New World

By the next day, the Diet had passed numerous new laws in an unprecedented show of unity between the political parties, and other government agencies had worked overnight to introduce new measures. Food, oil, natural gas, and many other consumer and industrial goods were to be rationed. All domestic flights had been halted immediately to reduce oil consumption. Trains and subways were to run less frequently to reduce electricity consumption. A massive investment bill was being rushed through the Diet, targeting agriculture and fisheries. The Bank of Japan was considering extraordinary measures on liquidity injection to finance public spending and a reduction of the national debt. And having declared a state of emergency, the government used its newfound powers to forcefully charter most ships and planes that had belonged to private actors except for those registered in other countries.

Following the prime minister's address panic buying had ensued across all of Japan before the rationing measures could come into effect. Many stores and other retail markets, which had already struggled to resupply in pace with an earlier bout of panic buying caused by the COVID-19, had little to offer but empty shelves already in their opening hours. A growing sense of panic was gripping the nation.

Meanwhile, a heated discussion was taking place in a cabinet meeting in the Kantei.

"... coronavirus had already reduced oil consumption by an estimated twenty-five percent, it should be possible to reduce it further by at least the same amount. Our stockpiles could last a year, or longer."

"That's not enough! We must find a way to cover our needs!"

"Impossible. We simply do not have the reservoirs."

"And our LNG stockpile would only last a few weeks, now that's the real worry."

"Also, how's the food situation?" asked Naruhito, who had opted to leave the Imperial Palace to be present at the meeting.

"Your Majesty," began the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, "our net food self-sufficiency ratio was estimated at thirty-seven percent in 2018, without taking into account the logistical disruptions caused by the transfer. In output value terms, the figure was sixty-six percent, and the production is quickly increasing. The reason for the net figure being so much lower is because of the massive amount of imported feed that we are unable to mass produce. At the same time, our self-sufficiency ratio of rice in output value terms is close to a hundred percent. So we'll have to encourage the consumption of rice before other grains, and encourage people to consume less meat. It might also be possible to substitute fish for meat to a certain extent, if parts of the surrounding ocean were transferred along with us from Earth," the minister finished breathlessly.

"Exactly!" exclaimed the Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, an elderly man whose responsibilities had been rendered obsolete by the transfer, and had therefore taken to remarking on everything that concerned other cabinets. "We are no longer on Earth, and therefore international agreements on fisheries no longer apply! Let us take full advantage of this fact!"

"I don't necessarily disagree," answered the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare in a begrudging tone, "but since we are on a different planet, we need to be sure that the fish in this world are in fact edible, if fish even exist here. Especially with the already deteriorating situation surrounding COVID-19, the last thing we want to do is to introduce an entirely new disease to our country. Our immune systems have adapted according to the epidemiological situation on Earth after all, and not this unnamed planet."

"Metagenomic surveys of the surrounding ocean are underway," Minato said. "And oceanographic research should commence soon, I believe."

Naruhito turned toward him. "What should we do about the food crisis?" he asked, his normally mirthful face replaced by a downcast expression.

"Your Majesty, we are still awaiting more satellite imaging data from JAXA. I was told that within the next two days they would have mapped out everything within a three-thousand kilometer radius of our country. We have prepared several options depending on the results. In the best case scenario, there are other countries on this planet that we could procure our food, oil, gas, and other resources from, although we are assuming that that is unlikely. Our best hope is that we are surrounded by lands with abundant arable land for agriculture and natural resources, lands that we can quickly cultivate and extract from. We are also conducting hydrographic surveys of the surrounding seas in search of deep sea oil at this moment. Until then, we'll have to rely on increased domestic production and our food stockpile."

The Emperor nodded and considered Minato's words for a moment. "Is this why the government chartered all those ships?"

"Yes, we are preparing for a massive expedition should that be necessary."

"Speaking of oil and gas," the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry interjected, "to reduce the consumption of hydrocarbons, our ministry and the Cabinet Office are both reviewing the option to immediately restart all our coal power plants that have been decommissioned, and to fast track the construction of newer coal power plants-"

"But that will be devastating to the environment!" said the Minister of the Environment.

But the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry seemed to have been prepared for such an argument. "I spoke to some people at the Japan Meteorological Agency just before this meeting, and they told me that the CO2 in the atmosphere had been measured at just 249 ppm, which is the level the Earth was at before the industrial revolution. It would take Japan alone many centuries to push ppm levels to those on Earth today, and we have much more pressing issues to worry about. At any rate, Paris no longer exists on the map. Oh, and I also wanted to say that we should restart most of our decommissioned nuclear power plants."

"You can't know that CO2 levels on this planet only cause global warming at the same levels as it would on Earth," offered the Minister of the Environment weakly. "And besides, the environment comprises much more than just climate change... what did you just say about nuclear power?!"

Two days later in a conference room in the Kantei, Minato and his entourage stared at the provisional map, made up of many patched-together satellite images. The scientists at JAXA had cautioned that the mapping process was still ongoing and subject to changes within the day, and that errors were certain to appear in the current version they were being shown. Still, incomplete or not, it was their first cartographic record of this new world, and just seeing it for the first time filled Minato, and many others as well, he knew, with a genuine sense of relief. Even though recent reconnaissance missions by the JSDF had already given some idea what to expect, it was very different to actually see it mapped out.

The map covered a radius of about three-thousand five hundred kilometers from Japan on average, although the coverage stretched further to the west because of the design features of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, a legacy of Japan's former geographic position just off the eastern Eurasian mainland.

In the middle of the map was the familiar Japanese archipelago. To the west was nothing but sea, except for at the very edge of the map where land stretched from north to south, and continued westwards beyond the map. To the south, less than halfway between Japan and the edge of the map, a part of a massive landmass was present, and it looked to be fertile and full of rivers and lakes, and it was clear much of the land was beyond the map. And to the east there was another landmass, perhaps a little further away than the land to the south. It too looked fertile, but perhaps a little less so, as part of it was covered in mountain ranges and even a desert further inland. As with the two other landmasses, the land stretched beyond the edge of the map.

"We really are in a new world…" someone muttered absently.

One of the JAXA scientists on the other side of the video call said: "We have already had some people with knowledge in the topography and agronomy fields review the map as it is in its current state, and they all agree that the southern landmass has the highest potential for industrial agriculture. While it can't be fully ascertained to what extent this planet's biosphere resembles that of the Earth, if we extrapolate from the results of the oceanographic research that have been done so far, there is a high probability that the biosphere is very similar to that on Earth, not just in the oceans. There are of course some slight differences, such as the mountain range just below the desert of the east-"

"In other words, the south is where we should send our workforce," the Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games commented.

The person from JAXA continued: "Given its size, it should also be reasonably endowed with other natural resources, hopefully including oil and gas, if hydrocarbons exist in those forms on this planet. Also, the southern landmass, unlike the eastern one, does not seem to be inhabited by post-Mesolithic societies."

"?!" The room became thunderous for a few moments.

"Yes, the east seems to be home to cities. Although the satellite imaging we have to work with for our analysis is still of an unsatisfactory quality, so we haven't been able to determine the characteristics of these societies. They-"

"Maybe we could buy food from the east then!" someone interrupted.

"I'm afraid that's a highly uncertain possibility," answered the JAXA scientist. "As I was about to say, our provisional assessment - with hasty input from the University of Tokyo - indicates that these societies seem to be pre-industrial and probably mostly non-urbanized. And most importantly, we find no evidence of industrial agriculture being practised anywhere on the landmass. Our current position is that it is highly unlikely they could provide enough for our consumption. That said, a more thorough inquiry with a panel of experts could be s-"

"No need for that," interjected the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. "And realistically, there is no way we could forge such a substantive trade agreement in the short time needed. We don't even know the functionings of the international trade system in this world."

"How far away is the south?" asked Minato.

"The narrowest distance between the southern landmass and the Japanese mainland, or more specifically Kyushu, is a little over one thousand kilometers."

"Are we certain that the area is unclaimed territory?" cautioned the Minister of Justice. "We wouldn't want to risk inadvertently contravening international law."

But Minato shook his head. "The south it is," he decided as he rose from his chair. He turned to the other ministers, as a feeling of something other than anxiety visited him for the first time in many days. "Make the necessary preparations."

No, not a feeling. A sense of purpose.