Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 404 What is the most important thing?

After journalists from the United States and Japan, the third person to be interviewed is naturally the mainland Chinese journalist whom Masato Takeshita values ​​most.

"Hello sir, what is your question?"

When called upon by the youth, the reporter from Xinhua News Agency's Japan branch remained calm and then asked the question seriously and slowly.

"First of all, congratulations to Chairman Takeshita for becoming the first Japanese person of the year by Time magazine."

"Then I would like to ask how Chairman Takeshita plans to balance the relationship between charity and company development?"

"How to balance the relationship between the two?"

Takeshita Masato frowned, thought for a moment, and then slowly answered.

"I think that doing charity or running a business are both psychological pursuits of one's personal career."

"If you believe that investing more money in the company is beneficial to social development, then you should keep more money in the company to accelerate its progress. Then, when the company's progress slows down, you can pursue a philanthropic path."

"If you feel you have the ability to maintain the company's rapid growth while engaging in large-scale philanthropy, that would be even better."

There's no such thing as a balance between charity and business development; it basically depends on the boss's conscience or whether he wants to use charity to develop his business.

After all, large-scale charitable investments can indeed attract a group of kind-hearted customers.

For example, Baixiang instant noodles in later generations, or Xinghai Group in the present day, have all expanded their revenue and profits by doing charity.

As for entrepreneurs who dedicate their entire fortune to philanthropy, Masato Takeshita admires them greatly, but he himself could never do that.

He can donate a portion, but he can't donate everything and leave nothing for his children.

After spouting a few correct but meaningless platitudes, the young man then began to express his true thoughts.

"However, I think that entrepreneurs should manage their companies well before engaging in philanthropy."

"For example, we will raise employees' wages and benefits to the forefront of the industry."

“I don’t believe a company that even its own employees don’t love is genuinely interested in doing charity.”

To love others you must first love yourself.

If you can't even be passionate about your own employees, how can you expect people to believe that you genuinely love charity and that it's not just a show?

Taking Western celebrities as an example, aside from conspiracy theorists, trolls, and a small number of netizens with extremely strong jealousy, there are also those who are not interested in such things.

Most netizens believe that Michael Jackson and Taylor Swift, two world-class superstars, are genuinely passionate about charity.

Both of them are generous to their staff and also donate to charity to impoverished people around the world.

After the pandemic ended in her previous life, Taylor Swift gave her staff a bonus of 5000 million.

People are more likely to believe that it's true when this kind of person does charity work.

The "Glass King" of a certain region in China is a rather negative example.

If you're so harsh on your employees, no matter how much money you donate, people won't believe you're sincere.

I suspect it's either for more profit or for fame.

Of course, there are many more examples like this, and it can even be said that the vast majority of entrepreneurs are like this.

As netizens put it,

Executing everyone would result in many innocent people being killed, but if executions are carried out in stages, a large number of people will definitely escape.

Soon, Masato Takeshita's live interview was seen by people around the world watching the news broadcast.

"Well said. Companies that don't love their employees are just doing fake charity."

"Someone should have exposed the fake charity a long time ago. The most important thing for a company is its employees."

"That's right, no wonder Xinghai Group's employee benefits are top-notch in the industry."

"This is what a company should be like. I really want to join a company like this."

Those Japanese university students who didn't get pre-selected positions, as well as those who did get pre-selected positions from other companies, secretly resolved to participate in the social recruitment event held by Xinghai Group in March.

Only by joining a company like this can one avoid the fear of losing their job at any time.

Yes, Xinghai Group is recruiting far more than 5 workers in Japan this year.

This is also a characteristic that distinguishes Xinghai Group from other companies, as it also recruits the same number of employees from social recruitment every year.

In other words, Xinghai Group alone had 10 new employees at its Japanese headquarters in 1996.

80% of these people have a college degree or above, accounting for 9% of the total number of college graduates in Japan, which has greatly alleviated the employment pressure on Japanese university students.

Unfortunately, Xinghai Group is not yet strong enough.

The employment situation for Japanese university students remains severe, with approximately 25% of them facing unemployment upon graduation.

Faced with this situation, university students have no choice but to pursue postgraduate studies in the hope that they can find a job upon graduation.

Unfortunately, the dreams of many of them were destined to be shattered.

Two years from now, it will be even more difficult for Japanese university students to find employment, and graduate students will be less popular than undergraduates.

Unfortunately, the consequence of expanding postgraduate enrollment is a serious decline in the quality of postgraduate students, with many no longer even reaching the level they had during their undergraduate studies.

As a result, the unemployment rate among graduate students naturally increases significantly.

As for a doctorate, it's not a very good path either.

Japan's top intellectual industries, such as semiconductors, are gradually collapsing, leading to a decline in the demand for highly skilled personnel.

Of course, things might take a turn for the better. Because in this life, there is Takeshita Masato.

Perhaps in 5 to 7 years, Xinghai Group will be able to absorb all the doctoral graduates from Japanese universities.

Besides Japan, highly educated individuals from all over the world who have witnessed his genuine emotions consider Xinghai Group as one of their top choices for job hunting or career change.

Such a company is not tiring, yet it ranks among the top in the industry in terms of profits. It's a rare find.

It can only be said that even in the 1990s, most workers around the world were exploited by their companies and suffered greatly.

That's why so many people have developed a favorable impression of Xinghai Group.

Many world leaders who are more focused on improving people's livelihoods have also seen a significant increase in their positive feelings towards Xinghai Group after reading the news.

In Finland, in particular, a nationwide atmosphere of love for Xinghai Group has been created.

When Finland was on the verge of bankruptcy due to losing its window to the Soviet Union, it was the Star Sea Group's massive investment that saved Finland.

Nokia, Vilio, KONE, and other world-renowned brands all escaped their predicaments thanks to investments from Xinghai Group.

Of course, even without the Starsea Group, Finland could get back on track on its own.

But that was in the past life; the Finnish government in this life doesn't know that.

However, Finland also benefited from accepting substantial investment from the Starsea Group. The country not only escaped its predicament more quickly, but its businesses also became far more competitive than in its previous life.

Furthermore, Finns enjoy higher incomes and benefits than in their previous lives, allowing them to surpass Western European countries in per capita income earlier.

It can be said that Masato Takeshita's series of strategic moves in Finland have made Xinghai Group virtually invincible in Europe. As for the four more important European countries—Britain, France, Germany, and Italy—Xinghai Group is still in the early stages of its strategic planning.

The main investments are in emerging technology companies, as well as businesses in telecommunications, supermarkets, food, and luxury goods.

The Xinghai Group currently has little chance of accessing Europe's truly exceptional industrial sector.

On the evening of the press conference, Masato Takeshita went home and turned on his computer.

He wanted to see how users around the world would rate his press conference that evening.

"Well said. This is the kind of company and boss that are worth joining."

"That's right, I'd heard for a long time that Xinghai Group had great benefits, so I had no choice but to join."

"Yes, I don't know if my educational background meets the requirements."

The internet today is an era of social networking among strangers, where no one knows anyone else.

Where there is praise, there will naturally be those whose interests are harmed who will hurl insults.

"Even if they're good, they're still heartless capitalists who bankrupt countless people. Their ill-gotten gains from stock speculation, ugh!"

"Exactly, exactly. They cheat and swindle in the stock market, and then pretend to give a portion of their money to charity."

"That's right, people like that are the most disgusting, fxxk hypocritical devils."

But the people have discerning eyes, and many in the chat room began to attack these trolls.

Then, after these trolls have been thoroughly insulted, the administrator can kick them out with one click, leaving them only to watch helplessly and furiously stare at their computers.

"This is interesting. It seems like it's time to develop instant messaging software."

Email is indeed the most popular online communication method in Europe and America, but even pioneers of communication software like EdoNet and chat rooms had developed into a considerable scale by the end of 95.

Furthermore, instant messaging is far more convenient than email in terms of chatting.

This is why, while some internet companies in later generations became world-class giants by developing chat software, there were no internet giants centered around email.

"Yes, we'll find someone to research it at the beginning of next year and try to launch it in February."

Developing instant messaging is very simple; it's not even as difficult as developing email.

Many early instant messaging software programs were developed by one or two people in one or two months.

Xinghai Group will invest even more manpower and resources next year, so completing the same amount of work in the same timeframe is definitely not a problem.

"I don't know if we can grow to 1000 million users in a month, but it shouldn't be a problem."

The Xinghai Internet Cafe Alliance comprises over 200 internet cafes and nearly 2 million computers worldwide.

With such a massive offline promotional network, reaching 1000 million users in the first month, or even 2000 million, wouldn't be difficult.

After all, chatting is a basic need when using the internet.

Especially in the early days of the internet, countless people were addicted to chatting, sometimes for an entire day.

However, Masato Takeshita did not immediately put the design of the instant messaging software on paper.

He worried that someone else would pick up the business plan, making it more difficult for Xinghai Group to capture the chat communication market.

He's very familiar with this stuff anyway, and can quickly come up with sketches and design plans. It's not too late to bring it out whenever we need to develop it.

Having made up his mind, Masato Takeshita happily scrolled through the chat room again.

The fact that so many strangers were genuinely praising him and his company made him feel even happier.

The next day, the young man only stayed at the company for a short while before heading to a private teahouse as agreed.

Today, he is hosting a banquet here to entertain former Japanese Prime Minister Takeshita Noboru.

"Congratulations, Masato, for bringing back the Person of the Year honor for Japan."

"You're too kind, senior. Actually, I think many people in Japan should have had this before."

"Junior, don't be modest, this really is a job for you."

Takeshita Noboru actually somewhat agreed with the young man's point of view, but he was a backstabber and naturally wouldn't speak up for the very worthy Kakuei Tanaka.

Even though Kakuei Tanaka risked offending the Americans by boldly deciding to normalize diplomatic relations between China and Japan, this was a key factor in his success in betraying them.

Even if you agree in your heart, you can't say nice things out loud.

Unless one day he completely lets go and successfully reconciles with the Tanaka family. But given Makiko Tanaka's personality, that's unlikely.

Masato Takeshita couldn't guess what Takeshita-senpai was thinking from his facial expressions, but he could roughly guess what Takeshita Noboru was thinking.

He then pretended not to know and changed the subject.

"Senior, has a decision been made regarding the Prime Minister?"

"Yes, it's Hashimoto-san."

"I see. Congratulations on your return to Japanese politics."

"No, I was just helping to fill in the gaps."

Takeshita Noboru was not entirely satisfied with Hashimoto's rise to power, as it represented a loss of influence within the Takeshita faction.

Ryutaro Hashimoto, the temperamental prime minister of kendo, would not accept Takeshita Noboru controlling everything from behind the scenes.

However, he was generally quite satisfied with being able to promote someone from his own faction to a position of power.

As he gets older, although he still values ​​the power he holds, he also places great importance on cultivating a successor.

Ryutaro Hashimoto was indeed not his first choice, but as long as he could take over and ensure the development of the Takeshita faction, everything else was trivial.

Shortly after the luncheon at Takeshita Noboru's place ended, the young man hosted another banquet for Obuchi Keizo at a different teahouse.

This man is his biggest investor in Japanese politics, donating far more than the father and son of He Ye, who are from the same hometown.

In fact, although He Ye and his son have many different political views, they both value relations with Asian countries, especially China.

Therefore, Masato Takeshita has made numerous donations to strengthen the Asian camp within Japan.

However, the political labels attached to the two were too prominent, making it very unlikely that they would reach the top, so the youth did not invest much in them.

Like Takeshita Noboru, Obuchi Keizo congratulated him on winning the Person of the Year award as soon as they met.

"Congratulations to you both! I hope that Senior Kobuchi will also receive this honor in the future."

Although the possibility is not very high, since Japan is not considered qualified by the United States, what if Obuchi-senpai defies fate?
If Obuchi-senpai can achieve a political breakthrough, the neutral faction in Japan that focuses on economic development will become even stronger.

"Impossible. Even Prime Minister Tanaka didn't have the chance back then, so I won't either."

Keizo Obuchi had already seen through the relationship between Japan and the United States and had never even considered this matter.

He now only hopes that after Ryutaro Hashimoto takes over, he can take over the position.

If Xinghai Group launches its instant messaging software, QQ, next year, it could quickly gain tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, of users.

(End of this chapter)