Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 47 A Small Contribution

After discussing the company's future plans, Takeshita Masato looked at Taniguchi Tomoshin who had remained silent and said, "President Taniguchi, the New Year is just over a month away. How do you think we should distribute this year's year-end bonus?"

Tomoshin Taniguchi is one of the two board members sent by Industrial Bank to Matsumoto Manufacturing, where he serves as vice president and is responsible for the public relations business of Matsumoto Manufacturing.

"Our company has made good profits this year, so I think we can give you a little more half-year bonus. How about three months' salary?"

"Three months' salary? Sure, let's decide."

Masato Takeshita originally thought that the three-month year-end bonus was a bit too little, but he realized at the end that Japan's year-end bonus model is different from that of China. Japan pays out bonuses every six months, not once a year.

Since it is a half-year bonus, it is indeed appropriate to pay three months' salary.

Not too much, not too little.

"Manager Watanabe, do you have any plans regarding gifts?"

Watanabe Tai was also a member of the board of directors of Matsumoto Manufacturing, who was assigned by Industrial Bank. After several job adjustments, he replaced Shinji Miyamoto who went to the security department and was responsible for the company's lucrative logistics business.

This is also Masato Takeshita's way of checking and balancing power. Those with high positions have less important business to handle, while those who are responsible for important business have less high positions.

He couldn't leave any opportunity for Industrial Bank to exploit any loopholes.

"As usual, we distributed some shopping cards, as well as rice, noodles, meat and seafood."

"I see. Then, we can import seafood from China. For the same price, we can buy more seafood of better quality there."

The price of seafood in Japan is very expensive, it is better to import it from China.

The same pound of shrimp costs at most 100 yen in China, but at least several thousand yen in Japan. Even if you deduct the loss, it is still super cheap in China.

"Is this possible?"

"Of course you can, let's do it."

Although Masato Takeshita is a Japanese in this life, he was a Chinese in his previous life. Since China is now in great need of foreign exchange, he is willing to make a small contribution to his motherland in his previous life.

"Rice, flour, meat and eggs, are you going there to buy them too?"

"No, seafood will do." Masato Takeshita thought about it, shook his head and gave up this option.

Seafood is consumable. If it is not refrigerated after one or two days out of the water, many seafood will die and stink. With China's current transportation system, it is impossible to consume the seafood caught along the coast.

Rice, flour, meat and eggs are different, these things can be stored for a long time. If Takeshita Masato buys them, he is simply stealing food from his compatriots in his previous life.

"Yes, President, I will arrange it after the meeting."

"Well, the seafood there is very cheap and the quality is better than here, remember to buy more."

Although China now has a certain industrial base, the pollution in its coastal areas is not serious, and the quality of its seafood is much higher than most products from Japanese waters.

If another ten years pass, the water quality there will also become very bad. If you want to eat the best quality seafood, you can only buy seafood from Russia.

"Yes!"

Soon, the content of today's meeting reached the ears of the employees.

"Have you heard? Our half-year bonus this year is three months' salary, and there are many additional benefits."

"I know. I heard they're going to give out seafood. That's great." "Yes, that's great. The company is doing well, and our salaries are also going up."

At this time, Shigeo Kawashima, who was also in charge of the inspection, said worriedly: "But I heard that all the seafood is from China. I don't know what the quality is like."

In response, Ishiba Keizo, who was the first to talk about the half-year award, said nonchalantly: "Even if the quality is poor, it is definitely better than our domestic products. There are many pristine places over there, unlike us where there is pollution everywhere."

Another colleague, Sanae Kamikawa, agrees: "Indeed, I don't dare eat seafood from anywhere other than Hokkaido and Akita."

Before the 80s, there were mass deaths caused by environmental pollution in many parts of Japan. The most well-known was the Minamata disease incident that shocked the world, followed by osteomalacia, asthma, and rice bran oil incidents.

This is the price that must be paid for industrial development.

Whether it is the old capitalist countries such as Britain and France, or the newly emerging Germany and the United States, they all have cruel environmental pollution problems.

The most well-known is the London smog incident, which caused thousands of deaths. Another example is the Great Lakes in North America, where the freshwater fish in the lakes are inedible because of excessive levels of heavy metals.

A similar situation will occur in China in the near future.

There is no way, everyone knows that pollution first and then governance requires a huge price. But if you don't go through the step of pollution, then you will never develop.

Unless you are gifted with a huge amount of resources that other countries cannot do without, such as the oil countries in the Middle East, or the various minerals in Australia. Or, you have a superior geographical location and a small population.

A typical example of this is Singapore.

Singapore is located on the Strait of Malacca and is a relatively small country. Even if it does not work hard and only collects port tolls, it can still develop into a developed economy.

"That makes sense. I heard that it's very pristine there, and the quality of the seafood there is indeed better."

"Tell me, why does the company only buy seafood there? It would be great if other things were also there. I heard that the food produced in China is of very high quality, and the meat is not even fed with feed."

"It's probably because of transportation. For things like beef, it's obviously more convenient to get them from South America and Australia."

"Yeah. I hope I can have a chance to eat pork and beef from there that are not fed with feed."

"There will be a chance."

The employees were talking about it, and Watanabe Tai began to communicate with the Chinese side.

He carefully selected several times and finally decided to buy seafood from Fujian and Zhejiang. There is no industrial pollution around the Bohai Sea and near Shanghai, so the quality of seafood is better.

In addition, seafood is cheaper here as it is far away from the consumer market.

After learning everything, Watanabe Tai came to the president's office and said, "President, if we buy from China, the tariffs may be very high."

"It doesn't matter. The price is cheap anyway. Even if the tariff is increased to more than 100%, it won't be much more expensive."

Japan has a very strict protection system for its own agricultural products, and imposes huge tariffs on anything that can be produced domestically. Therefore, the cheapest fruit in Japan is usually bananas.

But even so, there are still a lot of temperate agricultural products imported from China to Japan every year. It's not that Japanese products are not delicious, but that Chinese agricultural products are too cost-effective.

Whether it is seafood or vegetables, even if huge tariffs are imposed, they are still much cheaper than those produced in Japan.

However, the Japanese have been influenced by public opinion in later generations, and they believe that their products are more expensive because they are of better quality. Unlike now, many people know the real situation and do not believe in public opinion at all.

(End of this chapter)