Yotsuyu's story is a masterful postcolonial feminist critique of female oppression

[DPZ2]

I just got to the part in SB where we meet the East Aldenard Company (a reference to the irl East Indian Company and its storied involvements with various colonial projects)

Japan opened trade with the Dutch East India Company in the early 1600s. Japan was closed to foreigners (with the exception of the Dutch, who did not proselytize Christianity) within the span of a generation. It remained closed for over 200 years. [Check out the term "Sakoku"].

So, not attempt at colonialism, and the British didn't appear to make much headway until the ports were thrown open by the "friendly" persuasion of Commodore Perry and his US Navy steam-powered warships in the mid-19th century.

The East Aldenard Company was always owned by Lolorito, even in ARR. Ruthless capitalists, yes. Radical liberal economists? Not really, although the Mirage Trust (run by Teledji Adeledji) liked to pretend it was a philanthropic member of the Syndicate.