RyansWorld: Tokyo

'''Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.'''

Tokyo is the capital of the Japanese Federation and is considered to be its most important trading port for overseas and interplanetary trade.

Due to the rising cost of transportation, maglev train eventually replace the role of automobiles for people to get to work; with the exception of people who choose to work at home-based businesses. Mandatory fitness programs (that were established roughly 20 years before the major North American corporations) along with diabetes and residual effects from the short-lived Global Corn Famine of 2028 are used by employers and the Japanese government to lower the obesity rate in Japan to barely under 10% by the year 2050. While Japan's heritage will be honored in digital museums and the Japanese History and Heritage Wiki, the rising costs of maintenance will see most physical museums converted into residences over a long period of time.

Summary


By the year 2105, Tokyo becomes a metaphorical wasteland of pornographic movie parlors, strip clubs, video arcade halls filled with vintage arcade video games, legalized prostitution and an overzealous police force. Techno-pop becomes popular amongst teenage males while world beat music is considered to be a feminine form of music in Japan. Most Japanese kids are taught their basic education through online schools; with the students only emerging together in a physical structure for college/university/trade school. Student-led learning becomes mandatory after the student turns 13 years of age and becomes eligible for the mandatory "young adult leadership programs" (若い成人のリーダーシッププログラム) that are provided for all natural-born Japanese students. Foreign-born students are given a "separate but equal" young adult leadership program (外国人のための若年成人のリーダーシッププログラム) that focuses on turning them into businessmen and teachers rather than politicians.

With airplanes becoming obsolete in 2030, Tokyo is only connected to the rest of the world through sea transportation and sub-orbital spacecraft. The Royal Palace was shut down by the republican government; selling the land that became a Sony indoor theme park.

Popular spectator sports in Tokyo includes baseball, soccer, gridiron football, Sumo and professional wrestling. Laws governing the legality of television vary from prefecture to prefecture. The rural areas of Japan tend to be on the side of criminalization while the metropolitan areas tend to be on the side of legalization. Almost half of Tokyo's residents by the turn of the 22nd century are foreign expatriates who married a Japanese spouse in order to get citizenship. While older neighborhoods require the use of Japanese, neighborhoods established after 2050 have almost no Japanese at all in their signs; requiring older Japanese residents to learn English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Portuguese. While the poor and working classes are content with artificial wheat beers and cheap prostitutes, the wealthy corporate executives use virtual reality console devices for cheap thrills and "deep thought" entertainment. The Japanese video game industry was the first to recover from the Video Game Crash of 2038.

Final Fantasy games are sought after by Japanese collectors in the year 2050, after the decision by Square Enix not to create any more games after the failure of Final Fantasy XL in Canadamerica. Video game composers are held in higher esteem than movie and television music composers. Even real-life musicians don't get as much esteem as video game composers will get by the year 2050. Two things would temporarily grind Japan to a halt: peak oil and the Year 2038 Bug. Once hydrogen fuel became mainstream and the Year 2038 Bug was proved to be nothing, Japan's economy was moving along once again.

Would you live in this version of Tokyo? Yes, I would like to live in this version of Tokyo. No, I would find it to be too stimulating for me. No, I would find it to be not stimulating enough for me. Yes, but I would have reservations about certain things in this city.