Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 288 Misfortunes never come singly
“Private Marseille!”

On August 1992, 8, a silver-haired, square-faced old man wearing an ordinary suit bowed and apologized in front of numerous media.

Hearing the old man's lost tone, the reporters immediately realized that something big was about to happen.

Everyone tried hard to squeeze forward and kept asking the questions they wanted to ask.

"I wonder if you personally instructed your secretary to give the 5 million bribe?"

"Was the Sagawa Express issue your own request?"

"Watanabe Hiroyasu admitted that he gave your secretary 5 million. Where did the money go?"

……

Faced with reporters' overwhelming inquiries and countless flashes of light.

The vice president, standing in front of the LDP building, admitted through gritted teeth.

"I did accept some political donations, and today I learned that those funds were illegal and violated political ethics."

"For this reason, I announce that I will resign from all political positions and completely withdraw from politics."

"But what I want to say is that I, Kanemaru Shin, have never embezzled anything. Part of the 5 million political funds was used for elections, and part was distributed to other members of parliament. I have not used a single cent for my own personal use."

After saying this, Kanemaru Nobuyuki no longer accepted media interviews and left Nagatacho, where he had fought all his life.

"It's interesting that the political career of a generation of black gold godfather ended so absurdly and briefly."

Kanamaru Shin is the second most important figure in the Takeshita faction, the largest faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, second only to Takeshita Noboru.

And after Takeshita Noboru was embarrassed in the Recruit case, he became the number one.

The current Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa reached the pinnacle with his strong support.

In return for this, Miyazawa Kiichi appointed him as the vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party, with full authority to handle all matters within the party.

However, such a heavyweight figure was able to completely withdraw from politics for a mere 5 million yen.

All I can say is that the political drama in Japan during this period is far more interesting than the economy.

Soon, the truth surfaced.

It turns out that not only Michio Watanabe and Hiroshi Mizuka, who opposed Kiichi Miyazawa's appointment as prime minister, wanted to exclude him from the system, but there were also voices of dissatisfaction within the Takeshita faction.

When Kanamaru Shin wanted to pass his position as chairman of the Takeshita faction to Ichiro Ozawa, he was immediately met with implicit opposition from Takeshita Noboru.

Yes, you are not mistaken.

Takeshita Noboru was not content to remain hidden behind the scenes, and he wanted to be prime minister for the second time. Therefore, he signaled to the group of people he could influence to choose his beloved disciple Obuchi Keizo to take the throne.

The boss is the boss, and Keizo Obuchi was successfully elected as the chairman of the Takeshita faction.

"It looks like the Takeshita faction is about to split. And it really should, since they are too strong."

Having suffered such a great injustice, it was only a matter of time for Ichiro Ozawa, the troublemaker of Japanese politics, to leave the Takeshita faction.

I just don't know how many people I can take away in this life, and whether I will make Takeshita Noboru angry and end up in the hospital.

After dealing with the big political scandals in recent period, Masato Takeshita turned his attention back to the economy.

There is not much to say about our own group. Affected by the overall market environment, the development of domestic business is indeed very average.

Businesses such as trolley suitcases have even experienced a certain degree of decline.

But the situation abroad is completely different. Even the trolley suitcase business makes more money by relying on high patent fees.

Electronic manufacturing companies such as Sony, Panasonic, and NEC have also achieved record revenue and profits as the international market environment continues to improve.

However, due to the overall market environment in Japan, the stock price did not increase much.

The previous bubble period inflated the prices too high, filling up all the expectations.

"President, this is our group's report on the total number of planned campus recruitments this year."

Keiko Sakai knew that her president attached great importance to campus recruitment in recent years, so she collected relevant data again and again.

"Xinghai Technology is not doing well. Its subsidiary Xinghai Wafer is still being conservative and hiring another 1500 engineers. Xinghai Chips is also a bit short, so we will add 800 R&D personnel..."

"The same goes for Xinghai Life. Didn't they ask him to change the two-shift system to a three-shift system? Matsumoto Manufacturing can definitely add another 5000 employees, and Xinghai Food can also add 2000 jobs..."

“It’s not a good idea for Xinghai Entertainment and Xinghai Investment to hire too many people, but we must try to increase the number of staff.”

……

“When society is in trouble, we must remember to give back to the country.”

After saying a few words, not sure whether they were addressed to himself or to the Secretary-General, the young man seemed to see the essence of the world more clearly.

Since you were born in Japan, you must remember to give back.

If you do not establish a firm foundation in your own country, no matter how good you are to your motherland in your previous life, you will soon come to an end.

People are looked down upon when they leave their hometown, and there is always a thick barrier between the two sides.

"Hey, please rest assured, President. I will explain everything clearly."

Keiko Sakai was deeply moved and thought that this was the kind of person she should follow as a president who had a strong sense of family and country.

Seeing his secretary's sudden enthusiasm, Masato Takeshita felt a little puzzled and waved his hand.

"Okay, let's get down!"

"Hi!"

Sakai Keiko left the president's office full of fighting spirit, while the young man felt a little disappointed and sad for the college students who were about to graduate.

1993 marked the beginning of Japan’s more than a decade-long employment ice age for university graduates.

This year, about a quarter of college students in Japan could not find suitable jobs.

But even this is already considered good data.

The situation will be even more cruel in a few years, when the employment rate of college graduates will rarely reach 60%.

"There is only so much I can do. I hope I can help more students who are unemployed after graduation."

Masato Takeshita did a simple calculation.

Xinghai Group has already recruited more than 2 additional employees, including more than 8000 college graduates, and the salary expenditure alone will be more than 1000 billion yuan.

This is because you have just entered the workplace and the salary levels are relatively low. In a few years, it is estimated that they will at least double.

The salary is so high, and if you take into account all the miscellaneous projects, it’s no wonder that people are reluctant to recruit college graduates.

Masato Takeshita has now done everything he can, and the remaining unemployed graduates can only leave it to fate.

At most, he would recruit as many employees as possible under the pretext of improving everyone's working environment and creating a more relaxed working atmosphere.

For example, the Matsumoto manufacturing workshop used to operate in two shifts, but now it has been changed to three shifts.

But I dare not recruit a bunch of freeloaders.

That will only hurt others and yourself.

Why do others have so little work but their salary is slightly lower than mine?
Over time, people's morale will fade and the company will eventually disband even if it is heading in the right direction.

In fact, by the second half of 1992, even the most carefree Japanese realized that there were big problems with Japan's economy.

The previous world of feasting and revelry may be long gone.

The popular Juliana Ballroom gradually became less crowded, and the voices praising prosperity on TV also disappeared silently.

However, at this most severe time for Japan's economy, serious internal strife was also taking place in Nagatacho, Tokyo.

The Takeshita faction, the largest faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, is arguing endlessly between the faction that supports Ozawa and the faction that opposes Ozawa.

As a result, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, who was supported by the Takeshita faction to take power, also began to lose his position.

The internal strife among various forces has made it difficult for Japan to concentrate all its efforts to resolve this unprecedented economic disaster.

One day in October, Takeshita Masato took Haneda Ichiro out for dinner and chat again. "Why, do you feel strange seeing me?"

“No, no.” Haneda Ichiro shook his head and said embarrassedly: “It’s your political investor and the one above me…”

The young man interrupted his friend and looked up indifferently, "What does their political affairs have to do with the two of us? You don't think that I only invest in Senior Obuchi and not in Mr. Ozawa, do you?"

"Besides, I actively support Senior Takeshita Noboru's Takeshita faction, but didn't I also go to see Mr. Kakuei Tanaka who was backstabbed by my senior?"

As early as March this year, he formally visited Kakuei Tanaka.

We didn't talk too much, just chatting about family matters.

Anyway, when they leave, the young people will invest in building more factories in Niigata.

If for no other reason, it is simply because they do not want the neutral forces in Japanese politics to be reduced too much.

"It doesn't matter at all, okay?"

Keizo Obuchi is indeed the number one target for youth investment. After all, they are from the same school and can get together more easily.

But Ichiro Ozawa is a big devil in Japanese politics, so naturally he also needs to invest.

Not to mention becoming his confidant, at least try not to offend him.

"I did not mean that."

"Okay, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not, let's go."

While waiting for the food to be served, the young man could not help but ask, "Is Ozawa-san already at loggerheads with Oyuan-san?"

"Well, my uncle's attitude is very wrong anyway."

Ichiro Haneda's uncle is Tsutomu Haneda, who had the second shortest term in office in post-war Japan. He and Ichiro Ozawa were close friends.

Unfortunately, due to his limited abilities and the fact that he came to power during a chaotic period, he could only be a short-lived prime minister.

However, it was during the chaotic times that he could rise to the top, and at other times it would definitely be Ichiro Ozawa who would have risen to the top.

After all, anyone with political ambitions hopes to be a long-lived prime minister.

"This is politics. A few days ago, they were close, but a few days later, they were fighting. Who knows, at some point, the two sides will have in-depth cooperation again."

The spectrum of political factions in Japan is not that obvious. It is easy for politicians to jump back and forth, stabbing someone in the back today and asking for forgiveness tomorrow, and they still have the opportunity to rise to a high position.

For example, Yasuhiro Nakasone sometimes favored Kakuei Tanaka and sometimes Fukuda Keizo, and in the end he also served as prime minister for several years.

"Yeah, politicians are dirtier than banks."

"I guess not. It's about the same."

Politics and finance, one involves power and the other involves profit, there are always endless dark stories to tell.

The internal intrigue and corruption are also shocking.

After chatting about political gossip for a while, Masato Takeshita asked casually: "Japan's economy is so bad now, do you have any real estate or stocks?"

"There are still some, but the loss is not much."

"Since there aren't many, it doesn't matter. But if the stocks are in a bad industry, it's better to sell them."

Masato Takeshita originally wanted to advise his friends to sell their stocks as soon as possible, but who knew whether the stocks they bought would rise in value.

After all, no matter how bad the market environment is, there will always be many stocks that go against the trend.

For example, Sony reached its peak market value after 2000.

"Don't worry, the ones I have left are all stocks of big companies."

"That's good."

Ichiro Haneda is smart and knows that he cannot beat the top financial traders.

So when the newspapers reported on the withdrawal of Xinghai Group on a large scale, he didn't care that the stock had depreciated and simply followed suit and withdrew.

As it turned out, he ended up making a lot of yen.

Unlike those guys who refused to let go and lost everything.

At this time, Masato Takeshita suddenly thought of Subaru cars.

“By the way, how is your bank doing this year?”

"It's not very good. There are a lot of bad debts from companies and individuals."

Since last year, Japanese banks have been saddled with a large amount of bad debts.

This year is even worse.

Because in the past two years, many companies have blindly expanded production, but the products they produced could not be sold, resulting in a serious inventory backlog.

Countless companies are heavily in debt and are waiting for the state to rescue them.

The country has to be saved because the average Japanese person carries an average annual salary debt of 4.9 years. That is, even if the Japanese do not eat or drink, they will have to work for 4.9 years to be debt-free.

If the state does not rescue bankrupt enterprises, once workers lose their jobs and have no wages, banks will have even more bad debts.

"Oh, then I wonder if your company has sold any decent businesses."

"Hey, do you have a target in mind?"

"Well, there are some goals."

Japan implemented the main bank system after the war, and national law stipulated that each company could only borrow from one or several banks.

Banks took advantage of this opportunity to own a large amount of company shares.

Subaru was once blocked by Industrial Bank in lending, and had no choice but to lose 40% of its shares.

Later, due to policy changes, the Japanese government encouraged large automakers to merge with small ones. The 40% Subaru shares held by Industrial Bank were reduced to 20%, and the rest were forced to be sold to Nissan.

Youngman wanted to first buy out the 20% of Xingye, then the 20% of Nissan, and then repurchase a portion of it from shareholders to increase the share to 51%. After that, it would inject capital to continue the reshuffle and strive to increase the share to more than 70%.

In this way, it won’t be long before Subaru becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xinghai Group.

The Nissan part is relatively simple because Nissan has an ambitious car manufacturing plan and wants to surpass Toyota and return to number one in Japan.

A small brand like Subaru that doesn't make much money can just be sold.

Yes, Subaru is a small brand.

Although Subaru's market value is similar to Nissan's in later generations, in fact, the two are not at the same level at all.

Especially in the 90s, Subaru's annual sales did not exceed 50 units, which was even more embarrassing.

Nissan doesn't care whether Subaru is good or bad, and it just wants to disgust its former nightmare, Industrial Bank.

Yes, it's a nightmare.

Not only Nissan, banks have been the nightmare of every car company.

Fortunately, Japanese cars are sold all over the world thanks to globalization, otherwise they would have to bow down to the banks.

What a sour and refreshing feeling.

"Oh, can you tell me about it?"

Ichiro Haneda leaned forward, covered his cheek with his left hand, and pretended to listen carefully.

"This is just my idea for now, and I haven't told anyone yet."

Masato Takeshita didn't want to leak the secret now as it was a bit early.

He would wait until Industrial Bank took the initiative to sell its assets and then buy them at a more reasonable price.

Anyway, Subaru is still far away from its heyday in the 90s, and it is still another 21 years away from its heyday in the st century, so there is no need to rush.

(End of this chapter)