have to be cooperating with the government/military forces available in Japan. Keep in mind that I'm going off of what you've said so far, which is actually very little. You've literally just said "monsters got loose from a laboratory run by a huge private business." And "not yet a warzone" leaves quite a lot of room for how bad it could be, and you're implying it's pretty bad with that statement. Which, far as I can tell, means the general public of the entire world already knows. You can't take care of something like that secretly. If you need to call in military troops, the situation is ALREADY out of hand.

If "not yet a warzone" means something much, much smaller, say, a few relatively small creatures escaping, then yes, a private organization could plausibly capture and contain the situation before anything got too hairy for them. You need to give some more thought to the scale of your problem, I think.

edited 13th Feb '18 3:45:29 PM by AceofSpades