I am a literary giant in Japan

In Japan, most people who enter politics start as local councilors, and the ultimate goal of these "ordinary people" who successfully become councilors is to become members of the Diet in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

This is the government position that Machimura Nobutaka now wants to give directly to Kitagawa Hide.

Kitagawa Hideya was shocked to hear that the future Speaker of the House of Representatives was going to give him a precious seat in Congress.

It’s not that he has any fear of Japanese parliamentarians, or the respect that ordinary citizens have for them.

But in Japan, the requirements for a person to become a member of parliament are extremely harsh.

How harsh can this condition be?

Someone once did a statistical analysis and found that among the members of parliament born in Japan over the years, there were only a handful of people who did not graduate from the Department of Political Science at the University of Tokyo. In the past hundred years, there may have been less than 20 people!
What’s even more outrageous is that as time goes by, the political circle’s requirements for members of parliament have even been narrowed down to the point that they must have graduated from a specific high school and from the Department of Political Science at the University of Tokyo!

This is because over the years of evolution, both the Senate and the House of Representatives have been basically monopolized by people who graduated from the University of Tokyo.

They formed a special family apart from the political families, using the school as their family background and only promoting their own fellow students.

For students who graduated from other schools with a degree in political science, no matter how capable you are, you are not allowed to join the ranks of parliamentarians!
Over time, the position of member of Congress has completely become a plaything in the hands of certain forces.

It just so happens that this group, whose number is neither too large nor too small, has an incredibly large say in Japanese politics!
This is also one of the reasons why even the Prime Minister's cabinet could not challenge them when the members of the previous parliament generally supported preferential treatment for the remnants of Aum Shinrikyo.

The shortest term for a member of the Japanese Diet is three years, while the longest term is for re-election. Anyone who understands knows how quickly the Japanese prime minister is replaced.

What can you use to compete with others in endurance?

If one wants to bypass the Dongdaemun clique and enter Congress, there are only two other ways.

Article 1: Take part in Japan's national examination and enter the ranks of members of parliament as a national civil servant.

But how difficult is Japan’s national exam?

In Japan, the Medical Qualification Examination and the Bar Examination are recognized as the two most difficult examinations.

The Japanese national examination is much more difficult than these.

It can be said that only the elite among the elite have the opportunity to stand out.

Article 2: “Celebrities” and “Owners of large companies”.

This "star" is not that "star", but refers specifically to a small group of people who have extremely high social reputation and status in Japan.

Including but not limited to presidents of top universities, leaders in a certain field, top scientific research talents, etc.

“Holders of large companies” are easy to understand. To put it bluntly, they are the helmsmen of the consortium.

Obviously, Kitagawa Hideo perfectly meets the criteria of being a "star".

Whether in terms of social status or social reputation, Machimura Nobutaka's support for Kitagawa Hide to enter the House of Representatives is in line with the needs and wishes of the people.

This is also the reason why he dared to so blatantly invite Kitagawa Hide, a non-party member, to attend the meeting.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for a 26-year-old young man, no matter how famous he is, to sit down and communicate with these top political men and women in their 50s and 60s.

After all, fame is fame. If it can only be converted into money but not into power, it is still not enough.

"Well, I have no intention of participating in politics. Even if I take a seat, it won't be of much help to you."

Kitagawa Hide was a little hesitant.

If Machimura Nobutaka wanted him to join the Liberal Democratic Party, or simply let him enter politics and mix with this group of people, Kitagawa Hide would definitely refuse at the first moment.

Because even if he didn't understand politics, he knew that after the millennium, Obuchi Keizo stepped down, and the Japanese prime ministers who succeeded him were less human than the last.

He has a wavering political stance, is incompetent, and likes to mess around.

Changing orders every day is a small matter. The key is that the situation changes every day and the prime minister changes every year.

This is not a question of whether you can stand on the right side or not. No matter who you stand on is right, you can be free and easy for a year or two at most. When the newcomers come to power, you can just wait for death!
Besides, Japanese politics is really boring.

As we all know, the Japanese have the American father above them. You can either be like the Koreans and lick them openly, and maybe you can still have fun.

Otherwise, you will be disgusted wherever you go and have no experience at all.

The reason why Kitagawa Hide hesitated is that he now has two little ones who are over one year old.

For them, their future life will be much smoother if their father has such status and position.

Including Mengzi and his important father-in-law and mother-in-law's family, they can also climb up with the help of this tiger skin.

After all, being a member of Congress does not mean you have to participate in politics. Many members of Congress do not even attend routine meetings. They are just figureheads who collect salaries for nothing, or use their official authority to take their companies to the next level.

As if he had read his doubts, Machimura Nobutaka quickly patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Kitagawa, we will never force you to do anything you don't want to do.

As for issues such as participating in politics and policy-making, you can rest assured that as a non-partisan member of the social group, you as a member of Congress do not need to participate in any party activities.

Of course, the rights you enjoy as a member of Congress will not be reduced in the slightest, such as special pardons, freedom of speech, and immunity, etc. ”

He really wanted Kitagawa Hide to understand that this was purely his act of "returning a favor".

If 1Q84 had not solved the profit problem of the subway and tram, he would never have been able to continue to stay in the Prime Minister's Cabinet, let alone become the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Maybe this was just a piece of cake for Mr. Kitagawa, but for him, it was the fulfillment of the long-cherished wish of countless generations of the Machimura family!

Now Kitagawa Hide understood.

The other party just wants me to collect a salary without doing anything and just get the status of a member of Congress for free.

"In that case, if you really don't have a better candidate, I can temporarily serve as a member of Congress.

Of course, I have said that I will not participate in any type of political activity."

Kitagawa Hide waved his hand and agreed "reluctantly".

"Thank you very much, thank you for your hard work!"

Machimura Nobutaka bowed three times in a row, with a very humble attitude, which made the other old men and women who were also politicians very uncomfortable.

They knew that this young man had completely revolutionized the Japanese literary world in just three years.

But so what?
After all, the literary world and the political world are two parallel worlds. Can the pen be greater than power?

As the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the future Speaker of the House of Representatives, he actually kowtowed to a 26-year-old young writer. How shameful!
In fact, Machimura Nobutaka knew better than anyone that it was very disrespectful to bow to someone much younger than himself in public.

But it’s better to be shameful than to completely lose your “lucky star”!
To be decent, one must also have decent qualifications.

These unruly old men and women will soon lose their dignity in this exchange meeting!

December 1998, 12. Cloudy with light rain.

The arrival of cold winter, coupled with the continuous winter rain, would have made many people unwilling to go out during this weekend.

But today is an exception.

"16Q1 (Official Version)", which was released on the 84th, completely took Japan by storm in just two days.

There has been endless discussions about what content the authorities deleted and why they deleted it, without stopping for even a second.

And the only answer was given by Mr. Beichuan on the evening of the 16th.

"Go check it out! I've written all my answers in the complete version of 1Q84!"

Just this one sentence made countless Japanese people brave the cold wind and winter rain, walk out of their warm homes, and stand quietly in the cold wind, waiting for the physical bookstores to open.

Readers who had pre-ordered physical books and magazines online had intended to wait for the books to arrive at home.

But when they saw one person after another running out to buy books, they felt itchy in their hearts.

The advantage of pre-ordering is that you don’t have to go out anymore, you can just wait at home and enjoy the joy that books bring you.

But the downside is that pre-ordered books are often delayed, and sometimes there are not enough delivery staff, so the books may take a day or two to reach your home.

This is different from the express delivery industry that is rampant in later generations.

Japan's express delivery industry started very late, and in the early days, especially in the 90s, it was basically unable to compete with the state-operated postal system.

The reason is that the labor cost in Japan is too high. If you want someone to deliver goods 996 or even 007, you have to pay a very high salary.

This goes against the core philosophy of the express delivery industry, which is to focus on exploiting delivery workers and customers.

It was not until Japan completely abolished the lifetime employment system and switched to a contract system that this industry quietly rose.

So when I saw that I had been waiting for a long time to get the books I had pre-ordered, my neighbors happily bought the December issue of "Wenyi" and "12Q1 (complete edition)" from the bookstore.

Those readers could no longer hold back and ran out of their homes to buy the same books in physical bookstores.

These things were actually part of Kitagawa Hide's plan.

So when he explained this logic clearly, Shizuko Kawaide and Rena Saito readily agreed to the proposal to release the two books at the same time.

Otherwise, for Kitagawa Hide's personal interests, they would rather put "1Q84 (full version)" on the shelves first, even if it affects the sales of "Wenyi" so as not to let Kitagawa Hide suffer.

During this process, the two men, who were still a little skeptical, worked overtime in the company, and asked the employees in the data department to report the sales of magazines and physical books in the Tokyo area at all times. Only after confirming that Kitagawa Hide's speculation was correct did they feel relieved.

If his speculation was wrong, Shizuko Kawaide would directly hide it from Hide Kitagawa, and with a wave of her hand, suspend the printing and sale of "Wenyi" and let "1Q84 (full version)" take up the traffic first.

"Mr. Beichuan's judgment is always so accurate."

Shizuko Kawaide had been devastated by these things.

The last thing Kitagawa Hide asked her to pay attention to was the rise of light novel publishers such as Dengeki Bunko.

As the heiress of an entertainment consortium who grew up watching the changes in the publishing industry, it is difficult for Shizuko Kawaide to break out of the limitations of her own thinking and admit that such things will gradually replace pure literature and popular literature.

The same is true for Rena Saito.

After that, the two of them didn't take it seriously, nor did they pay much attention to Dengeki Bunko.

It was not until "Kino's Journey" became a hit that Shizuko Kawaide realized the seriousness of the problem.

Fortunately, this time "1Q84" made Shigure Ze Hui an implicated person, and the aftermath of public opinion almost caused the still relatively weak Dengeki Bunko to perish.

After Kitagawa Hide took action to solve the problem, Dengeki Bunko took the opportunity to sign a mutually beneficial contract with Kitagawa Entertainment and Kawaide Shobo.

In a sense, it helped He Chu Shufang to kill a future super competitor.

But Shizuko Kawaide knew very well that this was just Kitagawa Hide's way of helping her make up for her loss.

If she had realized these things a little earlier, she could have used her huge capital to invest in Dengeki Bunko when it was still very weak, and the now popular "Kino's Journey" would have become a pioneer of Kawaide Shobo in the light novel industry.

Now, Dengeki Bunko is only dependent on them but not truly controlled by them.

Inspired by this, Shizuko Kawaide and Rena Saito looked at each other, and then shifted their focus back to "1Q84 (Complete Edition)".

Due to those special reasons, neither of them watched the full version.

In order to maintain freshness and curiosity, the two did not let Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko spoil the plot.

I have been waiting until now and finally have the free time to read a book.

"Reina, give me a physical book too." Shizuko Kawaide glanced at the even thicker "Literature" and instantly lost the desire to open it.

The two smiled at each other, and Saito Reina immediately handed her a torn physical book.

Afterwards, there was no more conversation in the president's office, only the light breathing of the two women and the sound of turning pages.

The entire preface and introduction were deleted!

When Saito Rena saw the preface and foreword written by Kitagawa Hide, she was stunned for a moment.

"I cannot accept that the remnants of the Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack are not being sentenced to death."

Such a powerful statement!
Kitagawa Hide rarely makes extreme remarks on current political topics.

After all, his social status and literary status are there, and countless eyes are staring at him, forcing him to accept the constraints of the public.

The rare times when Beichuan made violent remarks were basically because he was extremely angry and no longer considered the consequences.

For example, the initial anti-war literature, the later Drunkard Rose murder case, and the Aum Shinrikyo issue.

These are things that touch Kitagawa Hide's bottom line, and he will definitely not turn a blind eye to them.

"Why do these people make Kitagawa so angry?" Saito Rena continued reading.

There are a lot of deleted interview transcripts in the preface. As these contents are made public one by one, Kitagawa Hide's mental journey is gradually revealed in full.

It is heartbreaking to see the victims suffering so miserably while the perpetrators are enjoying a life of luxury in prison with no sign of remorse.

Saito Reina's fingers turned blue from pinching the pages of the book!
What a death!

It's a good death indeed! (End of this chapter)