Traveling through the Tokyo bubble era

Chapter 962: Being clever but being misled by cleverness

Upon hearing Hirohashi Asako's explanation, Hideki Habu already guessed what it was about.

The young man who gave flowers to Izumi Sakai backstage at the Live House the night before last is probably an artist from Amuse agency.

After a weekend of preparation, the other party clearly realized their situation.

It's likely that Yokichi Osato's visit to him wasn't primarily to apologize to his subordinate, but rather to prevent Hideki Hanyu from taking his anger out on Amuse.

After all, with Storm Advertising defeating Dentsu, acquiring Hakuhodo, and Hideki Hanyu taking over Fuji Television, the Cloud Group was at its zenith in Japan, with so much power that no rival in the industry could limit it.

Therefore, even though Amuse is a senior firm in the industry, and Hirokichi Osato, who came from Watanabe's firm, has extensive experience and connections in the industry, he could not withstand Hideki Hanyu's wrath.

Hideki Hanyu hopes that the Cloud Sect will not abuse its power to bully others.

But if there's a legitimate reason for it, that's a different story. If your people made a mistake first, and Hideki Hanyu really wants to target Amuse, even if others in the industry gossip behind his back, it's still acceptable on the surface.

However, he hadn't finished discussing his business with Hirohashi Asako yet, so he had no time to deal with the president of an agency.

Although Amuse was one of the few publicly listed talent agencies in the Japanese entertainment industry in his previous life, its market value at its peak was only 40 to 50 billion yen, and its annual revenue was not even enough for Hideki Hanyu to support his mistress.

Why would Hideki Hanyu set aside important matters and waste his time listening to the other party's nonsense in such a small company?

Therefore, he casually told Hirohashi Asako, "Arrange for someone to handle it; I don't have time to see him."

After saying that, he ignored Hirohashi Asako's phone call and turned to explain to Ito Shinsuke why the Cloud Entertainment Group could not be further split up.

“Ito-san, although we want to do things fairly and justly, the starting point of this idea is actually to make more money for us.”

Seeing Shinsuke Ito's puzzled expression, Hideki Hanyu knew that this partner, who had stepped down from management and devoted himself to "Cloud Photography Studio" to focus on technology and art, had not understood what he was saying.

He could only offer a more specific and straightforward explanation.

Why should we maintain a facade of fairness? Is it because we don't want to make money ourselves, so we distribute resources to other industry peers?
No, it's not!

This is because, for us, the platform formed by relying on the closed-loop industry chain can actually generate more profits.

The more Japanese entertainment industry peers rely on our platform to create projects and invest resources, the more we earn.

One day, when our platform nearly monopolizes the entire industry and they can no longer do without us, even if we give up the artist management business, it will have no impact on us at all.

What's needed to build this closed-loop platform are these subsidiaries that the group strongly controls.

If we further spin off our subsidiaries, we can indeed avoid unfair internal competition through independent operation. But how can completely independent subsidiaries work together to maintain the platform?

Ultimately, fairness and justice are just words for outsiders to see. As long as we do our best, that's all we can achieve.

Of course, we also need competition from external companies to raise our internal awareness of potential crises and prevent ourselves from becoming the next Dentsu.

At this point, Hideki Hanyu finally understood.

Seeing this, Hirohashi Asako, who had just finished her phone call, smiled and said, "Many things are actually unavoidable. The weak have their own crises, and the strong have their own drawbacks. There is no way to eliminate all troubles."

Shinsuke Ito asked in confusion, "If that's the case, then what we're talking about is meaningless."

Hideki Hanyu shrugged and said, "What you think in your heart is completely different from what you say and what you do."

Some things are best kept to ourselves. The stated principles and established rules are like a company's employee handbook—they're meant for the employees, not for us bosses to take seriously.

Shinsuke Ito nodded thoughtfully, as if he had grasped something.

Seeing this, Hideki Hanyu could only hope that Shinsuke Ito would listen to him.

Anyway, he had heard plenty of stories about how the management of "Cloud Photography Studio" in Meguro Ward was somewhat chaotic because Shinsuke Ito was focused on his technical skills and was easy to talk to.

But whether it was Hideki Hanyu, Asako Hirohashi, or Shota Yoshioka, even if they knew about it, none of them intended to interfere.

After all, it's just a small "experimental field," and whether it succeeds or not won't really affect the cloud computing system.

On the contrary, if something goes wrong, they can use it to help the Cloud Sect dig out a piece of "rotten meat".

It can only be said that Shinsuke Ito, who left the management team early, missed the opportunity to grow with the group because of his personality.

The group then discussed this issue until nearly noon.

Hirohashi Asako suddenly said to Hanyu Hideki, "If you have time, you should go to Fuji Television and help President Minato Koichi deal with the pressure from the board of directors."

"Don't worry, Asako-san, I was planning to go to Fuji Television today anyway."

The reason I didn't go before was simply because I felt the timing wasn't right.

Some problems can only be solved once they surface. Addressing them too early, before some issues have even arisen, can lead to incomplete solutions and potentially disastrous consequences.

After finishing speaking, Hideki Hanyu glanced at his watch and realized it was almost lunchtime, so he stood up.

"I'm having lunch with Hong Haoyi, so I won't be having lunch with you guys."

Shinsuke Ito said regretfully, "Well, knowing that I was going to see Hanyu-san today, Nana-chan also told me to invite you to her home sometime."

Hideki Hanyu quickly declined, "Let's not do it now. Nana-chan is already eight months pregnant. It's best not to bother you at this time."

Shinsuke Ito's wife, Nana Okada, is pregnant with their second child this year, with the due date reportedly in November. She has already informed several friends.

Shinsuke Ito said, "Isn't it the same for Hanyu-san? Akina-san is in Sendai awaiting childbirth, you should go back and visit her more often."

"It's not that I don't have time yet. I'll go back to Sendai after I finish dealing with things in Tokyo. After that, I'll go to South Korea to deal with the things that have piled up there."

Hideki Hanyu looked helpless as he spoke, which made it clear just by listening to his voice how busy he was.

Then he heard Hirohashi Asako say with a smile.

"Thank you for your hard work, Yuzuru-san!"

"Haha." Shinsuke Ito was amused by Asako Hirohashi's tone.

Hideki Yuzuru ignored his two old friends, waved his hand and said, "That's just perfunctory concern. Alright, I'm leaving."

After leaving Hirohashi Asako's office, Hideki Hanyu headed to the elevator lobby, intending to take the elevator to the parking lot.

Before he even got on the elevator, he saw several people walking out of it.

Leading the group was Michi Iijima, the president of Yunshang Entertainment, accompanied by a middle-aged man with a slightly fierce appearance and wearing glasses.

Behind the two were Izumi Sakai, who was supposed to be preparing an album on Cloud Music, and Megumi Yokoyama, whom they had met the night before.

"Mr. Yuzuru!"

Iijima Michi was the first to greet them.

Following closely behind the middle-aged man, he spoke with a completely different, respectful attitude than his fierce appearance, "President Yuzuru, I apologize for disturbing you."

After a brief recollection, Hideki Hanyu remembered that the middle-aged man was Yokichi Osato, a former senior agent at Watanabe's agency who started his own Amuse agency in the late 1970s.

When Izumi Sakai saw Hideki Hanyu, her eyes lit up, and she immediately abandoned Megumi Yokoyama, who was talking, and went up to grab Hideki Hanyu's hand.

Hideki Yuzuru glanced at the group and, believing that Michi Iijima wouldn't have brought them here without a reason, didn't rush to leave. He instructed his assistant to inform Koichi Minato that lunch was canceled.

Then he said to the group, "Let's talk in my office."

Afterwards, the group followed Hideki Yuzuru into the rarely used chairman's office.

Inside the office, the giant aquarium that occupies an entire wall has replaced the small sharks that were kept in the early years with more aggressive-looking blacktip reef sharks.

Although Hideki Hanyu can only see them a few times, the company still hired professionals to take care of these sharks.

After entering, Hideki Hanyu ignored the others, simply picked up a piece of meat with a fork, put it into the huge fish tank, and it was quickly torn to pieces by the sharks.

The close-up view of sharks feeding naturally attracted the attention of the group of people who had come in together.

Especially the twenty-year-old Yokoyama Megumi, who was so curious that she wanted to get closer to see, but dared not move because of Hideki Hanyu in front of her.

Fortunately, at this moment, Hideki Hanyu finally spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Speak, what brings you to see me?"

When asked this question, Hideki Hanyu assumed that Michiko Iijima was pleading for Yokichi Osato because Osato had given up some resources or projects.

But what Michi Iijima and Yokichi Osato said next was something Hideki Hanyu hadn't expected at all.

“Mr. Yuzuru, President Osato wants to collaborate with us.” Osato Yokichi then explained, “Amuse Agency wants to go public, but because of its limited capabilities, it hopes to get the support of President Yuzuru and Cloud Entertainment.”

"what?"

Hideki Hanyu was slightly surprised at first, but then he quickly guessed what Yokichi Osato was planning to do.

This guy was simply using a strategy of retreating to advance, intending to resolve the matter from the night before last through roundabout means, while also getting Amuse Agency on board the Cloud Alliance's big ship.

Given their supposedly limited resources, the only way to gain support, they'll likely be for Cloud Entertainment to invest in and purchase Amuse Studio's initial public offering (IPO) shares.

With the support of cloud entertainment, Amuse's IPO will naturally go smoothly and will be favored by capital and the market.

In addition to going public, as long as Yunshang Entertainment joins the board of directors of Amuse Studio, Amuse Studio will naturally become a member of the Yunshang Group.

At that time, not only will we be able to obtain resources from the cloud system, but the matter of the young man the night before last will also be self-evident as one of our own.

What a lack of self-awareness and petty cleverness!

"Hehe, President Osato is really good at scheming. Even killing three birds with one stone is not enough to describe your plan."

After Hideki Hanyu exposed his thoughts, Yokichi Osato, a seasoned veteran, did not show any unusual reaction, but simply responded with a flattering tone.

"As expected of President Yuzuru, he saw through my thoughts at a glance."

However, I came with sincerity, and I am confident that Cloud Entertainment's investment in Amuse Studio will be a sure-fire way to make a profit.

However, Hideki Hanyu had no intention of cooperating with the seasoned veteran Yokichi Osato's behavior and simply said coldly.

"But for me, the return on investment in Amuse firm is negligible and cannot dispel my displeasure."

Hideki Hanyu stared sharply at Yokichi Osato, and with the sharks hunting in the huge aquarium behind him, a powerful aura of predation instantly overwhelmed Yokichi Osato, making him unable to lift his head.

At this moment, Yokichi Osato realized how foolish it was to try to outsmart Hideki Hanyu.

"I'm very sorry! It was my fault for not disciplining the artists properly!"

Osato Yokichi bowed his head and apologized, his attitude humble.

From his perspective, his artist was simply sending flowers to someone else's lover without his knowledge, and hadn't even given them away yet, so there was no need to make a fuss.

But since that "other person" was Hideki Yuzuru, provoking such a big shot was still a sin, even if it was unintentional, and could only be considered bad luck.

Seemingly sensing Yokichi Osato's dissatisfaction, Hideki Hanyu sneered.

"hehe……

If Izumi Sakai weren't my woman, but some ordinary person who couldn't afford to mess with a celebrity, would that person just have to grit their teeth and watch your artist pursue their own girlfriend?

So don't feel so wronged!

"terribly sorry."

Faced with Hideki Hanyu's obvious displeasure, all Yokichi Osato could do was to humbly bow and apologize.

He now realized that his presumptuous actions today might have made things worse.

What might have been a decision to abandon one artist has now affected the entire agency.

If they can't satisfy Hideki Hanyu, the entire Amuse agency will probably be in trouble.

Because of Hideki Hanyu's displeasure, Yokichi Osato knelt down to apologize, and the atmosphere in the entire office became extremely tense.

Yokoyama Megumi was terrified, her face paling. After all, the president, who usually had the power to decide her future with a single word, was now kneeling on the ground apologizing because of a few words from Hanyu Hideki, and didn't even dare to get up.

Fortunately, Izumi Sakai calmed Yokoyama down in time; otherwise, the girl might have knelt down before Hideki Hanyu along with Yokichi Osato.

At the same time, Michi Iijima got up and walked to Hideki Hanyu's side, whispering a few words to him.

After hearing this, Hideki Yuzuru snorted coldly and said, "Get up. Don't act like I'm going to do anything to you."

"Thank you, President Yuzuru!" Yokichi Osato quickly stood up.

Then, Hideki Hanyu's voice rang out again, "President Iijima told me that your Amuse agency is still of some use to us, so I can consider having Cloud Entertainment invest in you and help you go public."

"Thank you very much, President Yuzuru!" Yokichi Osato bowed in gratitude.

"Don't be too happy yet. Becoming a member of the Cloud Entertainment Group is not so easy. In order to ensure that Amuse Agency can cooperate with the Group's arrangements, Cloud Entertainment's shareholding in Amuse Agency cannot be less than 40%."

With these words, Hideki Hanyu revealed the true intentions of Michiko Iijima.

By using the investment from Yunshang Group to try and resolve the issues from the night before, Dali Yangji naturally gave Yunshang Group an excuse to intervene.

Although Amuse's biggest future star, Masaharu Fukuyama, was snatched away by Yunshang Entertainment ahead of time, the "Southern Stars" band alone is enough to make Yunshang Group take action.

When Yokichi Osato heard Hideki Hanyu's words, he immediately looked troubled. Although he founded Amuse, he and his wife Kuniko Osato together held only 55% of the shares.

If Hideki Hanyu's request is granted, then 40% of the shares cannot be provided by him and his wife alone; he will also need to persuade the other shareholders.

Yokichi Osato originally thought that Hideki Hanyu would give him time to consider and figure out a way to prepare.

But to everyone's surprise, Hideki Yuzuru followed up with something.

"Of course, you can refuse. I don't like to force anyone."

After finishing his sentence, Hideki Hanyu turned to Michi Iijima and instructed, "You'll be in charge from now on. If anything happens, communicate with Asako-san. You don't need to report to me anymore. I have other things to do, so I'll be leaving now."

Even if Amuse Agency has Southern Stars, it's still a trivial matter in Hideki Hanyu's eyes. If it weren't for supporting Michi Iijima, he wouldn't have wasted his time on it.

Seeing that Hideki Hanyu was about to leave, Izumi Sakai, disregarding Megumi Yokoyama, immediately chased after him, asking with reluctance.

"Where is Yuzuru-san going?"

Hideki Hanyu replied, "Let's eat, and then go to Fuji Television."

Izumi Sakai said, "How about I have dinner with Yuzuru-san?"

Hideki Hanyu asked with a smile, "I thought you were going to come with me to Fuji Television."

"Yasuko told me that the two twins are now working at Fuji Television, and I don't want to see them."

The women that Izumi Sakai was talking about were probably the Sekimoto sisters.

Judging from her resistant expression, she clearly didn't get along with the Sekimoto sisters.

Although Hideki Hanyu didn't know the reason, he wasn't foolish enough to advise them to get along.

After all, he wasn't naive enough to think that these women could get along well with each other.

……

Just as Hideki Hanyu was having lunch with Izumi Sakai and preparing to head to Fuji Television.

In Hideki Hanyu's office, after much struggle, Yokichi Osato finally spoke to Michi Iijima.

"The decision to acquire 40 percent of the shares is not something I can make alone; I need time to convince the other investors."

Iijima Michi replied, "We will not force President Osato."

Hearing the same words from Michiko Iijima and Hideki Hanyu, Yokichi Osato couldn't help but complain in his heart, "You guys really won't force me, but if I dare to refuse, you'll definitely use what happened two days ago as an excuse to make trouble for Amuse Agency."

In today's Japanese entertainment and media industry, the Cloud Group is incredibly powerful. If Amuse Agency were targeted by the Cloud Group, no other company in the industry would be willing to risk offending the Cloud Group by helping Amuse Agency.

Even Sony is the same.

As for the large conglomerates and corporations outside the industry, even if they wanted to help, they were powerless to do so.

Moreover, those companies would not risk offending Hideki Hanyu, the mastermind behind Cloudwise, just for the sake of Amuse Studio.

Thinking about this, Yokichi Osato couldn't have been more regretful.

If he had known this would happen, he shouldn't have come today.

Even if they come, they shouldn't try to be clever, or they'll end up being too clever for their own good.

(End of this chapter)