America: My Time

Chapter 10 Neon Layout
Chapter Ten: Neon Layout
Having personally experienced the development of Japan's economy and cultural entertainment, John realized that his previous plans were too simplistic. Faced with such a huge Japanese market, comics, animation, music, and television alone were far from enough. Japan's cultural entertainment market needed more investment and a more detailed plan.

Time waits for no one, and I really don't have much time left. There are only three years left until the Plaza Accord. In these three years, I must accelerate my investment in Japan and speed up my expansion there. Only in this way can I plunder enough profits from the Japanese market and complete my plan!

To succeed in comic book production, the first thing to understand is the comic book sales situation. In Japan today, the retail industry is a very traditional sector, with numerous bookstores and record stores, leading to fierce competition and even a slow decline. Overexpansion in such a traditional industry inevitably leads to a crisis!
John also needed to plan ahead in the retail sector. His target wasn't bookstores or record stores, but convenience stores—more precisely, acquiring 7-Eleven stores. However, after more than ten days of deliberation, John had to abandon this idea. Focusing his limited time on an impossible goal wasn't suitable. His funds were currently very precious, and the price of acquiring 7-Eleven was too high for him to afford.

It's time to shift your focus. If you wait until you have enough funds to make a move, it might be too late! In Japan these days, opportunities are fleeting. Once you have sufficient funds, the value of a 7-Eleven convenience store will multiply.

John didn't know when he would have sufficient funds, or how to use his limited resources to complete his retail strategy—that was the most important thing. He couldn't just wait; he needed to take the initiative and seize everything he wanted!
John was acutely aware of how frenzied Japan's development had become after the Plaza Accord, and how terrifyingly fast land prices had risen. Based on this, he felt compelled to complete his property portfolio in Japan before the Plaza Accord. Only by doing so could he ensure his development in Japan was unaffected by the Accord, while simultaneously reaping enormous profits when the real estate bubble burst!
For a moment, John even considered using his £2000 million to abandon his gold speculation, but this idea was quickly rejected. Compared to investing in Japanese real estate, £2000 million was barely a ripple. This amount of money was far from enough for his real estate investments in Japan, and he couldn't abandon his financial investment plans just to expand in Japan!
To build my own conglomerate, banking is key. The goal is clear: the £2000 million and $500 million are the seed capital. Banking is the foundation of the conglomerate. Under no circumstances can I abandon my financial plans for investing in Japanese real estate; I can't afford to do something so foolish as to put the cart before the horse!

While competition in traditional industries is fierce, it's not impossible to participate. As long as a point of entry is found, it's possible to quickly establish a foothold. Bookstores are a good option. With bookstores, publishing houses are also needed. Light novels must be prioritized, and publishing houses cannot be limited to printing comics; expanding publishing is an inevitable choice.

In traditional fields, competing with other Japanese publishers would inevitably face enormous resistance, which is not the outcome I wanted! Light novels, fashion magazines, and entertainment magazines became the first choices, but unfortunately, the Japanese newspaper industry is even more troublesome than television, with many restrictions on foreign investment; otherwise, the newspaper industry would have been a good option!

“Matsumoto, the manga company is on the right track. Now you need to expand your publishing. Fashion magazines and light novels will be our next focus. It would be best to build our own library to strengthen our IP. As for the weekly manga, don’t rush it. We have plenty of time. We are a full-color weekly manga. As long as we don’t make any major mistakes, we can definitely sweep the entire Japanese manga market. Striving for excellence is our focus!”

"Boss, how should we choose our advertising slots in the weekly magazine? Should we partner with companies like Dentsu, or run it ourselves?" Matsumoto Taro raised this big question about advertising. Weekly manga magazines not only generate profits from weekly sales, but advertising revenue is also a major source of income, sometimes even comparable to weekly sales profits, not to mention merchandise. Of course, it's too early to talk about merchandise right now.

John frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's not worry about advertising for now. It's too early to talk about advertising. Our target market isn't Japan, but globalization. Let's not talk about advertising for the next six months. We'll have six months to build up our strength. I believe Phoenix Weekly will sweep the global comic book market. It won't be too late to talk about advertising then. Talking about it now will only benefit those advertisers!"

His boss was far too confident—that was Matsumoto Taro's most immediate impression. The stronger his boss's confidence, the more Matsumoto Taro believed that Phoenix Weekly would be a huge success. Although Matsumoto didn't have a deep understanding of the manga market, one thing was very clear to him.

In terms of quality, our own comics far surpass those of other weekly comic magazines, and they're even in full color! They could absolutely sweep the entire comic market, whether it's Japan or the global market, our weekly magazine would dominate!

Taro Matsumoto was aware of the advertising revenue a bestselling weekly comic book could generate in six months. His boss was willing to forgo such a large profit simply to accumulate and expand sales, demonstrating how optimistic his company was about the future of weekly comic books! All advertising revenue is based on sales figures. If a weekly comic book sells extremely well in six months, even sweeping the global comic book market, the revenue would be astronomical. Perhaps his own weekly could break the ten million mark, since Phoenix Comics Weekly is based in the global market, not just Japan.

"Boss, what positioning and strategy should we take for a fashion magazine? We've never done a fashion magazine before; we have no experience in this area!" Matsumoto Taro was somewhat worried about the fashion magazine. This was his first time working on a fashion magazine, and he had absolutely no experience. In comparison, Matsumoto Taro felt that publishing light novels was much better than a fashion magazine. The audience for fashion magazines was too narrow, sales were a major problem, and they needed to rely on advertising to support them. The worst part was that fashion magazines were monthly or bi-monthly publications, which severely impacted sales!

John considered this issue when deciding to start a fashion magazine. Starting a fashion magazine wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision; it was the result of thorough consideration. Clothing, food, housing, and transportation are topics that no one can avoid. Starting a fashion magazine was preparation for starting a clothing company later. Even if it didn't make money, it wouldn't matter, as long as it broke even, or even lost a little money. Clothing revenue was the main source of income!

"Girls, let's start with a fashion magazine for girls. If there are no problems, then we'll move on to a boys' magazine, and then expand to top-tier luxury magazines! In short, take it one step at a time, don't rush, be as steady as we are with comics, go for color, and strive for perfection!" For any magazine to succeed, the most basic requirement is to strive for perfection!
In just over ten days, John, once again leveraging his family's influence, successfully acquired a small record company in Japan, giving Legendary Records a branch there. However, this record company was barely surviving and couldn't make any money at all.

Fortunately, John didn't care about the immediate gains and losses. Even if a small record company lost money, it wouldn't lose much. As long as there were suitable singers, it would be easy to turn things around. He had a huge number of songs in his mind, so he wasn't afraid that the record company wouldn't have room for development!
With a record company in place, the focus shifted to singers, which required the help of Ji Ji Ren Agency. Within just over ten days, they also established a small agency in Japan, the Japan Elite Agency, as a branch of the Elite Agency!

John felt it was a pity that many famous Japanese singers had already debuted, such as Seiko Matsuda, Naoko Kawai, Akina Nakamori, and Kyoko Koizumi from the 80s and 82s groups, so he could only set his sights on other targets.

Even with a complete structure, it's not easy for a newly established agency to cultivate top idols. Even with a prodigy like John, a small agency has limited capabilities and can't cultivate too many idol singers. Its limited resources restrict its development.

The first batch of talents trained by the Japanese elite agency should ideally be female idols, between three and five people. No more than that, because the company doesn't have enough resources to provide. Given its own network in Japan, training three to five people is the most suitable, and all the resources at hand can only go this far.

A newly established agency aiming for growth doesn't cast a wide net; instead, it focuses on cultivating elites. Just as its name suggests, it only nurtures the best—this is John's true intention. The company won't cultivate anyone who isn't elite; every debuting idol must achieve phenomenal success, which requires careful nurturing! Unfortunately, he doesn't have much time to waste here. He can only delegate the work to his subordinates and talent scouts; his precious time won't be wasted on such trivial matters!

(End of this chapter)