Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 50 Happy conversation
Tokyo is not far from Tokushima Prefecture, and it only takes more than an hour by plane.

However, Anan City, where Nichia Chemical is located, is not near the airport. If you take the airport bus, you will need to transfer at Tokushima Station, and it will take about an hour to get to Anan City.

Nichia Chemical already knew that Masato Takeshita was coming, so they would not let them take the bus. Nobuo Ogawa and other company executives drove to Awa Airport early.

This is the only airport in Tokushima Prefecture and is a dual-use military and civilian airport.

The moment Masato Takeshita got off the plane, he noticed an old man surrounded by several middle-aged people, and quickly walked up to him and greeted him politely: "Hello, I am Masato Takeshita from Matsumoto Manufacturing. Excuse me, sir, are you President Nobuo Ogawa?"

"Hello, President Takeshita, my name is Nobuo Ogawa. You are indeed the genius who invented the trolley suitcase. You are truly a young and promising genius."

Nobuo Ogawa, with a head full of white hair, a resolute expression, and full of the simplicity of an ordinary worker, looks with some envy at the young president in front of him who wants to acquire his company.

I am old and no longer as young and vigorous as before. I don't know whether my decision to give up the controlling stake in the company was right or wrong.

"No, President Ogawa is a true genius. He was able to found a company in Tokushima Prefecture that is as good as Matsumoto Manufacturing."

Tokushima Prefecture is one of the least wealthy prefectures in Japan, mainly relying on agriculture and fisheries. If it weren't for Nichia Chemical, Masato Takeshita might never have come here in his life.

"President Takeshita is exaggerating. Our company is just a small one and cannot be compared with Matsumoto Manufacturing at all."

Nobuo Ogawa did not dare to respond to Masato Takeshita's words at all. Matsumoto Manufacturing is now in its heyday, famous in Japan for its trolley suitcases, and has more than 6000 employees.

On the other hand, Nichia Chemical is a nobody in Japan. The entire company has only about 100 people, which is probably less than the number of people in an ordinary workshop of Matsumoto Manufacturing.

"No, no, no, in my opinion, there is no essential difference between the two. Although Nichia Chemical is relatively small at the moment, your company's R&D capabilities are very strong."

"If I remember correctly, your company independently developed red and green LEDs. Even among similar companies that are much larger than yours, few have similar R&D capabilities."

Nichia Chemical was simply blessed with luck. Who would have thought that by just recruiting a college student, they could recruit Shuji Nakamura, who is one of the best in the world in terms of LED research and development capabilities.

It's like buying a lottery ticket randomly and winning a jackpot of hundreds of millions, the kind that can bring in continuous profits.

"Oh, is that so?"

Nobuo Ogawa nodded thoughtfully, and once again understood the meaning conveyed by the Industrial Bank.

I didn't expect that the R&D capabilities that my company didn't value very much would be highly valued by outsiders, and even become an opportunity to acquire my company.

All I can say is that things are unpredictable.

"Yes, that's right. I wonder if the head of your company's R&D department has come over?"

Masato Takeshita looked for Shuji Nakamura for a while but couldn't find him, so he suspected that Nichia Chemical didn't bring him with him.

But this is normal,

Except for Nobuo Ogawa, no one at Nichia Chemical took him seriously. Most of the senior leaders were concerned about existing profits instead of thinking about innovation.

"Sorry, Nakamura-san was too absorbed in his experiments to come with us to pick him up at the airport."

"It doesn't matter. It's better for scientific researchers to have some individuality."

Science and technology are primary productive forces.

Masato Takeshita attaches great importance to technology and has quietly carried out reforms within Matsumoto Manufacturing. The salaries of management and research staff are gradually getting closer, and the say of research staff in the company's development is also gradually increasing.

It is estimated that when the bubble economy bursts, Masato Takeshita will be able to complete the initial transformation of Matsumoto Manufacturing. In the future, Matsumoto Manufacturing's scientific researchers will be graded according to their scientific research capabilities, with the highest level corresponding to the position of president in the management level. The advantage of this is that scientific researchers do not have to give up their development in scientific research by being promoted to management level for the sake of salary and benefits.

"Yeah, it's better to have some personality."

Nobuo Ogawa thought of Shuji Nakamura's stubborn character and nodded in agreement.

After a brief chat, the two began to introduce the people around them to each other.

"Hello, Executive Director Eiji Ogawa." Masato Takeshita bowed to Eiji Ogawa in a very friendly manner, and then said with a smile: "I have also heard of Mr. Ogawa's name in Tokyo. It is because of your assistance that Nichia Chemical has been able to develop so well."

"No, that's too much. I just did what I should do."

Ogawa Eiji was in a complicated mood, he didn't know whether he would lose control of the company's future. But he wanted to take a gamble, betting that Masato Takeshita didn't have so much time to run Nichia Chemical.

Although I will have fewer shares in this way, I will be able to lead a more valuable company in the future.

"That's not an exaggeration at all." Masato Takeshita then turned his gaze to Nobuo Ogawa: "President Ogawa, if we can really reach a cooperation."

"I hope that Executive Director Eiji Ogawa can continue to be your successor and inherit the position of president of Nichia Chemical in the future. I don't have that much time to manage Nichia Chemical, and I will trouble President Ogawa a lot."

Masato Takeshita hopes to win over Eiji Ogawa to avoid any setbacks in the signing of the contract.

"No, you're welcome, President Takeshita."

Nobuo Ogawa's expression didn't change much. He knew that many times verbal promises meant nothing.

Everything that Masato Takeshita said now was just to stabilize the Ogawa family.

If one day the Ogawa family is unable to lead Nichia Chemical to move forward, then Masato Takeshita will definitely jump out at the first opportunity to take over Nichia Chemical and dominate the company's development.

On the contrary, Eiji Ogawa was extremely excited.

"The bet was right."

He said this to himself.

Ogawa Eiji has always had the ambition to become the president of a large company. Ogawa Nobuo's decision to allow Masato Takeshita to invest in the company was also due to Ogawa Eiji's contribution.

Compared with controlling rights, he values the size of the company more.

As the second-in-command of Nichia Chemical, he was fed up with the days of compromising.

Why can’t the red LED and green LED lights developed by our company be sold? Is it just because our company is small?

Eiji Ogawa didn't want to live a life where he had to smile every day anymore. He wanted to become a manager of a big company and have others look at him.

This is also why when Industrial Bank said that a company wanted to acquire Nichia Chemical, he did not vote against it. Instead, he took a try-it attitude and suggested that his father-in-law agree to it first.

Of course, the premise of all this is that Nichia Chemical is still managed by the Ogawa family.

If Masato Takeshita could not contractually establish Eiji Ogawa's leadership position, he would not allow his father-in-law to sell the company.

(End of this chapter)