I am a literary giant in Japan

The second chapter of "Hanzawa Naoki" goes directly to the plot point where Hanzawa receives the notification of the job offer from the Industrial Central Bank.

As he expected, after giving such an unexpected answer, the interviewers from the Industrial Central Bank chose him decisively.

Also receiving the notification of the internal appointment and coming to the conference hall of the Ikebukuro branch were Shinobu Wataru, Naosuke Kondo, and Oshiki Yanata, who were from the same class as Hanzawa.

They are all the best in their respective departments at Keio University, and possess talents and wisdom that are difficult for their peers to achieve.

All four of them had the vision of joining a large bank to realize their ambitions, and the outgoing and sociable Shinobu Watari immediately made them familiar with each other through a simple self-introduction.

Hanzawa is not like those college students who were admitted right after graduation. After receiving the official notification, he danced with joy, thinking that his future life will be far better than others and will be smooth sailing.

He is thoughtful, speaks little and is silent, and there always seems to be an indescribable deep light in his eyes.

The time is 1992.

It is a period when the so-called bubble economy has completely burst and the Japanese madness has come to an end.

There are currently 13 large urban banks.

In a banking organization protected by a financial administration known as the convoy system, once lifelong stability arrived, bank employees became synonymous with the elite.

Even though the market conditions are no longer as good as they used to be, the gateway to this financial compound is still beyond the reach of ordinary people.

In the second month after being officially admitted, the Industrial Central Bank's rule-breaking recruitment incident was discovered.

But this also did not cause much waves in the glamorous Tokyo.

Because the Japanese have lost so much this year, the illusory rules have been completely shattered and are nothing compared to the burst bubble illusion.

By the way, this year, Ozaki Yutaka was still alive and released a new single "Fragments of the Sun".

one way or another--

The frenzy of the bursting of the bubble economy is about to begin. Four newly graduated college students, with their own dreams and hopes surging in their hearts, pass through the bank door one after another.

“Phew—I feel like I have watched a commercial blockbuster with ups and downs.”

Tetsutaro Mori closed the magazine "Mass" with a lingering feeling. After finishing "Hanzawa Naoki", he really had no interest in other novels serialized in the magazine.

It cannot be said that the writers who submitted their works to "Mass" were not good enough, but that Mr. Beichuan's works were simply too great and too beautiful to behold.

Life is the same.

It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality!

Other readers who also uttered exclamations of admiration closed their magazines and walked out of the bookstore one after another.

Tetsutarou Mori observed readers' feedback on Mass Magazine.

Most of these people just closed the magazine and left after reading "Hanzawa Naoki" - everyone had the same reaction, which is enough to prove that the opening of Mr. Kitagawa's new book is very successful.

He also noticed that among the readers, the young employees in suits and ties had the best response to the new book.

Compared with other readers, this group of people were obviously infected by the plot of "Hanzawa Naoki", and many of them even went to buy the second and third books.

Graduating from university, job interviews, joining a bank, and an unknown life
Mr. Kitagawa said before that he wanted to write a novel on finance and banking. At that time, everyone thought it was a "semi-academic" work that was highly professional and could easily resonate with people in the industry.

Did not expect ah.

If you put aside the outer shell of banking and finance, you will find that this is a documentary novel that perfectly reveals the life of young college graduates!
This book is going to be a big hit!
Tetsutarou Mori came to the same conclusion as Yasushi Ishida.

He packed up his things, ran back to the car while it was still light, and sped home, ready to use his computer to rush out a new literary review of "Hanzawa Naoki"!
He has already thought of the title for the review, which is "Where to Go - How will the 98 "Hanzawa" face their future lives?"

The afterglow of "Snow Country" is still burning in the Japanese literary world.

Niigata Prefecture's total tourism revenue in the past month exceeded the total of the previous ten years, causing the governor, who had long felt that he had no hope of promotion, to burst into tears.

Taking advantage of this sudden favorable situation, Niigata Prefecture applied for a 50 billion yen grant from the Ministry of Finance and made a drastic transformation of the nameless mountain village, turning it into a tourist pilgrimage site.

The name of the village was directly changed to "Snow Country", and a statue of Kitagawa Hide was erected at the entrance of the village. Train conductors on trains along the line are always willing to explain the relationship between the village and "Snow Country", for fear that tourists may not know!

New fans of Hide Kitagawa are still going crazy about "Snow Country" online and offline, but the old fans have long been accustomed to it and have already set their sights on Kitagawa's subsequent works.

Unsurprisingly, the magazine "Mass", which serialized "Hanzawa Naoki", became a hit throughout Japan.

I don’t know how many pairs of eyes were staring at this newly published magazine, wanting to see whether the so-called popular literature really has the upper limit that Professor Kitagawa said.

Early morning on December 5th.

Oricon's statistics arrived as expected, with the first-day sales of "Dazhong" engraved in bright red font at the top of the data list -

37.9 copies!

Popular Literature, New Magazine, Issue 2
Countless debuffs merged together, even with the golden signboard of Mr. Kitagawa, people don’t think that "Mass" can make much waves.

Last issue, thanks to the opening ceremony and publicity from all walks of life, "Da Zhong" achieved a successful start with sales of 10.7 copies.

Unexpectedly, after the serialization of "Hanzawa Naoki" began, the sales volume that was originally expected by the industry to decline actually more than tripled!

With a daily sales volume of 37.9 copies, it can easily rank among the top five among pure literature magazines with stable market conditions!
After this day, the market was suddenly flooded with books on finance and banking. Many newspapers and magazines even deliberately moved the financial section to the front. Even those entertainment newspapers that mainly covered entertainment and sports news were no exception!

The most outrageous thing is that all newspapers and magazines that did this increased their sales to a certain extent!
This shows that their response and emergency strategy were correct.

Many people have indeed watched "Hagane Naoki" and inexplicably developed an interest in the financial and banking industry because of it.

Another large number of beneficiaries are bank employees. These people are originally the few elites in this society. They live in exquisite buildings. In most people's guess, their daily life is coffee, fitness, business and various leisure activities full of petty bourgeoisie.

During the bubble period, bank clerk was the most desired job for countless college graduates, no doubt about it.

Due to the special nature of Japan's major banks, the lives of these elites are indeed difficult to peek into.

All these mysteries are intertwined together and are now completely detonated by a novel.

During this economic depression, many Japanese banks were on the verge of bankruptcy and closure, and even industry giants such as the Industrial Central Bank were worried about the future.

Now, a novel by Mr. Beichuan has given them hope of climbing out of the desperate situation!
The banks, seeking to avoid danger and seek good fortune, took immediate action. The wealthy ones directly contacted Kitagawa Entertainment, hoping to have in-depth cooperation with "Dazhong". They paid the money, and "Dazhong" appropriately inserted some advertisements for them when "Hanzawa Naoki" was serialized in the next issue.

Banks that had no money simply put up some "Volkswagen" posters outside, suggesting to customers that they are also the kind of big companies that the elites in novels are willing to work for, so there is no need to worry about the bank going bankrupt, just come and deposit your money!
Masato Senhara, who had helped Hide Kitagawa set up the world view and characters, was the most moved.

He had read the first draft of "Hanzawa Naoki" and had a general understanding of the story.

In this world, apart from Mrs. Kitagawa, he is probably the only one who knows this story best.

"This is not a novel that praises banks. These idiots, don't they really think that Mr. Kitagawa will be like those big financial groups, giving them cheap and free publicity to continue to deceive the public into the economic trap?"

Masato Senhara, now the vice president of Kitagawa Investment, has no shortage of money or social status.

Three years ago, he was an employee of the Industrial Central Bank who was troubled by his performance. Now, his personal assets are about to exceed 1 million yen.

Having been forced out of the Industrial Central Bank, he knew better than anyone what a bank was.

A place where young people’s dreams come true?

The cornerstone and pillar of Japanese finance?

The savior of a dying business?

fart!

It is just a disgusting circle that adheres to the principles of "borrow an umbrella when it is sunny and put it away when it rains" and "the subordinate's credit is the boss's credit, and the boss's fault is the subordinate's fault"!

"Promoting 'Hanzawa Naoki'? These banks are really courting death."

Masato Senhara is lying leisurely at home at the moment. With the recent sharp decline in investment activities, his work has become easier.

Rather than everyone looking forward to the explosive popularity of "Hanzawa Naoki", he is more looking forward to how these banks that are about to shoot themselves in the foot will be surprised and regretful when the next issue of "Mass" is released!
It’s time for those guys who are ruthless and eat people to be punished!

1998 5 Month 5 Day.

Industrial Central Bank, Head Office Building, President’s Office on the 23rd floor.

The president looked at the mountain of documents in front of him, feeling headache and helpless.

Although the Industrial Central Bank is one of the largest banks in Japan, it is backed by the Mitsubishi Group and is supported desperately by the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan.

But bad debts are bad debts, and the big bubble that emerged during the bubble economy period will not dissipate.

On the contrary, because of its large size, the mess of the Industrial Central Bank has become so big that he cannot bear to look directly at it.

The best way at the moment is to learn from some big banks and directly announce bankruptcy and restructuring.

Or continue to ask the government for money, no matter how much is in the treasury, and use it all for your own emergency.

Or you can learn from the big overseas banks and directly find a peer with similar size and situation, merge and reorganize, and work together to keep warm.

He prefers the last option, but it would violate international antitrust laws.

In order to sanction Japanese conglomerates, the Americans explicitly banned the family inheritance system and mergers and reorganizations of Japanese conglomerates.

Unable to get around the Americans, it would be extremely difficult for the Industrial Central Bank to merge with other banks.

"Boom boom boom——"

"Please come in."

The person who walked into the office was the young and energetic vice president.

He bowed, then silently handed over a copy of "The Masses".

The president has also heard a little about the recently popular Japanese drama "Hagane Naoki".

The banking industry generally keeps a distance from top experts in other fields like Mr. Kitagawa.

Especially since he is from the literary world, those literati love to complain all the time, criticizing this and that, and what they say is nonsense, but they have fame and status to back them up, so you can't do anything about them.

"What's wrong with this book?" he asked.

The vice president bowed his head and said, "Mr. President, I have read it all in the past two days."

"Hmm?" The president propped up his chin with his hand.

He and the vice president have never gotten along. After all, they are competitors and there is no way they can get along harmoniously.

In order to avoid conflicts, the latter rarely take the initiative to come to him to discuss things.

He said and did this, obviously thinking that "Hanzawa Naoki" deserves their enough attention.

Could it be that Mr. Kitagawa is going to do something weird?
"I read this book, it's a good thing." The vice president said succinctly, with a smile in his eyes. (End of this chapter)