Japanese Entertainment: A Comeback Beginning from Bankrupt President

"That's what I've been waiting for," Kazuya Sawashiro snapped his fingers, then gave the order, "Kurosaki, set up your phone. Let's film the video today and try to send it out before we leave tomorrow."

"Understood." Kurosaki Takuya immediately got to work, setting up the room.

At the very least, you need to set up the basic equipment for filming. You can't just take a selfie with your phone and call it a day. Even if you post that kind of video on TikTok, it won't get many views.

The sound recording, lighting, and background—every video is meticulously prepared.

Kurosaki Takuya handled these tasks with ease, and soon he had the set up. Once Amano Aki had prepared his speech, filming began.

"Everyone, something big has happened..."

...

Kazuya Sawashiro worked overnight to refine the video, and uploaded it to YouTube and TikTok the next day. By the time his fans saw it, he and Aki Amano had arrived in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

At Ube Airport, two people emerged carrying simple luggage.

The agency offered to pick them up, but Kazuya Sawaki, who was visiting Yamaguchi for the first time, chose a more cautious approach.

When he bought the tickets yesterday, he rented a car here. After leaving the airport, he went straight to the rental shop and then drove Amano Aki to the neighboring Shimonoseki City, which is also an important commercial center of Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The addresses of the agency and condiment factory that invited them are all here.

The journey wasn't far, so the two chatted for a while and then arrived.

The two arrived at the address of the GG agency store. Because they had greeted them after getting off the plane, as soon as their car entered the parking lot downstairs, an employee who was waiting there came up to guide Kazuya Sawashiro to park.

After getting out of the car and making contact, it was confirmed that he was an employee of the agency.

They really value this job. The planning manager came downstairs to greet Kazuya Sawashiro and Aki Amano, and kept apologizing to them, saying it was a real shame they couldn't go directly to Tokyo.

They were so enthusiastic that even Kazuya Sawashiro felt a little embarrassed and didn't ask them to come and pick him up.

However, he remained cautious, making sure they had indeed brought him and Amano Aki to the agency's office, and that everyone there was working normally, before relaxing a bit and beginning to chat amicably with the visitors:

"No, that's not true. She was just a little tired from live streaming for 24 hours and wanted to get some fresh air."

"To be honest, it was really unexpected that they would invite Amano from my family. We were all shocked when we received the message, thinking it was one of those spam emails."

"Without further ado, if everyone agrees on this choice, let's go visit the factory now. Necessary product research is also part of the CM performance."

The negotiation is divided into three steps.

The first step is introductions and small talk, the second step is reaching a verbal agreement, and the third step is setting off for the factory.

You need to know what you're endorsing, otherwise how can you recommend it to others on your own channel? Product introductions can start from the source and be presented openly, without just focusing on the taste itself.

Admittedly, taste is extremely important, but a safe and clean environment is also a plus.

Nobody wants to eat anything produced in a dirty and chaotic environment, not even a condiment.

When Kazuya Sawashiro proposed this idea, the agency also had the same idea. After the two reached a consensus, the next step was much simpler: to go to the factory and meet with the brand.

The group, full of enthusiasm, arrived at the factory near the port.

On the way, the representative of the agency introduced the company they were cooperating with again.

Decades ago, it was a small soy sauce workshop. After two generations of hard work, it finally gained a reputation and then took out a bank loan to expand its production capacity. Now, it sells its products throughout Yamaguchi Prefecture and is a well-known condiment company in the prefecture.

The product they hired Amano Aki to endorse is a grapefruit vinegar that they developed in recent years.

After getting a general idea, Amano Aki, sitting next to Sawashiro Kazuya, suddenly blurted out, "You know, I actually really like sour things, right?"

"Never heard of it, what's wrong?" Kazuya Sawashiro was driving, so he only glanced at Aki Amano before looking away, casually saying, "You know I also like sweets, right?"

"I know!" Amano Aki smiled brightly.

She didn't know about other things, but she knew this very well, because Kazuya Sawashiro always bought ice cream whenever he went out.

If you say ice cream is sour, then Akira Nano has nothing to say.

We should follow common sense.

"Ah...you seem quite meticulous, so I'll reward you with a little red flower." Kazuya Sawashiro said somewhat perfunctorily.

But considering that he was driving, and since Amano Aki didn't seem to have any emotional issues, she just hummed twice to express her dissatisfaction.

Kazuya ignored her and focused on driving to catch up with the agency staff ahead. The group arrived at the factory without incident.

Here, the factory staff had already arrived at the entrance to wait, and it was indeed the factory at the address.

The same small talk was exchanged, but the factory workers were much more reserved than the dealers, lacking their liveliness and cheerfulness. As a result, the small talk ended in just a few minutes.

After learning of Amano Aki's purpose, the factory offered its full support.

They dressed Kazuya Sawashiro and Aki Amano in factory work clothes and took them through the initial warehousing process, showing them how a bottle of yuzu vinegar is made.

Finally, I even got to try the grapefruit vinegar at the factory canteen. It felt as relaxing as a middle school student's factory visit.

Kazuya Sawashiro must be the homeroom teacher who brought the middle school students here, right? But he ate quite a lot during the meal, which is very much in line with the image of a middle school homeroom teacher, just like my alma mater... By the way, what was this homeroom teacher's name again?

Never mind, the discussion went very smoothly anyway.

There are no problems with the factory, no problems with the distributors, and no problems with Kazuya Sawashiro. Now the only thing to consider is the contract.

However, this is an issue that the distributors need to consider.

As long as the conditions here aren't bad, Kazuya Sawashiro will take on the CM job.

The two, now having nothing to do, started strolling around the city center of Shimonoseki.

It was their first time there, so they wandered around aimlessly, going wherever they pleased, and grabbing whatever they could find to eat when they got hungry.

During their aimless journey, the two came across a condiment specialty store and went inside to try out the products.

I don't know if it's because the packaging is nicer here or the store's decor is better, but the taste of the food we tried was much better than when we tried it at the factory, especially when we were mixing it with rice.

The refreshing taste made Kazuya Sawashiro understand the factory's good intentions.

Indeed, as long as you have a bottle of grapefruit vinegar by your side, it doesn't matter if Aki Amano blows up the kitchen.

With this contrast, having Akito Amano endorse this product will surely make it a popular item, and it might even break through geographical limitations and sell the product in Tokyo.

Tokyo is a metropolis with tens of millions of permanent residents. If sales can be established here, Aki Amano can receive more attention and land more commercials.