>>31178189The basic outline for the world at large is
China has a civil war between two communist factions and seeing the writing on the wall, a bunch of North Korean Generals defect. They tell the South Korean government the obvious, that NK is full of shit, doesn't have nukes or anything and with China busy is ripe to be liberated. South Korea puts the call out to its neighbors and allies to see if they'd aid with Korean reunification. Pretty much everyone says yes, but America would prefer an invasion of the destabilized mainland China to get Taiwan and maybe more. Nobody else is feeling that ballsy and since time is of the essence with the Chinese civil war probably not lasting too much longer, most Pacific countries say fuck it and team up. South Korea, Japan, SEA on the whole(minus the Philippines who stuck by the US), Australia and New Zealand(which leads to UK and Canada helping out their Commonwealth brethren when push came to shove) form the Korean Reunification Expeditionary Force(KREF- pronounced kay-ref) and go hard on NK. It's a resounding success, and Pyongyang is captured in just under a year. Long lost families are reunited, peace and liberty spread to another despotic shithole, the works.
Despite rumors and sparse reports of ghastly misconduct among gung-ho KREF troops, all the countries involved with the 2nd Korean War are feeling pretty good. Japan takes it a bit further and with a disgruntled States feeling disrespected, they agree to break off their long standing security treaties. With The Commonwealth and most of the Pacific being better friends now, the Japanese public are on board with this new taste of independence.
Chinese Civil War ends without much fanfare, new Commies on top proclaim to the world the standard "Final Warning" spiel and how they feel taken advantage of for their close personal ally North Korea being annexed by SK. Few people are worried that China may be serious this time to show they aren't weak after their war, but nothing happens that isn't from the old insecure powers playbook.
Japan's election happens and is very controversial. The party responsible for joining the KREF and axing the Treaties narrowly loses, even though nothing short of a landslide was predicted. The new party in charge immediately begins tripping over their own dick, and in just three years Japan is doing terribly . Rumors of either Chinese or U.S meddling are abound in the news and on the streets, unemployment and homelessness at a rate not seen since the end of WW2, and crime skyrocketing are making for a very shaky nation. This is where Heartbreak Tokyo begins to take place. 