Russo-Japanese Condominium Area

外滿洲 (Gaimanxù)
Vostočnoye Primoriye

Capital	Vladivostok Caisanuai
Official Languages	Japanese, Russian
Governors
Primoryan	Maksim Vassilyevich Zorin
Ezoan	None

The area known *here* as the Russian Maritime Province. It is known in Japan as Outer Manchuria (Gaimanxù), and in Russia as East Primorye. It is a condominium between the Republic of Ezo, a part of the Japanese Empire, and the Republic of Primorye, a part of the Russian Federation. The area was part of Japan's conquests in the First Russo-Japanese War (1903-1905), and the only part of the Asian mainland (aside from the southernmost tip of the Kamchatka penninsula) retained after the Second Russo-Japanese War (1910-1911). When the Republic of Ezo split off in 1942 during the Japanese Civil War, Russia supported the Republic, turning it into a sattelite, and getting the area back, ostensibly as a condominium. Since the fall of SNOR, the area has become disputed between Japan, which reintegrated Ezo into itself, and Russia, with Japan contesting the legitimacy of the condominium government, based, for the most part, on their denial of the legitimacy of the former Republic of Ezo.

The administrative center is Vladivostok (Caisanuai in Japanese)

Government

The condominium area has as its heads-of-state, the President of Ezo (identical to the Emperor of Japan) and the President of Primorye. Each appoints a Governor to administer the territory for their nations.

During the SNORist era, the Russian govenors (predecessors of the present Primoryan authorities) were the de facto masters of the territory, with the Ezoan governors generally being bullied into consenting to their programs. Since the fall of SNOR, however, the Ezoan governors have taken a far more independant stance, backed now by the entire Japanese Empire, while Primorye's authority has been weakened by the fall of a strong central Russian government. It is generally held that the present situation cannot last long, the only question being how the matter will be resolved, whether peacefully or by war, and whether by granting the residents of the area greater internal autonomy and a more unified government, or by one side ceding or losing its authority.

Legislation is in the hands of an elected legislature. Any proposal accepted by it must be approved by both governors. Both the Russian and the Japanese law systems are applied separately in the Area. There are two separate customs, two separate police forces, two separate courts of justice, etc. Depending on the nationality of the policeman who catches someone for an offense, this person is tried either according to Russian or to Japanese laws.

Inhabitants of the Area have dual citizenship. During snorist times, it was a restricted area; only "very reliable" people were allowed to settle there, and even for just visiting it one had to go through a lot of bureaucratic trouble with very small odds for success. The Russian authorities were aware of the "open door" possibilities provided by the area to leave the country, and therefore put it under tight control. Thanks to their dual citizenship, inhabitants of the Area were allowed to leave the country, and some of them actually did, but in general, the Russian authorities did anything that laid within their possibilities to ensure their return.

Even nowadays, entering and leaving the Area is not easy: people always have to go through two customs, a Russian and a Japanese, and anyone who isn't fished out by the former will probably by the latter.