Sail across the sea

Chapter 478 The Sound of Cicadas
Upon hearing this, the executives all stopped talking and turned their attention to President Sato Hiroshi, who was sitting at the head of the conference table.

The rare earth resource tax is unstoppable, and the rare earth refineries built by the Chinese themselves have driven down the price of high-purity rare earths. With this inflow and outflow, Yttrium Corporation's profits from rare earth smelting have shrunk by half.

The introduction of rare earth quotas signifies that the Chinese government is determined to reduce exports of raw ore and support exports of refined oxides. It is difficult to predict what new policies will be introduced next that will further compress the profit margins of Yttrium Corporation.

Another change that was also very fatal was that after the Plaza Accord, the yen began to appreciate rapidly, which caused the production costs of Japanese companies to rise rapidly and greatly affected the international competitiveness of their products.

For Yttrium Corporation to break out of its predicament, a crucial step is to improve its production efficiency and compete on price with Chinese companies. However, achieving this requires significant investment in technological research and development, as well as upgrading a large number of currently outdated production equipment, which demands a substantial sum of money.

In the past, the board of directors would have gritted their teeth and come up with the money. After the war, Japan was able to rise from the ruins, gradually eroding the market share of Europe and the United States, until it was able to sell "Made in Japan" products in every corner of the world, relying on continuous innovation and always keeping itself at the forefront of new technologies.

However, people are now somewhat resistant to spending money on innovation, and the reason is also related to the Plaza Accord. Due to the influx of a large amount of speculative capital, many opportunities to make quick and big money have emerged in the Japanese market.

Investing 100 billion yen in equipment upgrades would take five years to recoup the investment, with a future return of only a few percentage points. However, investing in the stock market or real estate, with a bit of luck, could double the investment in just a few weeks.

If you were a senior executive in a company, where would you be willing to invest your money?
The plan for Yttrium Corporation to participate in real estate investment has been discussed among senior executives for a long time. Most executives agree that the company's business focus should be shifted to financial investment, and the existing business should simply remain as a cash cow.

Two executives also disagreed, arguing that the virtual economy is unreliable and a single misstep could lead to total ruin. They believed the company should stick to its familiar business, even if the profit margins were lower, because the returns would be more stable.

At this moment, everyone was waiting for Sato Hiroshi to announce the board's final decision.

"We must continue with the rare earth business." Sato first reassured the conservatives, then said, "Given the uncontrollable factors in the current rare earth supply, before we can effectively influence the behavior of the Chinese, the company's rare earth business should focus on maintaining its existing scale and should not undertake overly aggressive equipment upgrades."

Most people in the meeting room smiled without saying a word; Sato Hiroshi's meaning was crystal clear. The two conservatives looked ashen-faced, but dared not utter a word.

Sato Hiroshi then continued:
"Regarding the plan proposed by some senior executives to participate in the real estate market, the company's planning department has conducted a detailed evaluation and believes that the Japanese real estate market will maintain rapid growth over the next 20 years, and we should not miss such an opportunity."

"The planning department has selected six promising real estate projects. Please let Koda-kun introduce them to you..."

Then, the planning department manager, whose forehead was already severely balding, began to introduce the real estate investment situation, and the conference room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

……

In July, the campus of Peking University was filled with the chirping of cicadas as the Class of '82 welcomed their graduation season.

Three students from dormitory 449 stayed on to pursue their master's degrees: Gao Fan, Chen Chuanlin, and Wu Zixian. They were also the youngest in the dormitory; Gao Fan had just turned 20, while Chen Chuanlin and Wu Zixian were both only 19.

The eldest brother, Gu Songtao, stayed in Beijing and was assigned to the State Planning Commission. The second brother, Hu Dongming, returned to his hometown, Muyang Province, and entered the Finance Department, a universally recognized prestigious unit. The fourth brother, He Xujie, also returned to his hometown; his workplace was the Economic Commission of Chibei Province, where he also held considerable power. These three would likely not need the chemistry knowledge they learned in university in the future. The fifth brother, Pan Chang, joined the newly established Petrochemical Corporation two years prior. According to him, he would first work as a blueprinting technician at the Petrochemical Design Institute; his future development would depend on his own abilities.

The third brother, Wang Yan, successfully received a full scholarship to Stanford University in the United States, still majoring in chemical engineering. When everyone congratulated him, he arrogantly declared that he was going to the United States to pave the way for everyone, and that anyone who wanted to develop their career in the United States in the future could just contact him.

Of course, being someone with high emotional intelligence, he quickly added after speaking that everyone staying in China must have a bright future, unlike him who left his hometown and doesn't know if he will be able to find a job in the United States in the future.

Naturally, everyone flattered him, saying that he had now escaped the ranks of developing countries, and that when he ate beef and drank red wine in the future, he should not forget his classmates who were eating steamed buns and millet porridge back home.

At the graduation ceremony, Gao Fan didn't see Xia Shihui. Yuan Xiaoyan came over specifically to take a photo with Gao Fan, and then told him that Xia Shihui had gone out to work on a project with her supervisor half a year ago, and then there had been no news of her since; she hadn't written to anyone.

Gao Fan's high school classmates also reached the point of graduating from university.

Huang Chunyan secured a place in Fudan University's graduate program. It's said that Xu Yun invited her to apply to the University of Science and Technology of China, but she ultimately chose to stay at Fudan. However, her relationship with Xu Yun was already public knowledge. In this era, travel was slow, and long-distance relationships tend to have a long shelf life.

Gao Fan's best friend, Fang Rui, suddenly had the idea of ​​studying abroad during his junior year of college and quickly passed the TOEFL exam. Upon graduation, he received a scholarship to MIT.

Another classmate who went abroad was Zhang Wei. He had previously longed to take the postgraduate entrance exam and go to Shanghai to fulfill his childhood dream of pursuing Huang Chunyan. Later, after learning about Xu Yun's existence, he was utterly disheartened and also chose to go abroad, this time to the University of Pennsylvania.

Fang Rui's sponsorship for going abroad was arranged with Gao Fan's help. Gao Fan suggested that he could similarly ask Bob to sponsor Zhang Wei. However, Zhang Wei ultimately declined Gao Fan's offer and instead contacted an employee named Dampier at the Odin factory in the United States.

Dampier had come to Maolin Province a few years ago as a representative of the Odin factory to negotiate a joint venture with Maohua Machinery. Zhang Wei had met him by chance, and they eventually became acquainted.

Mo Xiaobo from Maolin University and Xiao Pei from Maolin Finance and Economics College both stayed in Ruizhang, the provincial capital, and both have very good jobs.

……

Two months later, at the freshman orientation event for the Class of '86 at Peking University, Gao Fan met Xu Ying, who was accompanied by a girl with big eyes.

Her name is Lin Ruoyi.

(End of Volume 1)

(End of this chapter)