If a country had the world's most powerful corporations and conglomerates, the highest GDP, and the most prosperous economy on paper, it had to be powerful, and its people had to be well-off. There'd be no need to go to other, poorer places, right?
In this world, many people had this kind of misunderstanding about the Japanese.
In reality, the Arasaka Corporation was the richest and most powerful of the Megacorporations in the world. Rather than saying Arasaka was one of Japan's calling cards, it would be more accurate to say that being from Japan was one aspect of Arasaka.
The Japanese Government had not become wealthy because of this. On the contrary, as a national government, its ability to mediate conflicts had completely failed.
In the early 21st Century, the Arasaka Corporation conducted secret research in the densely populated Chiba Prefecture to test some kind of nanorobots and nanomedical surgery.
This research caused large-scale contamination of the water and soil throughout the Chiba region. Anyone who contracted the unknown plague would die within days at the fastest!
The widespread deaths brought chaos to the entire region. The Japanese Government had no choice but to pour huge amounts of money into dealing with the problem, but it was simply impossible to solve!
One batch after another of waste disposal workers was sent to Chiba, and one batch after another of police officers and even Self-Defense Force members was sent there, but in the end...
In the end, Chiba was not restored. Instead, the entire region remained in a half-dead state, as if cursed. The Government was trapped by the problem as well, pouring huge amounts of money into this bottomless pit every year and growing weaker by the day.
Many people were certain that Arasaka was behind the Chiba plague,