I am a literary giant in Japan

"This novel mainly tells the passionate story of a college student named Hanzawa Naoki. Because his family's company was saved by our bank, he resolutely changed his first choice after graduating from college and was determined to join our bank."

The vice president briefly talked about the current plot of "Hanzawa Naoki" and then excitedly said to the president,
“Mr. President! After the Ministry of Finance adjusted the laws and regulations on financial and banking business, our current situation has become more difficult than it was a year ago.

Originally, most finance graduates from top universities would choose to join our bank, but now, many are wavering. Some have gone to Tokyo International Business Bank, some have gone overseas, and many have been snatched away by Mitsui and Sumitomo.

Mr. President! You should know better than me. The most important thing in the banking industry is neither loans nor deposits, but the continuous influx of talents!
Sufficient fresh blood is the foundation of our business!"

The president, who was originally somewhat hesitant, instantly turned his solemn expression into one of relief and affirmation when he heard the second half of his words.

That's right!

If the deposits are gone, just let your employees attract new depositors.

There are so many people in Japan, and there are countless rich people, so there will be no problem of not having money to save.

If you have enough savings, are you still afraid that no one will ask you for a loan?
The deeper the depression, the more people lack money. As their desires and greed grow, loans become an easy and stable business.

But without the continuous influx of fresh blood, the bank will decline, and this is an irreversible process!

Without those low-level slaves, who will help those in high positions to do business?

Do we have to let a lot of branch presidents and vice presidents go out and work in public in the end?
In that case, the title of the number one industrial central bank will only become a laughing stock in the industry!

Seeing that his archenemy was about to be persuaded by him, the vice president immediately added fuel to the fire and said, "Mr. President! The statistics of the Human Resources Department last year clearly stated that the number of new employees absorbed was 145, the number of people who were successfully converted to regular employees was 107, and the number of people who stayed after one year was 82.

This figure has dropped significantly compared to previous years.

Four months have passed since 1998, and the first wave of college students have graduated. However, this year, the Human Resources Department has only recruited 62 new employees through various recruitments.
Do you remember 1989?

At that time, under your leadership, our bank achieved the miracle of recruiting more than 500 new employees in one year, with a retention rate of up to 96%!
Those newcomers nine years ago are now the backbone members of each branch.

These are all manifestations of your sharp vision and extraordinary action ability! "

The deputy governor has rarely flattered anyone in his life.

He remembered that the last time he flattered someone like this was three years ago. When facing the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, no matter how proud he was, he had to lower his head.

But now, he really has no choice.

The bad debt rate of the Industrial Central Bank has reached 47%, and the amount of bad debts has reached a terrifying 8600 billion yen!

8600 billion yen!
It’s not 86, nor 860, but the terrifying 8600!

After the bubble burst, the Japanese government invested 1 trillion yen to rescue the market in order to boost the stock and housing markets.

8600 billion is only 1 billion away from 1400 trillion.

If the Industrial Central Bank came to an end during his term, let alone internal factional struggles, his banking career would be over.

Therefore, let alone asking him to flatter his mortal enemy, even kneeling down and licking the other's leather shoes would not be a bad idea as long as the difficulties can be overcome!

The president had never seen such an expression on his mortal enemy's face, nor had he ever heard such comforting words from his mouth.

He finally smiled.

The rank and position are only half a level higher, but in terms of power, there is actually not much difference between the two.

But today, I won after all!
"Well, what do you mean?" He relaxed.

The deputy president half bowed with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

"This novel is very well written! Not to mention that it is Mr. Beichuan's first work in the field of popular literature, the content and subject matter alone are enough to become a publicity benchmark for the financial industry!

The Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet are also promoting this book, and the literary world is going crazy about it.

I think we should spend a large sum of money to buy all the copyrights of this book and vigorously promote it in the name of our bank, so that all the people will know that it is tied to our bank!
Mr. President, you think. With Mr. Beichuan's influence, novels of this theme are likely to be read by many college students and prospective college students.

After reading this novel, will those young people develop a yearning for banks?

And when they aspire to become the next 'Hanzawa Naoki', will our bank, which is forcibly bound to it, become their first choice?"

"Well, that's well said." The president raised his eyebrows. Using various things to increase the popularity of their own bank is a common trick used by financial and banking companies. There is nothing surprising about it.

To his surprise, the film "Hanzawa Naoki" seemed to be much more popular than he had imagined.

He also reads novels, but most of the time he just reads them briefly. He has a lot of them piled up at home just to improve his status and pretend to be an elegant person.

He has every book by Mr. Kitagawa, but the only one he has finished reading seems to be "No Longer Human".

From this perspective, the "number one in the world" in Japanese literary world is indeed an existence that cannot be ignored.

"Mr. President! I have already inquired with Kitagawa Entertainment. The copyright of "Hanzawa Naoki" is now in the hands of Mr. Kitagawa himself. Because it is his first official popular literature, the price is relatively low, and there is no need to refer to books such as "Snow Country"."

The deputy governor continued to flatter the president.

The 225-year copyright of "Snow Country" was acquired by Tokuma Shoten for 10 billion yen. This news caused a sensation in the publishing industry, and the price also shocked him.

This is just the publishing rights, and does not include the adaptation rights for film and television.

If the Industrial Central Bank wants to acquire the full copyright of "Hanzawa Naoki", referring to the price of "Snow Country", it will probably cost a sky-high price of 500 billion or more!

But now they say that they can reduce the price.

That makes things easier.

"What is the exact number?" The president's heart warmed.

The deputy governor replied: “We are currently talking about 120 billion yen, but the publishing, film and television adaptation, etc. will still be handled by Kitagawa Entertainment itself.

After all, our bank doesn’t have any good film and television companies or publishing houses. If we rush to do it ourselves, we might mess things up.

Anyway, we just want a name, and we can get the adaptation dividends and binding publicity, this 120 billion is definitely worth it! "

"120 billion?" The president frowned slightly, feeling that the price was a bit too high.

If the bank was not in its current state, he would be able to accept double the amount, let alone 120 billion.

But now.
"Mr. President! Opportunities are rare and will never come again!"

Seeing that the president was hesitant again, the vice president quickly argued,
"Kitagawa-sensei's novels, from his debut novel "Hear the Wind Sing" to his latest novel "Snow Country", have all been popular all over Japan. This is recognized as the 'best novel in the world' by the Japanese literary world!"
The two books, "The Dancing Girl of Izu" and "Snow Country", directly turned Izu and Niigata prefectures, which had extremely poor economic conditions, into tourist destinations. I wonder how many billions of yen they have added to their fiscal revenue!
If we can get "Hanzawa Naoki" to promote our bank, the final benefit will definitely far exceed 120 billion yen!
Don't you know that the total assets of the Kitagawa family are almost over 1500 billion yen?

It’s just 120 billion.”

His retort made the president anxious again.

120 billion yen, what an embarrassing number.

I don’t know if Beichuan Entertainment has guessed the current economic situation of the Industrial Central Bank. Why can it hit their pain points so accurately?

But what the vice president said was right. This was an opportunity for both of them to turn things around.

There is little point in internal fighting now.

If they can't get the bank through this, they will have no future!
"You did read the novel carefully, didn't you?"

The president took a deep breath and reached for the receiver.

The vice president glanced at his movements and nodded happily, "Yes! I have read this novel very carefully. The novel is of very high quality and suitable for all ages. It is definitely the most suitable promotional material!"

"In that case, I will call the Ministry of Finance right away and ask them to urgently transfer 120 billion yen to Kitagawa Entertainment. You will be in charge of this project, and I will only be in name only."

This kind of project will have a huge impact on the bank, and even if the president does not participate, he will put his name on it.

However, this time he was willing to give concessions to the deputy president and let him be the person in charge, which also shows his true attitude towards the matter.

"Okay! Don't worry, I will definitely complete this project!"

The deputy president bowed 90 degrees, and the heavy stone in his heart finally fell.

But before he looked up, the president's voice floated over again: "Go ahead and do it boldly. I will suppress any objections within the bank.

Even if something does happen, I will take full responsibility for it."

"Yes! Thank you for your support!"

The deputy president pressed his body down again.

On May 1998, 5, nine days after the second issue of "Dazhong" was published, as the popularity of "Hanzawa Naoki" grew, the magazine's sales increased instead of decreasing, achieving a rare reverse growth.

Now, no one dares to doubt Mr. Beichuan’s market appeal.

Moreover, "Hanzawa Naoki" is really good. Mr. Kitagawa said that he would write a popular literature suitable for all ages, and he has kept this promise!

The only problem now is that the discussion of this novel on the Internet is polarized.

Some readers firmly believe that this is an interesting and passionate story about bank employees.

When Naoki Hyakuta wrote "The Eternal Zero", he allowed readers to see the life of a pilot and inspired a group of young people to aspire to become pilots.

Now that Mr. Kitagawa has written the even better "Hanzawa Naoki", the formerly dull financial and banking industry has regained vitality and has become one of the choices for many prospective university graduates.

These readers feel that although the story plot is old-fashioned, it is interesting and easy to understand. Unlike pure literary novels, it does not require a certain level of literary literacy and reading comprehension ability.

Another group of readers held the exact opposite view.

They didn't think there was any problem with the quality of the novel, but they felt that the plot would not be that simple.

These researchers claim to be the die-hard fans of Mr. Beichuan, and they cite various classics to prove that this novel is "not simple".

The development of the Internet in Japan is no longer the civilized place it once was.

Three years ago, when Hide Kitagawa started using computers, the forums were basically filled with big shots, and no one did bad things under false pretenses.

Internet laws have not yet been completely perfected, but many Internet scammers and trolls have emerged.

This kind of verbal battle against novels is very popular in the literature section of major forums. Both sides often argue with each other, ranging from verbal attacks to offline battles. In any case, there is rarely a consensus or a period of relaxation.

The war of words about "Hanzawa Naoki" was surprisingly peaceful.

Because the two parties have surprisingly consistent views on the quality of the novel, they are still in the stage of talking rather than taking action.

In this strange atmosphere, Kitagawa Hide, who was staying at home to carefully revise "Tokyo People", suddenly received a call from the Ministry of Finance of the Industrial Central Bank.

The other party decided to skip Kitagawa Entertainment and directly discuss the purchase of the copyright of "Hanzawa Naoki" with Kitagawa Hide.

Kitagawa Hide knew very well what kind of story this was. To be honest, he was even considering whether he would completely offend the banking industry after writing it.

But when he thought about the corrupt practices in the banking industry and the Ministry of Finance, as well as the Bank of Japan's long-term inaction, he really couldn't tolerate it.

Anyway, novels are novels. You can't mess with me because of a science fiction novel, right?

But it is also quite outrageous that the Industrial Central Bank took the initiative to purchase the copyright.

He thought about it for a few seconds, then, adhering to his principle as a scholar not to get too involved in business activities, he handed the phone to Mengzi.

Mengzi has been in a bad mood recently.

Because the two little ones, Toru Kitagawa and Midori Kitagawa, often wet the bed, and always need her to hold them in their arms to sleep in the middle of the night.

When she heard that it was a matter related to the copyright of "Hanzawa Naoki", she was aware of the variables involved, but her bad mood and inability to vent her emotions made her completely unwilling to consider the situation on the bank's side.

At the beginning of the year, she deposited money in the bank, but when she wanted to withdraw it, she encountered various obstacles, which made her, a big customer, extremely annoyed.

Mengzi is no longer the timid girl she used to be. She is very principled about certain things.

So the unlucky Industrial Central Bank bought a time bomb for 120 billion yen!
Kitagawa Hide didn't want to interfere in this matter at all. Anyway, the Industrial Central Bank would soon join forces with the Tokyo Foreign Bank, so what was to die had to die.

After the deal was finalized, news that the Industrial Central Bank had purchased the copyright spread like wildfire, reaching the banking and publishing industries in less than a day.

Tokuma Shoten, which just bought the copyright of "Snow Country", feels very regretful because they still have some spare money and actually want to buy "Hagane Naoki".

But other banks are the ones who regret it more.

Because soon after this news came out, the share price of Industrial Central Bank began to soar. In this period of the Great Depression, when the banking industry was about to collapse, it was incredible that the share price of a bank could still rise! (End of this chapter)