Training the Heavens

Chapter 96 The issue of royalties

"Teacher Gao, our company has been engaged in the book publishing industry for 35 years and has a very clear understanding of the Japanese book market. According to our research, your book "Showa American Story" has a high probability of entering the annual bestseller list and achieving sales of over one million copies!"

Mibu Heita began to calculate the bill for Gao Jialin. "Based on the price of 1500 yen per copy, you can get million yen in royalties for one million copies. At the current exchange rate, that's equivalent to million US dollars."

This number is not an exaggeration. Japan's book publishing industry is still quite hot. Next year, Haruki Murakami will complete his classic work "Norwegian Wood", which has sold 700 million copies in ten years.

Since then, every time he releases a new book, it quickly tops the bestseller list and sells over a million copies.

With the hype of "Showa American Story", it is not an exaggeration to achieve sales of one million copies, and even several times more is not impossible. Now is the heyday of the Neon bubble economy, and they all believe that Neon can really buy the entire United States. Such works just hit their G-spot, and it is impossible for them not to be popular.

Upon hearing this number, the accompanying teacher couldn't help but breathe faster, because China's total foreign exchange reserves last year were only US$26.44 billion. Now, Gao Jialin's book can almost help increase the country's foreign exchange reserves by one two thousandth, which is more than many large state-owned factories work for a year.

On the one hand, there was the temptation of foreign exchange, and on the other hand, there was Tokuma Yasukai's face. Tokuma Shoten used these two magic weapons at the same time, making it really difficult for the Chinese delegation to resist.

After the visit, a report was made immediately after returning, and Tokuma Yasukai also used his own channels to express his intentions to some familiar Chinese leaders, and finally got a positive response before Gao Jialin returned to China. They agreed to the cooperation.

Gao Jialin also received the official notice, "Mr. Tokuma is an old friend of ours. He has always been very supportive of the development of our country's literature and art. Now that there is such an opportunity, if it is okay, you should agree to it, Mr. Tokuma."

"There's a problem. I only have a rough framework in my mind right now. If I want to fill in the details and come up with a complete story, I'm afraid I'll need to read a lot of information, because this story is set in Japan and the United States, and my accumulation is not enough to support such a work." Gao Jialin said sincerely.

The leader frowned and asked, "So what are you going to do?"

He was wondering in his heart, could it be that Gao Jialin wanted to use this as an excuse to stay in Japan?
Gao Jialin didn't think so. "I would like to ask Tokuma Shoten to help me collect materials. At the same time, I would like you to help me find a domestic expert who is proficient in Japanese to help me translate these materials, and to translate the book into Japanese after I finish writing it."

Hearing this, the team leader's brows relaxed immediately. "No problem. As long as you can write a good book, we will fully support you."

This is foreign exchange worth more than one million US dollars. If it can be successfully obtained, the country will have more valuable funds to introduce advanced foreign technology, and he who made all this happen will also be commended and rewarded by his superiors.

"Yesterday, Heita Nibu also mentioned this issue. Tokuma Shoten is willing to help me collect information and is also willing to arrange for a writer who is proficient in Chinese to translate my novel. However, in this case, we have to give him a portion of the royalties, about 4%. I think our country is so short of foreign exchange now, and it would be a pity to hand over such a large sum of money to foreigners. It is better to keep it for ourselves." Gao Jialin explained the reason for doing so.

"Well, you're very thoughtful. Every penny of foreign exchange is invaluable to the country. We should take as much as we can. There's no need to hand it over to Tokuma Shoten for things we can handle ourselves." The leader's expression grew increasingly amiable as he spoke. "Also, Jialin, according to regulations, you can't receive your royalties in Japanese yen directly. You have to give it to the government, which will then convert it into RMB at the official exchange rate."

"Of course, considering your contribution and your potential need to purchase Japanese books or other goods, we will also leave you some funds for your own use."

No wonder the leader's tone became gentle, because doing so was indeed a bit unfair to Gao Jialin. The foreign exchange rate is so tight now, and the exchange rate exchanged privately is much higher than the official exchange rate. It is indeed a bit of a loss to receive RMB according to the official exchange rate.

"Uh." Gao Jialin looked embarrassed.

The smile on the leader's face softened a little. The most important thing now was to stabilize Gao Jialin. If he got angry and quit, wouldn't the one million US dollars in foreign exchange be wasted?
"Jialin, do you have any ideas? Don't worry, just speak up. Can we discuss this? If you think it's a waste to convert everything into RMB, we can help you exchange some foreign exchange certificates. That way, you can go directly to the Friendship Store to buy things."

"These past few days, while participating in various exchange activities, I've also been paying attention to Japan's current economic development and have some superficial understanding of its future development trends. So, I originally planned to use these royalties to conduct some economic experiments. Now... If I do as you say and directly convert most of the royalties into RMB, then this opportunity for experimentation will be lost."

Analyzing the development trend of the Japanese economy? As a Chinese major, do you have the ability to do this?

The head of the delegation was about to criticize when he suddenly remembered that Gao Jialin had published articles in the internal reference. One was about the reform achievements in Guangdong and the other was about the current development status of Shanghai's private economy. Both articles were related to economics, and he was indeed qualified to say such things.

He could only continue to ask, "What results have you found? What kind of experiments do you plan to do?"

"Last year, the world's five major economic powers (the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France) reached the 'Plaza Accord' at the Plaza Hotel in New York. The five governments jointly intervened in the foreign exchange market, inducing an orderly depreciation of the US dollar against major currencies, which in turn pushed up the yen."

"This will be a huge blow to Japan's export industry, but it is good news for the domestic stock and real estate markets. So I originally planned to invest all these royalties in Japan's financial markets to see if the future development of the Japanese economy is consistent with my predictions."

"If I'm right, the royalties will multiply exponentially, and it wouldn't be surprising if it reached two or even three million dollars."

The impact of the Plaza Accord on the Japanese economy is so well-known. As a time traveler, how could I bear to miss such an opportunity?

"How can you be sure that what you said will really happen?" The team leader was depressed. He didn't understand economics and it was difficult for him to judge.

(End of this chapter)