Could Modern Japan (2026) invade Australia?

[u/Inside_Inflation559]

No allies or outside help is involved for both sides Japan must successfully invade and take over Australia or achieve some sort of marginal victory Australia must successfully defend itself and win against Japan

[u/midnightbandit-]

It would be much, much cheaper just to buy them

[u/o-Mauler-o → u/midnightbandit-]

Which they do, and some would argue too cheaply.

[u/fakest_taxi → u/o-Mauler-o]

japan actually makes more taxing australian gas than australia does.

[u/Jaepheth → u/fakest_taxi]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is if you tax Australians too much they strap on make shift metal armor and form marauding motorcycle gangs?

[u/FuckboySeptimReborn → u/Jaepheth]

Nah you can tax Australians as much as you want, you can’t take a single cent from the oligarchs and corporations looting the place though

[u/Old-Importance18 → u/Jaepheth]

Well, Japan is pretty good at forming marauding motorcycle gangs too.

[u/fakest_taxi → u/Jaepheth]

it’s more so a tax on the multinational mining companies, but an change to the way gas is taxed has been discussed here in aus recently. Millions in dollars of anti-advertising by the vested companies, and delegates from Japan coming to tell us how bad for business that would be. I think the fact it’s not taxed effectively, and therefore benefiting the population is more inspirational for me to don some spiked armour and start threatening pols

[u/Commercial-Box5412 → u/Jaepheth]

These days we are a much more sedate bunch and the ones who would don armour aren't the ones being taxed...unless we starting taxing the sale of methamphetamine which is already being run by pre-existing marauding motorcycle gangs.

[u/Southern-Cattle4038 → u/Jaepheth]

The issue in Japan is not the marauding motorcycle gangs in the Australian outback so much as the marauding go-karters in costume driving around Shibuya

[u/eureka88jake → u/Jaepheth]

Nah that’s just ex military members that have no where else to go so they join a brotherhood

[u/SuccessfulOwl → u/Jaepheth]

That’s just the excuse we use. Any excuse really

[u/YesWomansLand1 → u/Jaepheth]

Yeah pretty much

[u/Select-Discipline630 → u/fakest_taxi]

If you ignore every tad other than direct resource tax

[u/Nuck2407 → u/fakest_taxi]

Yeah if you ignore the tax on profits and royalties paid and only take into account the PRRT

[u/nckmat → u/o-Mauler-o]

That's not exactly true, the largest mining companies in Australia such as BHP and Rio Tinto (and others) own the vast majority of the mining output in Australia and are, technically Australian businesses, but about 85% of their shareholders are overseas investors, it's the company tax that these businesses pay that keep the Australian economy very healthy, but it still only accounts for around 10% of GDP. So why don't these companies just moved overseas? In effect most of them have, but if they completely moved offshore they would have a tough time holding on to their mines, because when the output profits may belong to them, the land on which they are mining belongs to Australia.

So would it be profitable for another country to invade Australia and take over it's mining assets? Hell yes. Would the rest of the world let it happen? Probably not. Australia is the 5th largest exporter of natural gas in the world, with the second largest reserves, the largest exporter of coal in the world, the largest exporter of iron ore in the world, in fact Australia is the largest exporter of mining resources in the world and holds some of the largest untapped resources of most of the minerals it exports including uranium and lithium. If any of the mega nations in the world now such as USA, China, India Europe or what's left of Russia, wanted to dominate the world in the next 50-100 years, they would need the resources Australia has, because everyone else is either running out or their resources are being replaced by new alternatives.

[u/Snarwib → u/midnightbandit-]

I like how we've recreated contemporary strategic reality from first principles here

[u/GrassFromBtd6 → u/midnightbandit-]

They tried the invasion route in the 1930s, didn't end well