Tokyo, 1991: Starting as a bank clerk

Chapter 179 Yayoi Masato [please vote]

"Yayoi-san, I know what you're worried about."

"7

Takatsukasa Nobumoto looked him in the eyes and said sincerely, "But the nature of this matter is different from those others."

"The project belongs to the state, and the development is transparent. We just knew about the route and plan a little earlier than others, so we could make our judgments sooner."

"This is not insider trading; it's information advantage."

Yayoi Masaki picked up his glass and finally took a sip.

The sake had cooled down a bit, and its spicy flavor melted on the tip of my tongue.

"Takatsukasa, you're right, the nature of this matter is indeed different."

Nobumoto Takatsukasa's expression relaxed slightly.

"But one"

Yayoi Masaki put down his wine glass and looked up at Takatsukasa Nobumoto.

"Takatsukasa, once the line between information advantage and illegitimate gains is blurred, it can never be drawn back."

The private room fell silent.

Nobumoto Takatsukasa did not refute this.

He simply picked up his wine glass, downed the rest of the sake in one gulp, and then sighed softly.

"Yayoi-san, you are such an upright person."

Masaki Yayoi did not respond to that sentence.

He picked up his sake glass, finished the last sip of sake, and then stood up.

"Takatsukasa, I enjoyed this meal very much, but the Yayoi family will not participate in the Kisarazu land issue."

After speaking, he bowed slightly, pulled back the screen, and walked out of the private room.

This was the last time Masaki Yayoi met with Nobumoto Takaji alone as a founding member of the Toseikai.

Shortly thereafter, a series of changes occurred within the Dongzheng Association.

With the membership base expanding further, a points system is being developed.

The secretariat has brought in new management personnel, reportedly senior bureaucrats who have retired from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Masaki Yayoi's influence within the Toseikai began to be diluted.

He began to be excluded from some core meetings, and the meeting minutes were no longer copied to Yayoi Corporation.

The phone replies from the liaison officer at the secretariat changed from "immediately" to "later", then to "as soon as possible", and then stopped.

Masaki Yayoi quietly retreated to the sidelines.

Like an old tree growing by a rushing stream, when the water rises, it submerges the roots; when the water recedes, the roots are exposed, but the tree remains unmoved.

Winter of 1983.

Heavy snow.

Masaki Yayoi left his office in Kyoto, got into his driver's car, and, as usual, prepared to return to his home in Arashiyama.

That day, Kyoto experienced its heaviest snowfall since the beginning of winter.

The road surface was slippery and visibility was very low.

The driver was an elderly man who had worked for Yayoi for over twenty years and was always very skilled. He gripped the steering wheel and drove slowly on the road toward Arashiyama.

As we passed an intersection near Togetsukyo Bridge, a large truck coming from the right ran a red light.

The driver didn't have time to react.

The sounds of violent impact, twisting metal, and shattering glass mingled together in that instant.

Masaki Yayoi was taken to the hospital.

He suffered severe head injuries, multiple internal organ damage, and significant bleeding.

Doctors tried to save him for nearly four hours in the emergency room, but ultimately could not bring him back from the brink of death.

The news of Masaki Yayoi's death caused a minor but significant shock within the Toseikai (Eastern Strategy Association).

Nobumoto Takatsukasa rushed from Tokyo to Kyoto immediately. In the memorial hall of Nishi Honganji Temple, he offered incense and bowed before the portrait of Masaaki Yayoi.

He stood in the mourning hall, silent for a long time.

Saionji Koyoshi also came.

He was wearing a black suit, and his expression was much more serious than usual. He lit an incense stick in front of the altar and then stepped aside.

At Masaki Yayoi's funeral, his son Masato Yayoi and his daughter-in-law Kazuko Yayoi knelt before the coffin.

Their daughter, Yayoi Mina, was only fifteen years old when she was led aside by the butler, Ito, and cried her heart out.

The accident was caused by the truck driver being fatigued.

The other party is fully responsible.

The driver was sentenced, the insurance company paid compensation, and that was the end of it.

The death of Yayoi Masaki was like a pebble thrown into a lake, creating ripples that quickly subsided.

However, Masato Yayoi never thought so.

My father's death was not an accident.

The truck driver who ran the red light received a sum of money from an unknown source shortly after the accident.

An anonymous remittance of 3.5 million yen was transferred from an account in Tokyo.

Police investigated for three months but were unable to find the true identity of the remitter.

The case was simply dropped.

Masato Yayoi did not mention this to anyone.

They don't even have a mother.

He knew that saying these things without solid evidence would only bring trouble to himself and the Yayoi family.

He knew perfectly well that his father's death must be related to the Dongzheng Society.

Yayoi Masato began searching through his father's notes and accounts for more information about the Tosei Association.

He was certain that his father had seen something he shouldn't have seen in the days before his death.

Springtime, 1985.

Masato Yayoi is 34 years old and has been serving as the chairman of Yayoi Corporation for nearly two years.

He was Yayoi Masaki's only child, and had no siblings to discuss things with.

Although his wife, Yayoi Kazuko, was intelligent, in the Japanese business world of that era, it was difficult for a young woman, even with the surname Yayoi, to truly rise to the forefront.

Masato Yayoi single-handedly runs a trading company and faces an increasingly complex situation in the East Asia Group.

Some are selling undisclosed urban redevelopment plans within the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; others are selling tax reform proposals being developed by the Ministry of Finance; and still others are selling undisclosed financial data and merger and acquisition intentions of large corporations.

He saw the name of the review department of Mitsubishi Bank Tokyo Headquarters and the name of the corporate finance department of Sumitomo Bank Osaka Headquarters.

Masato Yayoi began gathering more evidence.

Using his status as a descendant of a founding member, he gained access to the Dongzheng Association's internal database and reviewed a large number of points transaction records.

He read them one by one and copied them down one by one.

From 1984 to 1985, he filled three notebooks with his records over a year.

He saw how Dongzhenghui collaborated with bank insiders to preemptively dispose of loans and collateral that were about to become non-performing by transferring them to specific asset management companies.

He saw how the East Coast Development Association used its information advantage to secure land in advance for government-led development projects and then resell the land at a premium to unsuspecting investors.

He saw how the East Coast Development Association offered political donations to local councilors in exchange for their support of specific development projects.

These transactions resemble a giant spider web, covering the political, financial, and economic spheres of the Kansai region.

The secretariat of the Dongzheng Association is the weaver of this network.

Then in the autumn of 1985.

Masato Yayoi has gone missing.

His car was found at a remote pier in Osaka Bay.

There were no signs of a struggle or bloodstains inside the car.

Even the key was still in the ignition.

With the car window open, the sea breeze blew a note from the driver's seat onto the floor mat.

The note had only one line of text, written in Yayoi Masato's own handwriting.

"Father is a detective"

She went to find her father.