Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 450 A New Round of Planning
Thinking that Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto would be stepping down next year, the young man couldn't help but sigh silently in his heart.

"Prime Minister Hashimoto is a really nice person, it's just a pity he's unlucky."

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was one of the most pro-China prime ministers after the war.

During his tenure, economic and cultural exchanges between China and Japan were very frequent.

The first mature automobile engine technology that China's automobile industry acquired after the reform and opening up was during his tenure.

In addition, he has repeatedly provided large loans to China to support China's economic development.

The number is the highest among all prime ministers.

Of course, Prime Minister Hashimoto's ultimate goal was the development of the Japanese economy.

His support for China is more about resisting the onslaught of American capital.

However, a gentleman judges by actions, not intentions, and China did indeed enjoy the benefits of Prime Minister Hashimoto's tenure.

While feeling regretful, he also thought of Prime Minister Hashimoto's solemn expression, which carried a sense of "do or die" solemnity.

However, no amount of solemnity could expose the hidden secrets of Chōshin Bank and the Ministry of Finance bureaucrats, despite the constraints imposed by various factions within the Liberal Democratic Party.

Masato Takeshita estimated that his expectations would soon be dashed again.

The young man's mind was racing, but this did not affect his normal communication with Keizo Obuchi.

Amidst laughter and conversation, Takeshita Masato casually made a small request.

"Senior Kobuchi, do you know anything about Ryuichi Koike, who comes from the guild hall?"

"Yes, is there something wrong? Tell me."

Keizo Obuchi had a fairly good memory and quickly recalled the information he had gathered about his junior.

It clearly states that the junior's company was disgusted by this person.

Could it be that this junior is trying to take advantage of the situation and kill a drowning dog?
Yes, Ryuichi Koike has now become a drowning dog.

Because of the incident at the headquarters, the four major securities companies were collectively punished, and the president of the First Kangyo Bank, the core company of the First Kangyo Group, committed suicide.

As a key figure, nothing would happen to him.

He was arrested by Japanese police as early as the beginning of July.

"Yes, if it weren't for the First Industrial Bank protecting him, I would have dealt with him long ago."

Although Ryuichi Koike had deep political and economic connections, he mainly relied on the First Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank.

Now that he has lost power at the First Industrial Bank, it's time to completely purge him.

"No problem, do you have the necessary documents?"

Yes, these are all there.

Masato Takeshita came prepared, immediately handing over the documents in his briefcase. The cases on them were enough to put him in jail for life, never to be released.

"Well, wait for my news."

"Yes, thank you, senior."

"It's nothing, you're too kind."

The young man still had great faith in Obuchi Keizo's political abilities, so he was somewhat relieved.

As for the remaining half, we'll have to wait for the formal sentencing.

The incident involving Ryuichi Koike was just a minor episode, and the two quickly steered the conversation back to the political arena.

"The economic crises in Southeast Asia and South Korea are expected to have a significant impact on Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party's prospects in next year's election may not be optimistic, so you should prepare early, senior."

"Don't take over as prime minister only to find yourself unable to do anything due to being hampered by various parties."

Prime Minister Obuchi has a long tenure within the Liberal Democratic Party, but his relationship with the opposition parties is generally poor.

In particular, there is a deep-rooted conflict with the opposition party led by Ichiro Ozawa.

After all, they both came from the Takeshita school, and heretics are often more hateful than enemies. His sudden death from a stroke in his previous life seems to have been influenced by Ichiro Ozawa.

"Yes, the timing of the additional consumption tax imposed on residents in April this year was indeed a bit inappropriate."

Although Keizo Obuchi longed for the prime minister's seat, he did not want it to come at the cost of the decline of the Liberal Democratic Party.

His dream was to lead Japan forward, not to sit there doing nothing like a mascot.

But Keizo Obuchi knew that he couldn't act too soon.

It's not the final moment yet; we need to keep a low profile. If we anger Prime Minister Hashimoto, our dreams might be completely lost before they've even begun.

Masato Takeshita not only had a long chat with Keio Obuchi, but also took the time to meet with his supporters Mikio Aoki, Hiromu Nonaka, and others.

These people are all staunch supporters of Senior Xiaoyuan, and the youth must ensure that they do not lose their constituencies in this wave of impact.

……

Time kept flowing, and soon it was mid-November when the former Shan Yi Securities voluntarily shut down.

Masato Takeshita looked at the economic data being passed down from below and couldn't help but gasp a few times.

"Hiss, as expected, increasing the consumption tax is never a good thing."

Although Xinghai Group's performance in the third quarter was still very good, only Japan saw a slowdown in growth.

In particular, Starry Lifestyle's growth rate in its domestic Japanese market has dropped to 4%.

Of course, compared to the overall level of life in Japan, life in Seikai is still quite good.

Because Japan's consumption level this year has only increased by 0.6% compared to last year.

However, one cannot judge things by averages; Xinghai Life needs to be compared with competitors such as Uniqlo and Muji.

Compared to its competitors' growth rates of over 10%, Xinghai Life is already somewhat lacking.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it, it's my Achilles' heel."

The overall environment was not good, and after thinking about it, Masato Takeshita was ultimately unable to find a suitable solution.

Uniqlo and Muji are newly emerging affordable brands, so their rapid growth is to be expected.

Unlike Xinghai Clothing, which is already ubiquitous in Japan, the ship is too big; even if it wanted to turn around, it would be difficult.

"No, we can't give up like this. Hmm, let me think about it again."

The young man was unwilling to give up and began searching for solutions in his mind.

"Hey, I've got it! We can acquire New Balance Sports Company."

New Balance was the most powerful footwear and apparel brand in the American sports industry before Nike rose to prominence.

If Xinghai Life can be acquired, it can fill the last gap.

As for Xinghai Group's own sports footwear and apparel brands, they currently only have a tiny bit of influence in Asia and are not strong enough.

"Okay, New Balance it is."

Having a plan doesn't mean it has to be implemented immediately.

The US stock market is rising too wildly right now; let's wait until after the Nasdaq crash.

Xinghai Lifestyle can also use this time to strengthen its own brand and avoid being unable to intervene in New Balance after the acquisition.

He is not Akio Morita, and he is unwilling to pay billions of dollars in tuition fees.

Apart from Xinghai Life's domestic market, the growth curves of the rest of Xinghai Group's companies are also very impressive.

Xinghai Technology, the industry leader

In the mobile phone sector, sales surpassed Motorola in the third quarter of this year, making it the world's highest-selling mobile phone company. In the chip sector, flash memory chip sales have multiplied, making it the world's second-largest flash memory chip manufacturer, second only to Intel.

After its spin-off, Xinghai Wafer also developed rapidly. In particular, the second wafer fab, overseen by President Zhang Rujing, attracted a large number of orders from the United States.

However, the fastest-growing subsidiary of Xinghai Technology is Xinghai Manufacturing.

After focusing its efforts on China, the company entered a period of explosive growth.

Revenue for the first three quarters of this year is already 1.5 times that of last year. It is projected that the full-year revenue will be close to 2.5 times.

Xinghai Manufacturing has truly benefited greatly from China's opening up to the outside world.

Although the situation is very promising, there are still some flaws.

For example, Xinghai Rescue not only failed to achieve performance growth this year, but its revenue has actually shrunk by two times.

Unfortunately, the disaster relief radio project is too simple to produce, and any company can easily bypass it.

When the economy was better, people were less competitive in vying for market share because of Xinghai Group, and they were willing to pay some patent fees.

Now that the economic crisis has arrived, even large companies are no longer holding back and are frantically vying for Xinghai Group's disaster relief market.

Survival is the only priority; reputation and such can only be put aside.

As for the other disaster relief projects, the company has only just started and is currently in a situation where it is only spending money and not making any money.

"No, we can't just watch Xinghai Rescue decline like this. We need to increase investment in the drone field."

Drones: a super project for future dual military and civilian use.

If Xinghai Rescue can reach a level close to that of DJI in its previous era, the drone firefighting project alone could recoup the research and development costs.

Furthermore, like China, Japan primarily has small plots of farmland. Using drones to spray pesticides is far more convenient than using agricultural aircraft, which are preferred in the United States.

It can be said that the profits here are also incredibly substantial.

Of course, the biggest expense is definitely the military.

If Xinghai Group's drone technology is competitive, not only will Japan, but also Europe and the United States will be eager to buy it.

Thinking about the many benefits of drones, the young man's resolve became even stronger.

“Let’s do it. We’ll start investing 200 billion yen every year from next year.”

200 billion yen in R&D expenditure is not much in the overall drone market. Masato Takeshita never imagined that such a small amount of money would be enough to build a drone super-enterprise.

His main concern was not wanting to fall behind other countries and companies; Xinghai Rescue would only truly make its mark in the mobile internet era.

Yes, drones will only truly demonstrate their power in the mobile internet era.

The main issue is that laptops are far less convenient than tablets and smartphones for connecting to drones.

Meanwhile, the improvement in communication quality is also an important factor in the rapid development of drones in the mobile internet era.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, the youth decided to first make a small-scale investment and then catch up with the world's advanced level.

Similar to Xinghai Chip Company's memory chip strategy, they focus solely on R&D without entering the market. Once the market matures, they swiftly seize a portion of it, thus becoming one of the major players in the field.

Xinghai Rescue is having a tough time, and Xinghai's hardware is in a similar situation.

Hardware devices such as mice, computer cases, motherboards, and keyboards face fierce competition from all over the world.

The competition, especially among Swiss company Logitech and Taiwanese companies, is fierce.

Despite Xinghai Hardware's best efforts, its market share inevitably declined slightly.

However, as Xinghai Hardware gradually shifts to China, the company will soon be able to regain its footing.

So what if their prices are cheaper than ours?
No matter how cheap you are, can you be cheaper than Chinese-made industrial products?
impossible!

Xinghai Group's top leader, Xinghai Technology, is developing rapidly, and its second-in-command, Xinghai Life, is not far behind.

Apart from Japan, all other markets are growing at a rate of over 30%.

Sales of clothing and food products under Xinghai Lifestyle have been steadily increasing in both China and the United States.

Especially its flagship product, Pulse, which relied heavily on advertising by Star Life. It not only dominated Red Bull in Japan and North America, but also held a large share of the energy drink market in Europe, Red Bull's second home.

It is projected that this year, the ambitious goal of achieving sales revenue exceeding 10 billion US dollars will be easily achieved.

From then on, Xinghai Life was finally able to have a well-known trademark with sales exceeding 10 billion US dollars.

Xinghai Apparel is also doing well, with sales even exceeding those of Pulse beverage.

The company's superbrand, Minimalism, has become a new fashion icon worldwide.

The only regret is that no single brand has yet achieved sales exceeding 10 billion.

Minimalism has the capability, but it will have to wait until at least next year.

The remaining Xinghai Architecture, Xinghai Passenger Transport, and Xinghai Luxury are also developing well.

Xinghai Construction, in particular, has contracted a large number of projects for Xinghai Group and is never short of work.

As for the last of the three giants, Starsea Financial, needless to say.

Before the financial crisis broke out, they preemptively sold off their stocks in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

After the financial crisis broke out, they made money while lying down every day.

Yes, it's about making money while lying down.

After the Asian financial crisis, the US stock market began to grow even faster. Xinghai Financial's stocks in the US are either appreciating or on their way to appreciation every day.

The fastest-growing technology and internet sectors have seen many companies double their market value in just three to five months.

Cisco, for example, saw its market value grow from several hundred million dollars to tens of billions in just a few years.

And this is just the beginning; Cisco's market value is expected to exceed 100 billion next year.

The madness and miracles of the tech industry are evident.

It's no wonder that in the 21st century, a large number of wealthy people in both China and the United States have come from the technology and internet industry.

"Not bad, not bad, Xinghai Communications has finally stood up."

Since establishing its brand in Thailand, Xinghai Communications' PHS (Personal Handyphone System) business has reached a new level.

Not only in Thailand, but throughout Southeast Asia, people are actively introducing Xinghai Group's PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology.

In addition, with the help of people of Japanese descent, Xinghai Communications has also achieved good development in South America.

Of course, China is still the most important market for PHS (Personal Handyphone System).

However, the Chinese market is still in its early stages, and large-scale rollout is expected to begin next year. By then, Xinghai Communications will be even stronger.

The emergence of Xiaolingtong (a type of mobile phone service) certainly made young people very happy.

However, when it comes to Xinghai Communications, his primary focus has always been on CDMA technology.

"This won't do; we still only have so few orders."

Domestic companies like NTT view Xinghai Communications as a competitor, while internationally, established giants like Ericsson have more trust in them.

This has resulted in the Xinghai Group's 2G technology not being widely adopted. Currently, they can only take on some peripheral business that companies like Ericsson and Fujitsu don't want, barely managing to stay afloat.

"Forget it, let's just suppress the 3G standard."

Masato Takeshita scratched his head and decided to abandon the 2G communications market where he had a dominant position in Europe and go all in on 3G.

Even if we can't beat Western Europe and the United States, we'll at least have some competitiveness.

If all else fails, Xinghai Group can build its own network and lay its own communication lines.

(End of this chapter)