1991 Heian Incident

The 1991 Heian Incident was a coup attempt in Yamatai by a group of ultranationalist Army and Air Defence Force officers led by Major-General Tsuge Yukihito. The group of 12 to 15 military officers, known as the Paulownia Clique, held ultranationalist ideals and sought to restore the Yamataian Stratocracy with Tsuge as the new Imperial Grand Marshal.

During the coup, Tsuge and the Clique members holding command positions claimed that there was a terrorist threat within Heian and unilaterally deployed troops under their command to enact a lockdown of the city. The coup leaders then presented a list of demands to Prime Minister Kojima Toshihiko at the Kantei. Kojima refused to accept the demands and was placed under house arrest by the coup leaders, who then attempted to reach the Heian Imperial Palace to convince Empress Kiyono to appoint Tsuge as the Imperial Grand Marshal. However, they were stopped en route by the Heian Metropolitan Police and they fled back to the Kantei.

By this point, the Ministry of Defence and Army high command had issued orders to the troops within Heian explaining the situation and ordering them to stand down, and most of the troops obeyed. A small handful of troops personally loyal to Tsuge and his co-conspirators attempted to fortify the Kantei while Tsuge issued a statement from the Kantei media room that he had taken over the government, though the statement was never released as the building's land lines had been cut. The Metropolitan Police and the Imperial Army TokuSa then launched an attack on the Kantei, during which Tsuge led several of the coup leaders to commit suicide, marking the end of the incident.

Colonel Arakawa Shigeki and Captain Nomura Chikako disappeared during the Kantei siege and a citywide manhunt was launched to locate them. Arakawa was later arrested attempting to enter the Hyspanic embassy to seek political asylum, while Nomura turned herself in days later. During the Kantei siege, Lieutenant-Colonel Kudo Hiroyuki and Captain Takemoto Ryo from the Air Defence Force took off in Type-45 Karura fighters from Harada Air Base with the goal of providing air support to the defenders. They were quickly intercepted and arrested upon landing. All surviving clique members were charged with treason, terrorism, and being AWOL, and were sentenced to death.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, there was widespread public outrage against the actions of the Imperial Military for the first time since the Okabe Nariakira era. Though there was minimal loss of life, the coup attempt threatened to cause a national economic crisis. The Minister of Defence, Marshal-General of the Imperial Army and Marshal-General of the Air Defence Force all resigned to take responsibility for the debacle. Prime Minister Kojima Toshihiko, however, was widely celebrated as a national hero for standing up to Tsuge and the clique members.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Defence ordered the military branches to carry out a sweep of their personnel to root out any remaining ultranationalist or extremist officers and personnel, and to begin training personnel to watch out for and avoid extremism. About 130 personnel were fired by the military branches due to reasons related to extremism in the next six months. This marked the end of a long period following the Okabe era where the military tolerated soldiers' political orientations in an effort to remain apolitical, enabling far-right views to grow within the military.

The Paulownia Clique
The Paulownia Clique was formed around 1983 by Tsuge and his closest loyalists, Arakawa Shigeki and Nezu Jinpachi. The three met during command staff college and all three already had right-wing ideas and were deeply interested in the Imperialist era of Yamatai.

New Hyspania
New Hyspania's government condemned the coup attempt and further condemned Arakawa Shigeki for attempting to seek political asylum in the Hyspanic embassy after carry out their attack.