Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline - Japan is a police state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. Under the guise of a "study trip," a group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School in the fictional town of Shiroiwa are gassed on a bus. They awaken in the Okishima Island School on Okishima, an isolated, evacuated island southwest of Shodoshima, also in Kagawa Prefecture. They learn that they have been placed in an event called The Program, also known as Battle Royale. Officially a military research project, The Program is a means of terrorising the population, of creating such paranoia as to make organised insurgency impossible. According to the rules, every year since 1947, fifty 3rd year junior high school (14-15 years old) classes are isolated, and the students required to fight to the death until one remains. Their movements are restricted by metal collars around their necks which contain tracking and listening devices; if any student should attempt to escape The Program, or enter declared "danger zones", a bomb will be detonated in the collar, killing the wearer. If no student dies in any 24 hour period, all collars will be detonated simultaneously. After being briefed about The Program, the students are issued survival packs which include a map, compass, flashlight, food and water, and a random weapon or item, which may be anything from a gun to a paper fan. Let the killing begin =D