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Originally Posted by Legbreaker
Welcome indeed.
Japan as far as I am aware was not a military ally of either side and did not directly take part in the fighting. Obviously it was still effected in some way, and I tend to agree it would have attracted at least a few nukes (I can see Japan being used in a similar manner as it was during the Vietnam and Korean wars, as a rear area for Nato).
With regard to food and other supplies, it's in a fairlly good position. While unable to support itself on the whole, it does have the advantage of being surrounded by sea and therefore much less able to be attacked by land forces. With all possible enemies already engaged in other parts of the world, this is probably less important than the availablity of fishing.
It may also have continued trade with Australia for it's grain and meat, although if it had been nuked, or even after EMP had effectively wiped out anything electronic, I'm not too sure what it would have to trade with. Spare parts to get damaged systems back up and running is possibly the best option, however Japan itself is unlikely to have much in the way of high tech production facilities left.
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Thanks.
Good points. I agree that Japan wouldn't have been involved in the actual fighting, since its constitution prohibits it from any aggressive military action (even peacekeeping missions are controversial there). I have my doubts if they would have even tried to grab the Kuriles or Sakhalin, though the US would have no such hang-ups. The Kuriles are important to them, yes, but I don't think they'd be worth inviting a Russian nuclear attack. Therefore, I think any TW2000 fighting occurring around the Kuriles and Sakhalin was between US and allied forces and Russia, with Japan acting as a rear area, like you said.
About food, yes fishing is definitely in the cards. After all seafood, apart from rice, is the Japanese staple food. But with the nuclear attacks, the collapse in international trade and trade routes, the disruption in communications and the collapse of the transportation network I'm not as positive as you that Japan would stave off the worst disaster. True, Japan doesn't face invastion or any of that (what with China glowing in the dark and Siberia imitating the Mad Max flicks), but its worst enemies aren't China and Russia: It's famine, disease and social unrest. Just like the US Norhteast in Howling Wilderness, I can imagine hordes of hungry survivors from Japan's nuked out cities descending onto the countryside like locusts, devouring everything in their path despite staunch attempts by the rural folk to turn them back.
As for trade... well, based on what little I know about Twilight 2000 Asia and Oceania, it seems the only intact states left that Japan can trade with are Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, with organized communities scattered all over the place in the rest of the Pacific Rim with areas of lawlessness in between. All of these places are pretty far from Japan, so any trade venture wouldn't come cheap or easy. Fuel ranging from scarce to non-existant (I guess people would resort to steam or sail ships instead), GPS being a thing of the past, shortage of people who actually know how to sail and navigate etc. Then of course there's the issue of piracy. I imagine that after TDM the world's seas and oceans would have a piracy problem that'd make the one off Somalia look like a piece of cake by comparison.
I can see many ordinary fisherman moonlighting as pirates just to make ends meet and feed their families.
And you touched upon the issue of just what would Japan (or rather individual Japanese communities, since central government would be more or less a bad joke at this point) have to trade. Spare parts for damaged systems would be a definite product, but like you said, it'd be unlikely that Japan would be able to produce them in sufficient quantities. Not to mention that the Japanese might prefer to keep them for themselves in the hope of fixing and rebuilding their own equipment. I could see an enterprising local leader or warlord do what the leader of Pittsburgh does in Fallout 3: the Pitt, that is using impressed "workers" to scavenge steel and metal as resources for the reopened steel mills and factories.