The Lost Decade // Story Lore and Meta-Data [GM-use only.]

[23 degrees Celsius]

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Story Lore

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OTA-KU, TOKYO - 1 January, 1991

 

^{- E C O N O M Y -}

 

Japan's strong economic growth in the second half of the 20th century ended abruptly at the start of the 1990s. Rapid acceleration of asset prices and overheated economic activity, as well as an uncontrolled money supply and credit expansion has caused real estate and stock market prices to be greatly inflated. Japan was struggling from economic crisis.

 

Suicide rates shot up as nationwide finance suffered. It became very difficult to obtain credit, so several borrowers turned to sarakin (loan sharks) for loans.

 

Many sarakin used to be affiliated with organized crime groups (yakuza) and are infamous for their unsavory, if effective, collection methods, such as showing up at a funeral or wedding to demand money, or using a loudspeaker in front of homes, schools or workplaces to broadcast non-payment of debt. The terrorism sometimes leads debtors to suicides or deaths caused by brutal violence.

 

Yakuza, also known as gokudō, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates, equivalent to the American gangsters or Italian mafia.

 

 

^{- N E W S -}

 

On November 23, 1990, two members of the Okinawa-based Kyokuryu-kai crime family, Hideo Zamami and Takeo Matayoshi, opened fire on a car with two people in it killing two plain-clothed police officers—43-year-old Masao Higa and 42-year-old Shokichi Haine, as well as five other casualties, including a high school student. An unidentified woman was also shot when she drove by, but she survived. Zamami is recently arrested but Matayoshi has not been found since the incident.

 

On December 19, 1990, a young woman, 24-year-old Namai Michie, was found dead in Sapporo. Her body was buried in snow; the victim was stabbed repeatedly in the neck. Thanks to blood stains and fingerprints, the murder was clued to Michie's schoolmate, Ryoji Nagata, who went missing a day after the killing. He is currently still not found.

 

 

 

^{- E N T E R T A I N M E N T -}

 

Dragon Ball Z first aired in Japan on Fuji TV from April 25, 1989 and is currently ongoing successfully. There has been rumours of globalising the series into other countries such as America and Australia.

 

J-Pop has been on the raise, and is speculated to continue its popularity among teenagers in particular. Currently, several top charts are dominated by a majority of artists from agency Being, namely Maki Ohguro, T-Bolan, B.B.Queens, Tube, and B'z, earning them a dub from fans, "Being System".

 

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released in 1990 for the MSX2 and was a major improvement over its predecessor, Metal Gear.

 

In the same year, Nintendo released and published the first tactical RPG, Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi for the Family Computer (or Famicom) in Japan, co-developed with Intelligent Systems.

 

Fans are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Final Fantasy 4 by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES) which boasts a new "Active Time" battle system. It is expected to be released in July later this year.