I am a literary giant in Japan

The time moved forward to the afternoon of October 10th.

As more and more readers were unable to buy "Beichuan" in major bookstores, many people finally realized that a commercial war without any smoke of gunpowder had quietly begun.

Nearly 30% of the well-known bookstores in the Tokyo area are fully controlled by the two major conglomerates, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.

Even if the bookstore manager and others were reluctant, when the book sales ban came from the headquarters, they still had no choice but to obey the order and shamelessly use all kinds of reasons to dismiss dissatisfied readers.

This sudden wave of book sales bans did seriously affect the sales of "Beichuan".

After visiting several bookstores in vain, the confused readers chose to go home and wait, venting a lot of their dissatisfaction on Beichuan.

After all, they don't know that there are sinister people behind the scenes manipulating these things.

Seeing this, other publishing houses with a keen sense of the market began to take action.

That afternoon, about 20 pure literature magazines with good sales were temporarily released in advance, instantly filling the vacancy left by the disappearance of "Beichuan".

As for physical books, after a large number of novels written by Hide Kitagawa were taken off the shelves, many single volumes were over-published and over-printed, occupying Hide Kitagawa's ecological niche.

It is worth mentioning that the fastest action is "New Wenxiang" which was also released today.

Xinwenxiang Publishing House wiped out the previous decline caused by being suppressed by Kawade Shobo and Beichuan Wenyu, and instantly increased its circulation to 100 million copies, filling the front shelves of major bookstores.

A few days ago, the "Tianxia Yipin" Nagai Kazufu, who announced that he had officially joined Shinwenxiang Publishing House, has been constantly refreshing his presence in front of the camera. He has repeatedly stated that he will return to the press next month, so new and old readers are welcome to look forward to it.

Ever since Kitagawa Hide broke the invincible halo of the older generation of "the best in the world", the seven most powerful people in the Japanese literary world have all retired and stopped writing, leaving the resources of the literary world completely to the newcomers.

The emergence of Nagai Kazufu was clearly the final counterattack by Japan's conservative intellectuals against Kitagawa Hide's faction.

Following Nagai Kazufu to stir up trouble were three conservative "upper-class writers", seven "middle-class writers" and nearly twenty "low-class writers".

This is almost the strongest team that the conservatives can come up with at this stage.

While conservative intellectuals continued to stir, undercurrents were also surging within the Japanese Literary Society.

President Fumio Niwa took leave due to illness and went directly to Los Angeles, USA for treatment.

The Japan Literary Society was leaderless, and honorary vice president Kitagawa Hide was rarely seen, so the person who took over the baton was the de facto vice president Nagasaki No.

Nagasaki was one of the few conservative writers who remained in the Japan Literary Society after several rounds of purges.

He was very close to Natsuki Ikezawa, Shintaro Ishihara and others at the beginning, but after their crimes were exposed, he was the first to cut off ties with them and also avoided the Japan Literature Society scandal.

It was the original idea of ​​Niwa Fumio and Kato Shuichi to keep him and a small group of conservative writers in the literary society.

They believe that being too ruthless would make Kitagawa Hide, the new leader, appear too radical. At the same time, ensuring the diversity of the literary world is also the lifelong pursuit of the older generation of writers like them.

Kitagawa Hide had no intention of getting involved in the factional struggles within the literary world. He only cared about writing books to make money and gain both fame and fortune, so he left everything to Niwa Fumio and others.

I didn't expect that I would shoot myself in the foot.

Nagasaki No and Nagai Kazukaze worked together from inside and outside, and took advantage of Niwa Fumio's "recuperation" to completely control the Japan Literary Society.

The only official literary organization began to criticize Kitagawa Hide and his novels, and blamed him for the Nobel Prize's official punishment of the Japanese literary world.

This kind of childish and rogue behavior is both ridiculous and cheap in the eyes of industry insiders.

But tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of readers are not industry insiders.

They only saw that overnight, it seemed as if the entire Japanese literary world began to target Mr. Kitagawa.

Kitagawa Hide's reputation in the literary, publishing and academic circles also reversed instantly, and a question mark was abruptly added to the title of "the best in the world".

In addition, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo also took advantage of the convenience of their major trading companies to put up slogans such as "Is Kitagawa Hidema worthy of being called the 'number one' in Japanese literary world?" in many well-known department stores.

The professional paparazzi, which has caused headaches for many big-name stars in the entertainment industry, have been digging up Kitagawa Hide's dirt day and night.

No one is perfect.

These guys who like to find faults racked their brains and finally found some faults with Kitagawa Hide.

80% of them were concentrated before 1995.

When he was a student, Kitagawa Hide was a dissolute rich second-generation man. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he had accomplished nothing.

Under the temptation of huge sums of money from the consortium, "ex-girlfriends", "seniors", "juniors" and others who had had connections with Kitagawa Hide came out to accuse him.

Relatives who had long severed ties with Kitagawa Hide also came forward, accusing him of completely disregarding the blood ties of the Kitagawa family after he became rich, and of not even paying homage to his deceased parents!
The combined punches of the two major conglomerates came one after another, leaving no time for Kitagawa Hide and Kawaide Shizuko to react.

I thought they would at least relax for a few days after the last wave of attacks and wait for subsequent developments before making a decision. I didn't expect the consortiums to chase and bite like mad dogs.

The young Kitagawa Hideo group was rarely at a disadvantage.

October 1998, 10, Kawaide Shobo headquarters building, Sumiyoshicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.

A serious atmosphere permeated the air.

The entire building was silent, with only the sound of typing and the occasional, muffled phone calls.

Everyone held their breath and worked intently.

A similar scene appeared in Kawade Shobo more than a year ago.

Top floor, president's office.

All the outsiders were driven out by Shizuko Kawade.

The only people in the office at this time were Shizuko Kawaide, Rena Saito, Hide Kitagawa, as well as Yumeko Kitagawa and Rei Jabami who had hurried over.

They are the five-member group with the most stable relationship and deepest friendship, and these four women are also the strongest supporters behind Kitagawa Hide.

"What's the situation?" Kitagawa Hide was talking on the phone with the senior executives of Kitagawa Entertainment while looking at the busy Kawaide Shizuko.

“The Japanese literary society, publishing industry, and academic community have basically been taken over by their people.

Literary societies and the publishing industry are the hardest hit. The former has become the stronghold of conservative writers, and all authors who are willing to follow us have signed agreements to withdraw from the society. "

Shizuko Kawaide paused, and when she mentioned the withdrawal agreement, a sense of sadness rose in her heart.

When Ichiro Tanizaki controlled the Japan Literary Society, he severely suppressed Kitagawa Hide.

At that time, a large number of new-school writers resolutely followed Kitagawa Hide and left the Japan Literary Society, which indirectly contributed to Kitagawa Hide and his team's subsequent purge of the literary society.

Unexpectedly, just over a year later, the same thing happened again.

But this time, the withdrawal agreement signed by everyone will no longer be so mild.

All writers who are willing to follow Kawaide Shobo and Kitagawa Hide this time have confirmed that they will permanently withdraw from the Japan Literary Society!
In other words, no matter how things develop later, Kawaide Shobo and Kitagawa Hidemasa will never recognize the official nature of the Japan Literary Society.

This time, no one can make peace.

"As for the publishing industry, as you know, except for the members of our company faction, most people prefer Mitsubishi and Sumitomo."

Shizuko Kawaide rubbed her sore cheeks and said to him helplessly. The Kawaide family rose to become a consortium less than 20 years ago, and the first real head of the family was her grandfather.

There are hundreds of such small-scale conglomerates in Japan. If they do not involve medium-sized and large conglomerates, they are basically invincible in the business battlefield.

However, once a conflict arises with the above-mentioned consortium, the advantages they have over other companies will instantly turn into disadvantages.

The Kawaide Group is backed by Mitsui, but in this dispute, the other four major groups, Mitsui, Fuji, Kangin, and Sanwa, all stood by and watched, with no intention of getting involved.

Half of the nearly twenty medium-sized domestic conglomerates are neutral, a quarter are waiting and waiting for an opportunity to enter the market, and a quarter tend to support Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.

Therefore, the situation in the publishing industry is even more tragic than that in the literary world.

These upstream and downstream companies not only blocked Beichuan Entertainment from front and back, but also did not let go of the industry leader Hechu Bookstore.

"Is there no one who supports us?" Kitagawa Hide frowned slightly.

"We just cooperated with Hakusensha a while ago, and Nikkan Sports Newspaper, which has always supported us. However, they are both small companies and they don't get along with Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.

I think it is more of a bet and a gamble than a support. "

Shizuko Kawaide kept flipping through the documents, her voice erratic.
"The situation in the academic world is not optimistic either. Tokyo University and Kyoto University are our strongholds, and other well-known universities are tending to target you."

In Japan, academia and politics are inseparable, and many university executives and academic giants come from political families themselves.

Political families are either members of the consortium themselves, or are married families supported by the consortium.

In short, once huge companies like Mitsubishi and Sumitomo mobilize their own energy, they will bring out the mud with them, and they have deep roots in all walks of life.

“I didn’t expect that the literary critics and the entertainment industry would be the ones supporting us so much.”

When Saito Rena was reading the report, she couldn't help but sigh.

The people who initially disliked Kitagawa Hide the most were the fence-sitters in the literary criticism circle.

They can criticize anyone for money, but they especially like to criticize the young and promising Kitagawa Hide.

If the verbal battle between Tetsutaro Mori and "Ichiro" had not been won by Tetsutaro Mori, the literary criticism against Kitagawa Hide would probably have continued until now.

Later, in order to make these trolls behave themselves, Kitagawa Hide specially opened the Kitagawa Network and replaced physical literary reviews with Internet netizens' comments.

Time passes.

Up to now, both the physical literary criticism circle and the online literary criticism community have become Kitagawa Hide's most loyal fans without exception.

This should also be attributed to the contribution of Shuji Kato, the "world's number one" literary critic.

But in the final analysis, this group of trolls have their own bottom line and principles.

For money, they can rant and rave about anything, even inconsistently.

But when it comes to major issues of right and wrong, the trolls who are still active can make clear distinctions.

Just like Paul DeMan at Yale.

They are a bunch of bastards that people both love and hate.

As for the entertainment industry, it is Kitagawa Hide's pure fan base.

Many of the film and television dramas adapted from Kitagawa Hide's novels have sold well in Japan. Many actors have made a comeback thanks to his film and television dramas and scripts, which is equivalent to a life-saving grace.

Among the top celebrities, Takuya Kimura and his wife, Jabami Rei and others are all recognized as "Kitagawa girls" and "Kitagawa male stars".

It can be said that Kitagawa Hide is a big golden sign in the entertainment industry.

Those entertainment companies and TV stations are profit-seeking organizations. Even though many of them are controlled by consortiums, as long as they are not fully controlled, they will always do things that are "secretly obeying" and "openly disobeying".

If I were to say who is the person who is most reluctant to see Kitagawa Hideo fall.

Ranked first are Shizuko Kawaide and others.

In second place were celebrities such as Obuchi Keizo and the imperial family.

Ranked third are the big names in the entertainment industry.

Tetsutarou Mori, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Shigeo Nishiguchi, Masato Chihara and others are also doing their part to support Sensei Kitagawa.

So the Japanese people saw all kinds of strange and wonderful scenes in late October 1998.

On the one hand, the literary, publishing and academic circles launched a massive boycott against Kitagawa Hide, and the two major conglomerates, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, were also doing their best to discredit him.

This made many people who were unaware of the situation think that Kitagawa Hide had done something wrong and began to doubt him.

The newspapers affiliated with the consortium went crazy, constantly exposing Kitagawa Hide's dark secrets day and night.

He deliberately broke the glass of his teacher's house in elementary school, cheated in junior high school exams, and caused his girlfriend to get pregnant unexpectedly in high school. After becoming famous, he suppressed other writers, used Tetsutaro Mori to criticize the literary criticism community, and kept underage girls at home.
In short, they will pull out and publicize anything that is even remotely related.

Within a few days, it seemed that Kitagawa Xiu's underwear was stripped off.

On the official side of the Nobel Prize, the Arnault Club also followed suit in smearing Kitagawa Hide overseas.

If they can't criticize you for the quality of your novels, then can't they criticize you for your personal style and life?

On the other hand, the literary critics have been supporting Kitagawa Hide and his recent books "Asakusa Red Group" and "The Evil Woman" in waves.

These trolls were rarely unanimous in their opinions and directed their attacks at the newly emerged people like Nagai Kazukaze.

Celebrities in the entertainment industry have expressed their support for Hide Kitagawa on social media, and the agencies and entertainment companies behind them have remained silent, implicitly supporting the actions of their artists.

The new queen of pop, Izumi Sakai, and the old queen, Akina Nakamori, have released a new single together. The lyrics are bold and straightforward, and they almost call out Kitagawa Hide's name.

As soon as this song was released, it topped the Oricon charts for several days and had a huge influence, allowing many readers who had been kept in the dark to learn the truth.

The six major TV stations were not to be outdone, repeatedly broadcasting several TV dramas written by Kitagawa Hide.

The TV station and the foundation are closely connected, so it is not easy for them to blatantly broadcast works adapted from Kitagawa Hide's novels, but what's wrong with broadcasting "Tiga", "Tou Ai" and "Long Vacation"?
The screenwriter’s name isn’t even Kitagawa Hide!
Further down.

The Sumiyoshi-kai, a yakuza organization, also held an event in Kabukicho where those who supported Kitagawa Sensei would get free meals.

In this way, magical plots continue to be played out in various districts of Tokyo.

Sometimes it's quite outrageous that when one travels from Shinjuku Ward to Taito Ward, one can see two completely different views of Kitagawa Hide.

The newly appointed Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is well aware that this is a game concerning the Japanese literary market. All he can do is prevent the Ministry of Education and other official departments from causing trouble.

As for coming out to support Kitagawa Hide, that is also impossible.

If he really did that, the ending of Tomiichi Murayama would be his future ending.

At the same time, after many twists and turns, the Beichuan magazine, which serialized "Asakusa Red Group", was finally bought by readers who wanted to buy it. (End of this chapter)