After being elected as the governor of Tokyo, he will debut as a band!

Make way for me: 088, even Koreans!

The East Reception Room on the Second Floor of the Tokyo Governor's Hall, Matsutocho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.

Aoyama is being interviewed by a reporter from the Asazuki Shimbun.

“We have witnessed the Governor’s support for popular culture and popular art, creating a stage for more undiscovered front-line performers and artists.”

"You flatter me, it's what I should do. Mr. reporter, and many voters should remember my campaign promise: to develop industries that can benefit more people. Providing opportunities for these grassroots artists is also one way to fulfill my campaign promise."

The reporter who conducted the interview, Iwasaki Taketa, is the head of the economic interview section of the Asazuki Shimbun. Although he is not involved in politics, from the perspective of interests, he can be considered a member of Aoyama Mukoto's faction. Therefore, the content of the interview was within Aoyama Mukoto's acceptable range, and even if there were a few sharp questions, they were not a big deal.

Even if Aoyama doesn't answer these questions well, the newspaper can cleverly arrange the wording to divert the public's attention while reading, thereby marginalizing some core issues.

“Okay, Governor, I have a question to ask.”

"Mr. Iwasaki, please speak."

"What is your view on foreign performers... such as South Korean performers? Their entertainment industry receives strong support from their own governments, which has already put considerable competitive pressure on our country's middle and upper-level performers. In this situation, if the policies formulated by your current government also apply to grassroots foreign performers, wouldn't that, in turn, threaten the interests of our own grassroots performers?"

"That's a good question, but I think you're overthinking it."

Aoyama smiled and waved his hand, saying...

"First, we must acknowledge that many of the exotic performances brought to the public by foreign performers are quite wonderful. However, performances aimed at the general public need to meet the cultural needs of the general public. No matter how excellent the foreign performers are, there will always be some cultural gap between them and the audience, not to mention that many of them also face language barriers. Therefore, in this type of performance, native Japanese performers have an obvious advantage, and through our policies, this advantage will actually be enhanced. So, Mr. Iwasaki, your concerns are actually unfounded."

This is also one of the differences between popular art and high art. Popular art needs to cater to the simple aesthetics of the local people, while high art may need to pursue something that is common to all humanity.

The reason why Hollywood movies are popular all over the world is that they have put a lot of effort into promoting American culture, coupled with huge investments in marketing and distribution. But even so, many local films and television shows are still able to withstand the impact of Hollywood movies and even gain an advantage in their local markets.

"So you mean the South Koreans pose no threat whatsoever?"

"Of course I have high expectations for the Korean performers. You know, having a strong opponent is not a bad thing in most cases. For example, in sports, a closely matched game is more exciting."

“Except for Koreans.”

South Koreans have a notorious reputation in sports, prompting Vice President Iwasaki to speak frankly about it.

"No, I mean... even the Koreans. Mr. Iwasaki, while I know you, as a left-wing media figure, are not entirely satisfied with the people who elected President Yoon, please restrain yourself."

"One's own emotions."

……

After the interview, Vice President Iwasaki was politely seen off, while Takuya Utsunomiya presented him with a document.

"The '50-town Cup' Music Awards Implementation Plan, jointly formulated by the Bureau of Life and Culture and representatives of the Neon Dance Troupe, has been circulated among multiple departments and has received feedback from the Bureau of Digital Services, the Fire and Rescue Agency, and the Metropolitan Police Department."

"The Digital Services Bureau proposed the need to establish a database of street performers, street performance facilities, and audience information, so as to achieve comprehensive supervision of the development potential, reach, and market size of the street performance industry in each town and district. This requires an increase in annual funding and staff positions."

"The Fire and Disaster Management Agency has also pointed out that holding street performances simultaneously in fifty towns and wards would greatly increase the pressure on fire services in Tokyo. They hope that adjustments can be made to the affected towns and wards to disperse the performances as much as possible, thereby reducing the pressure on fire services during peak hours, or that the budget and staffing levels can be increased."

"The Metropolitan Police Department also stated that the increased frequency of street performances will lead to a significant increase in the crime rate. There is a serious shortage of frontline patrol officers in some towns and districts, requiring flexible deployment or the addition of temporary employees, thus necessitating an increase in the budget."

"........."

After hearing his description, Qingshan realized that this group of people were all after money, so he picked up the document and read it quickly.

"The Digital Services Bureau's request is reasonable, but there are problems with the amount of funding and the number of new hires they applied for. I'll send it back for them to recalculate. My initial opinion is to agree to their request for 20% of the funding, and let them handle the staffing issue internally."

"The Fire Department's request is somewhat unreasonable. The number of approvals for large-scale art exhibitions has decreased by 7% this quarter, and the number of approvals for symphony concerts has decreased by 11.5%. These events occupy large venues and the exhibits are mostly flammable materials, so the fire protection pressure is much higher than that of the '50-cho Cup'. Their budget should be more generous at this time."

"Metropolitan Police Department... The pressure on the Metropolitan Police Department will indeed be quite high during the 50-town Cup... So, let's discuss with the people of Chiba City and Kamogawa City about allocating 30 Hawaii-funded health resort slots to the Metropolitan Police Department this year, so that the people in the Metropolitan Police Department can work a little harder. As for Chiba and Kamogawa, the Metropolitan Government is mainly promoting their local tourism industry, which will bring in a large amount of funds soon. Let's be more generous in this matter and not get hung up on those petty gains."

Thanks to the overtures from the Neijin Group and the Hachishio family, Aoyama now had more leverage. He was able to handle the situation where several departments joined forces to ask him for money with ease, instead of having to argue with several councilors every day like before, and having to drag things out when it came to solving the problem.

Takuya Utsunomiya quickly drafted the instructions, hurriedly handed them to the secretaries of the three departments who were waiting in the reception room on the first floor of the mansion, and then hurriedly returned.

"Governor, the expert seminar on 'Revitalization and Promotion of Popular Arts' organized by the Cultural Life Bureau has just started. Would you like to take a look at the proceedings?"

Utsunomiya's reminder brought Aoyama Mukai back to this point.

That's how it is with high-ranking bureaucrats; because they have so many things to deal with every day, they have to rely on their secretaries to remind them of many small things.

Oh, is that the seminar that Ijichi, Hiroi, and Iwashita Shima attended?

"Can I watch the seminar live now?"

"Of course, I'll open the live stream interface for you right away, please wait a moment."

……

Thank you @{"reader_id":"6895965","reader_name":"啊偷"} for the soap donation~~~

Make way for me: Episode 089, Majima and Hiroi: A Madman's Duet

The highlight of the "Revitalization and Promotion of Popular Art" expert seminar is the keynote speeches by experts, group discussions, and group presentations.

The experts who participated in the keynote speeches were Haruka Sawamura, acting president of DYNA CHAIR Entertainment, and Yuri Oi, director of the Department of Music and Performing Arts at Musashino Art University.

The two men's statements were quite confrontational.

Haruka Sawamura lived in the lower rungs of society for a long time when she was young. In those days when entertainment facilities were scarce, street performers were part of her fond memories. In addition, she herself was an idol discovered by Lee Mi-ri, the former president of DY Entertainment, from an ordinary person. Therefore, in her report, she proposed not only to support street performers to step onto the formal stage, but also to establish a system for announcing the performance schedules of street performers. This would allow street performers to register their performances on a local Tokyo-based online platform, making it convenient for interested people to find out about the performances and go to watch them.

While Yuri Ooi acknowledged the role of street performances in promoting the prosperity of pop music, he remained skeptical about the quality of street performances. He believed that the development of pop music should focus on established entertainment companies, well-known artists, high-selling and highly rated albums and singles, large-scale live performances, and streaming live broadcasts. Related social resources should be concentrated in these areas. Abandoning these areas and providing too much support for street performances and small-scale concerts would actually slow down the overall development pace.

The subsequent group discussion also revolved around the speeches of the two individuals, exploring and forming group opinions, which were then released in the final group presentation session.

Iji Tomoka, Hiroi Kikuri, Iwashita Shima, and Yoshida Ginjiro, a few familiar faces, were naturally grouped together. In addition to the four of them, this group also included Sawamura Haruka, the acting president of DY Entertainment, and Majima Goro, the managing director in charge of artists and company management.

After introducing themselves, the group took their seats in the small cubicle provided by the conference organizers.

Majima Goro sat down on the sofa with a flourish, then took out a pack of cigarettes, took one for himself, and threw the rest, almost the entire pack, to Yoshida Ginjiro.

Offering cigarettes is a common practice among smokers worldwide.

"Mr. Mashima, you don't mean to smoke here, do you? That's very rude of you."

Sawamura Haruka reminded him.

"What does it matter?! If anyone is unhappy, let the police come and arrest me. But this place is booked by the Bureau of Culture and Lifestyle today. Even the Metropolitan Police Department can't easily come in and arrest people."

Majima Goro lazily took out his lighter and fiddled with it, completely ignoring Sawamura Haruka.

Let alone her, even if her godfather, Kiryu Kazuma, were here, Majima Goro would still have the same attitude.

"Um, Mr. Mashima, there are three non-smoking ladies here. Shouldn't we at least consider their feelings?"

Ginjiro Yoshida is also a resident of Kamurocho. Although he and Goro Majima are not friends, they can be considered acquaintances.

So I understand this person's temperament to some extent.

He looks fierce and crazy, but he actually disdains bullying ordinary people. He was like that when he was in the East City Club, and now that he is the managing director of DY Entertainment, he is even less willing to fight and kill ordinary people.

"Brother Yoshida, what do you mean by that?"

Majima Goro abruptly stood up, pressing his gaunt, hound-like face less than five centimeters from Yoshida's, the cold glint in his right eye somewhat eerie.

"Mr. Mashima!"

Sawamura Haruka grabbed his arm from behind, somewhat angrily.

“This will trouble Mr. Yoshida, and the people at the Bureau of Life and Culture might kick you out.”

"Oh, no, that won't do. I have something to say during the group discussion later."

He patted Yoshida reassuringly.

He patted her shoulder, then turned and walked toward the door.

"In that case, I'll go outside for a smoke. I remember there's a smoking area on the first floor of this hotel. Yoshida, wanna come along?"

"I'll forget it."

"This is so boring. Does anyone else want to come out with me? Yoshida just said there are three non-smoking ladies here. Haruka, Ni, San, and Si, so there are four ladies left, right? That means there's one smoking lady."

"Um, I think the lady that Ah Yin excluded is referring to me, right?"

Kikuri Hiroi raised her hand and then followed.

"I'd like to go out for a bit too."

"Oh, what a pretty young lady! I didn't know you smoked too?"

"No, no, no, I just saw that the group discussion time in the meeting schedule was quite long. Since I'm just sitting here anyway, I might as well go out and find a place to have a drink."

"...Would you like a drink?"

When everyone else thought Goro Majima was going to criticize Kikuri Hiroi for being "bold" and "unrefined," Goro Majima slapped his thigh and shouted, "Great idea! Let's go, little Hiroi, let's go together!"

"Oh? I didn't realize you liked drinking in broad daylight, uncle!"

"I drink day and night! And isn't today's seminar about popular art? How can you talk about art without drinking?! In my opinion, not providing drinks at the conference was a mistake."

"Mr. Mashima, to be honest, we're on the same page! It's truly a rare find to meet a kindred spirit!"

"Don't call me Mr. Mashima, just call me Uncle Goro! Little girl, your band is called Sickhack, right? Why don't you just sign with our company?"

“No, no, that would ruin our friendship! And…” Hiroi Kikuri’s gaze suddenly sharpened, “How can someone who plays rock music become someone else’s underling?! Unless the other person is a real hero.”

This is a lie. The truth is that Kikuri Hiroi's rampage during a performance caused too much damage. If she were to sign with any company, she would quickly ruin that company's reputation among its upstream and downstream partners, then be kicked out by the company for "misconduct" and have to pay a large amount of liquidated damages...

This remark was somewhat sarcastic towards Goro Majima. Shima pulled out a box of sweets from "Hyakubi Seika" from somewhere, wanting to apologize on behalf of Kikuri Hiroi.

But after a moment of surprise, Majima suddenly burst into laughter.

"This little girl is getting more and more to my liking. Come on, come on, I'll pay for the drinks! I know this area pretty well, by the way."

"Oh? How could I possibly accept that?"

"It's alright, after we finish our drinks, we'll go to the racecourse and casino for a horse race! There's a Golden Boat participating today, if we bet on it and it wins, we can make back all the money we spent on drinks!"

"Is the odds of winning that high? Then I have to play a round too..." Hiroi reached into her pocket, clutching a pitiful 1050 yen. She could only feign a pitiful look as she turned to Iwashita Shima, "Shima-sama, I remember there's still some money left in the team's funds this month, right?"

Make way for me: 090 Majima and Hiroi: The Madmen's Duet (2)

After Hiroi Kikuri and Majima Goro left, the remaining four were all normal people, and the group discussion proceeded smoothly. Before lunchtime, they successfully reached a consensus and, with Sawamura Haruka's help, produced a fairly detailed speech.

The general content is as follows—

Firstly, it is based on the development of small, unknown bands that Ijichi Seika and Yoshida Ginjiro encountered while running their performance halls, and the common difficulties they faced.

Secondly, it discusses the development of student bands from school to the stage. Although student bands have a considerable audience when performing at school, they lack income. This makes band activities a burden for students from poor families. Giving appropriate tolerance to street performances can also help such bands achieve sustainable development.

Thirdly, another issue student bands face is the uneven performance levels among their members. They need more formal performances and opportunities to practice together to improve their overall skill level. Of course, music requires talent, and musicians without talent can hardly be compared to geniuses. However, more formal performances can help them bridge this gap through band chemistry. It's unnecessary for every member of a band to be a musical genius; ordinary people, through hard work, can become supporting members who help a particular talent shine.

Even if that's not possible, street performances can help student bands identify problems early on, allowing them to optimize their members and avoid unnecessary internal conflicts.

Fourth, performers in small performance halls often have experience performing on the street, and their first fans are usually gained through these street performances. Due to operating costs, small performance halls need to charge bands a "fixed fee," which is the minimum ticket price for a band's performance. If they don't sell that many tickets, they have to cover the cost themselves. For performers without a fan base, this cost is prohibitive, so in order to gain their first fans, they have no choice but to prioritize street performances.

After lunch, it was time for everyone to speak.

Compared to the morning, the afternoon was much more lively. Some high-profile guests skipped the keynote speeches and panel discussions, such as the famous singer Mika Nakajima, executives from Sony Music, and Takumi Kimura, the top star of Johnny & Associates who recently transitioned from actress to pop singer.

These people hold high positions in the industry and are quite busy with their work, so they naturally won't participate in the group discussion. After all, if these people join a group, then the other people in that group probably won't have much of a say. As for the lunch arranged by the Bureau of Life and Culture, they don't care about it either, so they simply wait until the afternoon to attend.

Incidentally, while these people might look down on the hotel's lavish lunch, it was an unmissable feast for ordinary people like Hiroi, Shima, and Hoshika.

Therefore, during lunch, Hiroi Kikuri, who had slipped out of the hotel, brought Majima Goro back with her. The two drunken men ate and drank without any manners at the table. If it weren't for the fact that everyone at the table was a familiar person from the same group, the two would probably have been asked to go to their room to rest by the hotel security.

Besides indulging in feasting, Majima and Hiroi were also secretly plotting something. Shima and Hoshika vaguely overheard things like, "Talking is no substitute for action. Let's show everyone what real street performance is like at the meeting," "It's a pity we don't have any instruments," "I can have my underlings bring the instruments, but the security on the meeting room floor is tight, so it won't be easy to bring them in," and "No problem, let me call my older brother."

From these few words, the two could roughly guess what the two lunatics wanted to do. They originally wanted to dissuade them, but as soon as they spoke to them, Hiroi and Majima said, "Let's eat first, we'll talk about other things later." But after the meal, the two disappeared without a trace like ninjas... It was a mystery how the two drunkards were so agile.

But since the two had already disappeared, and Shima and Hoshika were too sleepy from eating too much at noon, they decided to leave it alone. After all, this was one of the top-rated hotels in Tokyo with excellent security. They figured the professionally trained security guards would be able to stop these two crazy guys from having such audacious ideas.

With the two of them lying down, only Sawamura Haruka was left worrying about Majima and Hiroi. But she knew that worrying wouldn't help; she couldn't dissuade Uncle Majima from doing what he had decided to do.

Not only this time, but also during the operation of DY Entertainment, as the acting president, she found it difficult to stop Goro Majima's actions.

In reality, aside from the professional matters of artist management, which Sawamura Haruka can handle, all other work in the company is handled by Majima Goro. After all, the Japanese entertainment industry is a murky place, and if everything were left to Sawamura Haruka, DY Entertainment, its artists, and even Sawamura Haruka himself would have been completely exploited long ago.

The "big brother" that Hiroi Kikuri called was naturally Aoyama Mukai.

He knew something was up when he saw Hiroi Kikuri and Majima Goro, those two little geniuses, together on the surveillance footage. Sure enough, not long after the lunch break started, he received a call from Hiroi Kikuri, asking him to help take a few people to the conference floor of the Ochanomizu Hotel. Hiroi Kikuri also gave a rough but straightforward description of their rambling plan.

Aoyama immediately understood what they wanted to do. Although it was a bit barbaric, as long as those few people who could really decide the direction of the meeting could tolerate and take advantage of this unexpected event, the public opinion of the "Arts Promotion Plan" among these professionals and senior practitioners would not get out of control. So he decided to help them.

So he contacted Yukino Yukinoshita and asked her to deliver a few passes issued by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to Kikuri Hiroi. Then he instructed Takuya Utsunomiya to call the important figures who had attended the meeting that afternoon, reminding them that a small accident might happen during their group speeches that afternoon, and hoping that they could look at the accident in a positive light.

Then, the time finally came for the group to begin speaking.

When Ijichi Hoshika took the stage as the representative of her group, she spoke with sincerity and presented many of the supporting examples that she had witnessed firsthand. However, her limited abilities led to some logical problems in her speech, which were questioned by several academics and representatives from some artist management companies.