Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 337 There is no such thing as a sure-fire way to make money.

The Xinghai Fund has a large amount of capital, and it will take a long time to complete the liquidation. Therefore, Masato Takeshita only stayed here with everyone for a week.

He then went to Starsea Entertainment to discuss the company's development with President Rogers.

"Rogers-san, have you been following what's happening on the Daily News?"

"I'm sorry, what happened? I'm not sure."

Rogers had been busy with the Las Vegas Electronic Arts Show for a while. After the show ended, he started building relationships, planning to change the show's focus from Electronic Arts Show to Game Show, which he envisions being led by game companies.

It's fair to say that I'm so busy every day that I don't even have time to pay attention to the media industry, which I don't really understand.

"It's nothing serious, it's just that I feel the investment in Daily News is a little unreasonable."

Prior to the acquisition by Xinghai Group, Daily News had a considerable debt burden. Because of this, Daily News readily believed the lies of Shan Yi Securities and placed a large sum of money in Shan Yi Securities' account.

It can only be said that greed can indeed blind people, and even a newspaper with many outstanding talents can lose its will for profit.

You should know that Shan Yi Securities' practice of making users profit when they win and having the company cover the losses when they lose is basically telling you clearly that this company is a scam.

After all, even a young man who is a time traveler can lose money on investments.

Businesses that promise only profits and no losses are basically targeting your principal; it's like operating on a volcano. One day, your principal might disappear completely.

He was at Xinghai Fund when he suddenly remembered that Daily News had a large investment in Shanyi Securities, so he rushed to Xinghai Entertainment.

"What happened to Shanyi Securities?"

Rogers had great faith in his chairman's talent in finance, and followed the young man's ideas without even understanding them.

"A cesspool with a shiny exterior."

He then quickly explained the new policies of Shan Yi Securities after the financial crisis.

"Shanyi Securities covered the losses, while the profits went into the investors' pockets. This behavior is utterly brain-dead. Who devised this plan?"

"Who else could it be but a senior manager at Shanyi Securities?"

Masato Takeshita was speechless, unable to understand which idiot had devised this ingenious plan.

Could it be another securities firm playing a Trojan horse game?

“It’s just crazy.”

"Indeed, a crazy policy."

In addition to urging the Mainichi Shimbun to make its investment in Yamaichi Securities as soon as possible, Masato Takeshita also wants to officially launch the acquisition plan for Tokuma Shoten today.

Young people are determined to acquire the film subsidiary and Studio Ghibli, in particular.

“Dejian Bookstore can fill the gaps in our film and animation fields. When do you plan to discuss the acquisition?”

Tokuma Bookstore was in even worse financial shape than the Mainichi Shimbun, making it even harder for them to refuse the generous acquisition offer from the Seihae Group.

Even if founder Yasuyoshi Tokuma was unwilling for his hard work to belong to someone else, it would be difficult for him to refuse to split up Tokuma Bookstore and then sell off the non-core film company and Studio Ghibli animation.

Poor people have short ambitions!

Tokuma Shoten previously invested too much in land. Now, with land prices continuing to decline, it faces huge losses.

Of course, Dejian Bookstore is not yet at its final moment and still has financial support, but the company is indeed on the verge of the most dangerous situation.

"I need to get the game expo in order before I can initiate the acquisition of Dejian Bookstore."

"Oh, the game expo went very well?"

"It went very smoothly, but I'd like to hold a game expo in Tokyo this summer. The timeframe is a bit tight, so we need to do a lot of preparation work in advance."

Rogers has big ambitions; he wants to dominate game shows in Japan, the US, and Europe to elevate Starsea Games' status in the gaming industry.

"That's fine, too."

The Tokuma Bookstore matter isn't urgent; we can wait a little longer.

After discussing the Mainichi Shimbun Group and Tokuma Shoten, Masato Takeshita then talked about Seikai Entertainment's progress in sports.

"We must not be afraid of spending money when it comes to setting up the China-Japan Super League. Even if we have to cover all the expenses of the teams in both countries, we must still go ahead with it."

Masato Takeshita's planned league will initially operate at a loss, with 12 teams from Japan and China, requiring approximately 550 players.

If we calculate based on an average salary of 1000 million yen, then the expenditure on player salaries would be 55 billion yen.

1000 million yen may seem insignificant in retrospect, but at that time, the salaries of football players in both China and Japan were quite average, and 1000 million yen was more than enough.

Even including the coaching staff and other employees, as well as referee bonuses, the salary expenses are unlikely to exceed 100 billion.

Yes, the youth decided to pay the referee's fee as well.

Unfortunately, unequal pay for equal work is too likely to cause problems.

Of course, wages are only a small part; the majority of expenses are in areas such as venue.

Even so, the initial costs will not be too high.

Xinghai Entertainment could easily sign a copyright agreement for the football matches with the planned China-Japan Super League, and then fully cover the resulting costs.

There may be losses in the early stages, but after two or three years, when the league becomes popular, that will be the time for Xinghai Entertainment to reap the rewards, and it will also be the time for each football team to reap the rewards.

Of course, Xinghai Entertainment is not greedy and will offer reasonable event rights fees based on the popularity of the league.

Masato Takeshita wanted a win-win situation, where both the club and Xinghai Entertainment could make money from the league.

This will also provide the company's TBS television station with a stable and popular program.

Putting aside everything else, at least every round of the China-Japan tournament generates a huge buzz in the city where the team is located.

As for the matches between the top-ranked Chinese and Japanese teams, the excitement will only be even greater.

Masato Takeshita's idea was excellent; the only regret was that the Chinese side wanted to test the waters for a year on its own.

Hopefully, the other side will eventually realize that league matches between China and Japan would be more beneficial for the progress of football on both sides.

"Yes, President!"

Rogers is preparing to urge the head of the company's sports business again, as the chairman's subordinates should be given even more attention.

The company's future needs planning, but the current business is the priority.

"Our distribution channels in North America are not yet well-developed. Do you think it's necessary to acquire Sierra Entertainment or Activision?"

Sierra Entertainment and Activision are both the second-largest game publishers in North America, after EA.

If Xinghai Games acquires both, it will greatly bolster its PC game publishing capabilities.

"I don't think it's necessary for the time being. We have a small number of PC game studios in the United States, so we don't need to spend too many resources on them."

"I see. It seems the company needs to acquire a few more promising game companies."

He wasn't a domineering person, so since Rogers had already said so, he had no choice but to abandon the idea for now.

"Yes, we need to increase the number of game studios in North America. The North American game industry is recovering now, and we will lose a lot if we miss this opportunity."

Rogers has a long-term vision; he has already noticed that the center of the world's gaming industry is shifting from Japan to the United States.

If Xinghai Group fails to gain an early advantage, it is likely to become a second-rate company.

“Great, go for it! The company should establish game studios all over the world.”

The gaming industry is expanding globally, and the animation industry should follow suit with similar expansion.

However, the animation industry will only be developing in East Asia for the time being.

In other words, a portion of Xinghai Animation's production capacity will be outsourced to studios in South Korea and China.

This can reduce some costs and decrease the possibility of losses.

Of course, in order to ensure that Japan has enough original artists, not all of them can be transferred.

They chatted for the entire afternoon, only ending their discussion at the end of the workday. "Shall we grab something to eat?"

"Okay."

Time passed by unnoticed and it was already the end of April. Masato Takeshita couldn't help but make a phone call to an old friend.

"Senior, congratulations! You'll have an even stronger backer now."

"What's there to congratulate? Everyone knows my uncle was just temporarily put in charge and will be out of office soon."

Haneda Ichiro knows his own family's affairs; his uncle, Haneda Tsutomu, was simply a shield pushed out by his friend, Ozawa Ichiro.

He probably doesn't have as much power as he did before he became prime minister.

Yes, Japan has a new prime minister again.

With too many internal disagreements within the eight-party coalition government, Hosokawa Morihiro's policies were difficult to implement, and he resigned due to exhaustion.

"So what? At least the reputation will be more prominent."

"That makes sense. People who don't know the reason behind it will definitely think more highly of me."

Ichiro Haneda nodded in agreement, noting that at least today at work, more colleagues were showing him goodwill.

"In that case, shall we have a small celebration?"

"No, that's too extravagant. I'll only go if it's just the two of us."

"Okay, let's have a get-together first."

After agreeing on a time and place, the two chatted for another ten minutes or so before hanging up.

Mainly, it was Ichiro Hata who told him all sorts of rumors and helped him sort out the political situation.

"These are turbulent times, and a fragile government is even less able to withstand pressure from the United States."

The United States is indeed currently focusing its offensive on Western Europe, but it is not hesitant to deliver another blow to Japan.

If it is a strong government, even if it is subsequently held accountable by the United States, it can still remove the clauses that are unfavorable to Japan.

As for changing everything, that's practically impossible.

Why? Because the United States has troops stationed in Japan and is also Japan's largest consumer of its products.

Unless one day Japan, China, and Western European countries surpass the United States in trade volume, they will not have a stronger ability to resist the United States.

Now, that's impossible. If the US were to discriminate against Japan with tariffs, it could cripple Japan.

The appointed time arrived quickly, and Takeshita Masato carefully examined his friend.

"Goodness, you've gained so much weight in just a few months!"

"No way, I'm just strong, okay?"

Ichiro Haneda was unhappy, as his current physique was just right.

"Well, as long as you're satisfied."

"Of course, I look much better now than I used to be, much thinner."

"That's right."

The young man nodded in approval, then gestured to the waiter to begin serving the dishes.

"How is Industrial Bank doing now? Is it still lending heavily to companies with poor credit?"

"There's nothing we can do; it's a government requirement. We just hope those companies can resume operations as much as possible."

Influenced by Masato Takeshita, Ichiro Haneda also did not have a positive view of the company's lending to zombie companies.

Of course, this isn't how these companies that rely on loans to survive are described yet, and everyone is hoping they can recover.

But the arm can't twist the thigh; the government demands loans to save businesses, and the banks dare not disobey.

After all, major Japanese banks are heavily indebted and need government assistance.

In addition, the conglomerate nature of Japanese companies is also a factor that banks are compelled to support.

We're all sister companies, so we have to lend a hand.

After all, if refusing leads to the bankruptcy of the sister company, it will cause a huge uproar throughout Japan and lead to social ostracism.

At present, Japanese people are not psychologically prepared for large companies to go bankrupt.

"Didn't your company ever consider using some underhanded tactics to reduce the amount of loans?"

The local official is more powerful than the distant one; those in charge always find ways to play tricks.

"It's difficult; the majority of loans are supported by upper management."

"That's it, I understand."

The long-standing smooth sailing of Japan's conglomerate-style economy has made people less sensitive to its risks.

Many high-ranking officials still thought that what they were seeing was just a repeat of the 73 oil crisis.

Although this economic recovery has taken a little longer than the last one, things will get better sooner or later.

It can only be said that Japan really overthought things this time.

During the 73 oil crisis, Japan's economy was far behind that of the United States, allowing it to comfortably export goods to the US.

This time, Japan has surpassed the United States in per capita GDP and can no longer export cheap goods to the United States on a large scale.

Japan itself has become a country that exports cheap goods.

As for mid-to-high-end products, market competition is too fierce.

Aside from the automotive and electronics industries, which have a significant advantage, the semiconductor and electronics industries don't generate much profit.

Competitors South Korea and Taiwan, backed by their American allies, are launching fierce price wars to squeeze the market share of Japanese companies.

Japanese semiconductor companies need to put in a lot of effort to stabilize the situation and are simply unable to expand.

Of course, Japan's continued decline in the semiconductor and electronics sectors is mainly due to internal factors.

Many companies were terrified by the devastation of the bursting bubble and dared not act aggressively anymore, and their investment in research and development continued to decrease.

It can be said that Japan has become conservative in terms of innovation.

On the other hand, the slow recovery of the Japanese economy has also made Japanese companies hesitant to take bold actions and instead hold onto sufficient cash.

The long-term survival of a company is more important than any innovation.

As for learning from Nichia Chemical's rapid progress based on a single patented invention, that's just wishful thinking.

Of all the companies in the world, only a very small fraction are as fortunate as Nichia Corporation.

Takeshita Masato ate a couple of bites of food, then casually asked a question.

"Since you dislike lending to companies that are suffering heavy losses and have little hope of recovery, have you ever considered developing a department at headquarters that manages international markets?"

"That's not suitable for me. I'm more comfortable lending to domestic companies. If I look carefully, I can find a few companies with potential."

"For example, Xinghai Group, didn't it accept a large amount of loans from our company?"

Takeshita Masato hadn't expected the matter to involve his own family, and he shrugged with a smile.

“That makes a lot of sense. Our group’s loans can meet your and Uno-senpai’s loan requirements.”

Xinghai Group makes money every year, but still needs to take out a lot of loans.

Some are short of cash flow, while others are simply trying to maintain their relationship with the bank.

With the exception of a few extremely conservative companies, most companies operate in this way.

(End of this chapter)