The Buddhist Socialist Republic of Byakuren is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Byakuren Hijiri with an even hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, anti-smoking policies, and infamous sell-swords. The compassionate, cheerful, devout population of 22.311 billion Byakurenites are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Tahara. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Byakurenite economy, worth a remarkable 4,680 trillion Japanese Yen a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is an amazing 209,773 Japanese Yen, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Prime real estate is devoted to wind farms and solar energy generators, lawmakers frequent the same speakeasies that they've publicly sworn to shut down, pareidolic SETI scientists swear there's a message from aliens hidden within pi, and in a fit of passion Byakuren Hijiri has shredded thirty years' worth of petitions. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Byakuren's national animal is the Golden Eagle, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Pure Land Buddhism.

Byakuren is ranked 6,072^nd in the world and 302^nd in The North Pacific for Most Beautiful Environments, with 2,115.51 pounds of wildlife per square mile.