Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 284: A Nation Rises in Times of Hardship
Just as Xinghai Group was undergoing a large-scale restructuring, blood and tears were once again shed on the other side of the sea.

The weather in the Yangtze River Basin was abnormal at the turn of spring and summer this year. From mid-May to early July, it rained almost continuously.

Flooding problems occurred in 18 provinces and cities, and 5 provinces and cities suffered from flooding.

Among them, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, which were hit hardest by the floods, had more than 4000 million people affected.

Millions of people were displaced, and the land on both sides of the Huai River was covered with makeshift tents as far as the eye could see.

After intense discussions, the central government finally decided to seek help from the international community.

"Notify the company's financial department that Xinghai Group will donate $5 million. In addition, I will personally donate another $2 million."

As early as when the flood just broke out, Masato Takeshita ordered the China branch of Xinghai Food to donate all profits in the first half of this year.

The factory also arranged for large trucks to help transport its own instant noodles and mineral water, as well as medicines, iodine and other supplies produced by pharmaceutical companies.

But these are far from enough to satisfy the young people's desire to do more.

"This……"

Keiko Sakai was dumbfounded and couldn't believe the number.

The group has $5 million and the individual has $2 million. What does this mean?
Not to mention 1991, even 30 years later in 2021, it is still a huge number.

If this money is used to buy Microsoft stock, it could even turn into hundreds of billions of dollars in 30 years.

It is equivalent to 1991 thousandths of China's GDP in 1.8. Even in later generations, there are rarely disaster relief donations of such scale.

She was very worried that once the numbers were exposed, there would be backlash from public opinion in her country.

Their own country did not make such large-scale donations, but instead donated so much to foreign countries.

"Don't worry about those insects. We need to take a long-term view."

Most Chinese people know how to be grateful and remember every dollar spent on donations.

Even if we consider it purely from the perspective of profit, this donation will soon be returned to the young people in other forms.

"Hi, I'll go inform the company's financial director right away."

"Well, it has to be fast."

When Masato Takeshita thought of the millions of disaster victims who lost everything, he felt a dull pain in his heart.

He hopes that the two sums of money can arrive earlier so that the issue of resettlement of disaster victims can be resolved as soon as possible.

"Hi!"

Masato Takeshita personally supervised it, so the remittance was completed quickly.

After completing the donation, the young man felt better, but this caused panic among the Chinese employees who were responsible for counting the donations.

They counted the numbers above over and over again, and couldn't believe that what they saw was real.

Could it be that I mistakenly counted an 8-digit number as a 9-digit number, or was it because I was hallucinating from working overtime?
More than a dozen people checked it dozens of times before they believed what they saw. Xinghai Group and Takeshita Masato donated $5 million and $2 million respectively.

Faced with such a huge number, the officials in charge of statistics were unable to make a decision and immediately chose to report it.

Finally, the matter was reported to higher levels and even alarmed the leaders.

"Oh, is it Takeshita-kun?"

The leader had a very good impression of the young man, and when he knew that the donation came from Xinghai Group and Masato Takeshita, he realized that something could not be wrong.

But considering that the amount of the donation was indeed too huge, he still called the young man's private mobile phone number.

"Hello, leader. Do you want to ask me about donations?"

The two had spoken several times, and the young man had already noted the number. Therefore, he immediately knew who was on the other end, and his tone became respectful.

"The numbers are correct, that's it."

"Please rest assured, it will not affect the company's operations."

"Yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter. We are neighbors separated by a strip of water, and we should help each other."

"No problem, I'll find time to go there in the second half of the year."

"Okay, bye!"

After hanging up the phone, Masato Takeshita leaned back happily.

"Hehe, I didn't expect that such a huge donation could shock the leader. This wave is not a loss."

Japan's domestic market is small and will sooner or later give way to China.

Especially for electronic products such as mobile phones and computers that Xinghai Group is planning to vigorously develop, China is the largest market.

It can be said that whoever can occupy a place in the Chinese market in the future will have more development opportunities.

Soon, the news of the donation of 7 million US dollars appeared on a news channel.

Xinghai Group and Masato Takeshita had a grand appearance in front of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

At this time, an ordinary urban elderly man who was watching TV at home couldn't help but praise it.

"This company is great. They donated so much money. Hundreds of millions. How long will it take?"

The son, who was also watching TV, interrupted and explained, "Dad, it should be billions. These are US dollars."

"It's all the same, it's all the same. I can't spend it all anyway."

"Yeah, indeed."

For most people, when the number exceeds 100 million, it makes no difference whether it is US dollars or RMB. This is an astronomical amount that ordinary people cannot earn in their entire lives.

There were those who praised and complimented, but naturally there were also those whose attitudes were not so friendly due to historical issues.

"Humph, donating so much money, it's obvious that the Japanese have bad intentions."

"That's right, the weasel is wishing you a happy new year."

"It's nothing. They are using real money, and donating to disaster relief. There's no need to think too much of it."

"Humph, what do you know? I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice. There must be something wrong with the Japs, it just hasn't been exposed yet. You're just a mouthful and can't do anything. Go away, get out of my way."

Faced with the old man with a bad temper and the middle-aged woman who occasionally responded in a fawning manner, the middle-aged man had no choice but to go out for a walk.

There was no way. One was his father and the other was his sister, neither of them could he afford to offend.

of course,

Even those who thought that the young man was a weasel paying New Year's greetings found Masato Takeshita more pleasing to the eye than other Japanese.

Although it did not achieve the maximum effect, it did slightly improve the image.

The extremely large donation amount caused a huge sensation in China and Japan as well.

"Companies donated 700 billion yuan, individuals donated 138 billion yuan, Xinghai Group set a record in donations to China's flood relief";
"Together to build Asia's glory, President Masato Takeshita and Xinghai Group donated 800 billion";
"There is true love in the world, Xinghai Group donated nearly 100 billion to help disaster victims"...

Although many media and journalists were dissatisfied with Xinghai Group's huge donation, and even hinted in their content that more donations should be given to disaster victims in their own country, no media dared to openly oppose the donation.

Because humanitarian aid is politically correct at all times.

Of course, the development of the Internet has changed this.

Countless networks have clearly opposed humanitarian aid for various reasons.

However, even so, no official media dared to oppose humanitarian aid.

This is also the biggest reason why young people dare to make such a large donation.

However, the official government needs political correctness, but the public does not.

Although the vast majority of Japanese people, like in China, hold a favorable attitude, there are also a small number of extremists who denounce the Xinghai Group as traitors. "Baka, the Xinghai Group is simply a disgrace to the Empire of Japan, and Takeshita is also a traitor to the Empire."

"Damn guy."

"Humph, the empire has parasites like the Xinghai Group, which is why the real estate market is falling."

"So much money is being given away to foreign countries for nothing, what a shame."

The young man doesn't care about all these disturbances.

After all, it was the early 1990s, and China and Japan were still in their honeymoon period. Both the official and private sectors had a better impression of each other.

It was precisely with the support of such strong friendly forces among the people that the two countries were able to reach a series of friendly statements in the 1990s.

Unfortunately, everything was ruined in the 21st century by that damn guy.

But with Masato Takeshita in this life, the outcome must change.

"President, there are a lot of noises in society. Do you need to clarify?"

As the young man's assistant, Sakai Keiko couldn't stand outsiders belittling her own president. The president obviously made a lot of donations in his own country, so why didn't anyone go to see it?

"Well, notify the Asahi Shimbun and make a list of the donations made by me and my company in our country."

The young man does have his homeland in his heart, but he also needs to keep his feet on the ground. Japan is now his base camp, so naturally he has to put it first.

So in recent years, whenever a disaster occurs in Japan, he will make a donation.

Each amount may not be much, but when added together it is definitely more than 7 million US dollars.

The main reason is that the original Xinghai Investment is now too profitable for Xinghai Capital, so a sum of money must be paid out as a token of investment.

When financial tycoons such as Soros set up foundations in later generations, they were essentially trading tokens. They spent a sum of money to help the US government do something that it could not do without restraint.

As Asahi Shimbun continued to report on the Xinghai Group, everyone realized that Masato Takeshita had donated so many assets.

In just over five years, he has donated over $5 billion in assets.

The news immediately shocked the whole of Japan again.

What is the King of Charity?
Understood, applause.

At the same time, news of Xinghai Group's donation spread around the world with reports from the American and British media.

Many people have a vague impression of Xinghai Group and know that it is a large company that likes to donate money.

"I heard that Street Fighter 2 was developed by this company. I have to support charity now."

"Oh, really? It's my favorite Street Fighter creation company?"

"That's right, let's go and support charity together."

"OK, cool!"

How to better promote your company among young people? Combining games and charity is a good idea.

One was scolded as a playboy and a loser, the other was praised as a gentleman and a kind person. The combination of the two immediately produced a twisted pleasure.

Even if young people don’t care about charity, they will find it very interesting.

To this end, Xinghai Group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars thinking of publicity methods and tens of millions of dollars on invisible dissemination.

The effect is very good. Playing Street Fighter is like doing charity. It has even become a catchphrase among young people to joke with each other.

Xinghai Group also took this opportunity to strengthen its brand capabilities in the United States, with results even better than Xinghai mobile phones.

"Very good. Where did Gerstner find this publicity genius?"

"It's an advertising company. That employee has now been hired by our North American branch."

"Very good, that's the way it should be. We must act quickly when we find talented people."

Doing charity is important, and using the opportunity of doing charity to promote the company is important, but the most important thing is always what is inside the company.

Therefore, after Masato Takeshita simply praised it a few words, he shifted the topic to the current Xinghai Technology.

"Is the company's restructuring going smoothly? What stage has it reached?"

"So far, everything is going smoothly and no major problems have occurred. It is expected that the initial adjustments can be completed after the summer vacation."

Reality is not a game. You can't just give an order and have it adjusted right away. It requires coordination and compromise from multiple parties.

Therefore, even with guidelines, it will take half a year to complete.

This is also the result of the fact that Xinghai Group was established not long ago and no strong interest groups have been formed within it.

If it were a century-old store, it might not be able to turn around even in two years.

"Yes, take your time. Xinghai Technology is huge, so don't make any mistakes."

"Understood. Please rest assured, President."

Lou Gerstner was very confident about this kind of work and felt that he was born to do restructuring.

After Lou Gerstner left, Hiroaki Kobayashi came to the office soon.

"How's the reorganization going?"

"It's almost done, and we're putting the final touches on it."

Relatively speaking, the reorganization of Xinghai Life was simpler. The only large-scale business in the company was Songben Manufacturing. Later, Xinghai Food and Xinghai Clothing also needed transfusions from the company.

However, the latter two will soon experience leapfrog development, and the value of Xinghai Food and Xinghai Clothing will surpass that of Matsumoto Manufacturing.

"You're very fast, you're worthy of being the sales king of Xinghai Group. But you must pay attention to the quality issues and there must be no mistakes."

"Food companies in particular should pay more attention to safety and quality issues."

“Safety and hygiene in the food industry are always the most important things.”

What the young man knew, Kobayashi Hiroaki also knew.

However, compared with Masato Takeshita's extremely strict attitude, Hiroaki Kobayashi is still a little lazy.

After all, companies in China that have major food problems will basically go out of business.

A typical case is Sanlu milk powder, the entire company went bankrupt.

In Japan, these are not a big deal. Morinaga has had several food accidents, but in the end, they were only fined.

Masato Takeshita noticed this and emphasized it again seriously.

"Major food safety issues must be equated with company bankruptcy. Xinghai Foods has a relatively shallow foundation and does not have that many political resources to exchange."

"Hey, I see."

Kobayashi Hiroaki quickly realized that something was not right and quickly assured the young man.

Xinghai Food will become the company with the strictest management and do its utmost to avoid problems.

Compared with the two large companies mentioned above, Xinghai Capital completed the reform early.

Several people even discussed a more reasonable plan, which was to separate the company's asset management projects out instead of mixing them together with other projects like a hodgepodge.

Masato Takeshita naturally agreed, because he had already planned this. It was just that the other projects were relatively weak, so he chose to put them under Xinghai Assets.

After reorganization, Xinghai Asset became a pure asset management company, similar to BlackRock Capital.

The remaining miscellaneous projects were added to the newly established Xinghai Finance.

(End of this chapter)