Tokyo: My obsession with China led me to become the king of Japanese entertainment.

Influence?

Upon hearing this question, Jun Sakurada paused for a second, then chuckled.

To be honest, if you really think about it, these six people aren't exactly unknown in China.

The most well-known are Taka and Sato Takeru. One of them is in ONE OK ROCK, which is the only one in Japan in the 21st century that can hold a 30,000-person event in mainland China and a 40,000- or 50,000-person event in Taiwan, and even hold two consecutive days of events to generate such a huge buzz.

The other is one of the most well-known new generation Japanese male actors in China, a god of manga adaptations, who has played almost all the dreams of young people, from Kamen Rider Den-O to Rurouni Kenshin.

Ryunosuke Kamiki is slightly inferior, although "Your Name" is far more well-known in China, especially among young couples born in the 00s and 95s.

But he was just a temporary voice actor who crossed over from other fields, and the amount of attention he received was limited. He couldn't compare to Makoto Shinkai, RADWIMPS, or even the female lead, Mone Kamishiraishi.

As for the three actresses, Yuriko Yoshitaka has been cultivating her career for many years, Minami Hamabe has a promising future, and even the lowest-ranking actress, Kanka Mori, has the opportunity to make some money in China with her role as Mikan Natsumi.

However, Jun Sakurada didn't intend to idly arrange a whole series of events for them, from popular to critical, and simply shook his head and chuckled:

"You are all people with famous works. If you want to make some money in China, it's not difficult to hold a small meet-and-greet and earn a few hundred or a thousand tickets, or even tens of millions of yen."

He spoke slowly, his tone leisurely yet unfathomable: "China has 1.4 billion people. Even if you can only make one in 100,000 of them aware of you, and only one in ten of those 100,000 are willing to spend money on you..."

"That's 1,400 paying users."

"But—" he changed the subject, his tone becoming slightly more serious, "if you want to generate stable revenue from the Chinese market in the long term and have a stable fan base..."

"Then you must give them enough respect, research and create content that they like and look forward to, and avoid their minefield."

"Instead of opening an account, posting an entry statement, reading one comment, and then it's all GG."

"In that case, you're only fit to make quick money once."

In the past life of Jun Sakurada, an interesting phenomenon was that many tokusatsu actors with low status and limited popularity, such as Masahiro Inoue, Takaya Aoyagi, and Hideo Ishiguro, actually thrived in the operation of their personal IPs in China and maintained high popularity for a long time.

People like Masahiro Inoue, with over a million followers on their accounts, can get roles in Chinese tokusatsu productions, and have no trouble selling tickets for their meet-and-greets—they definitely make money.

On the contrary, big names like Takeru Satoh, whose domestic status far surpasses the former and whose basic popularity in China is also much higher, have not been as successful in managing their personal brand.

Or rather, he didn't really take it seriously at all.

Because Hideo Ishiguro and Masahiro Inoue are not high-profile figures, they are willing to lower their standards and study and cater to the preferences of Chinese audiences, avoid their pitfalls, and create content that is popular and enjoyable.

Sincerity begets sincerity, and you will naturally gain the support of the audience.

Sato Takeru is actually doing alright; his management style is fairly normal for a celebrity, much better than those big local brands that just post an onboarding video.

But the level of dedication is still incomparable.

Such words might seem strange if spoken by an ordinary passerby, but coming from the mouth of Jun Sakurada, who has already generated hundreds of millions in revenue in the Chinese market, they are golden words that need to be studied word by word.

Everyone listened attentively; apart from a very few clowns, no one would waste time and miss out on making money.

However, Jun Sakurada felt that it was still lacking something.

He blinked, then put on that innocent, bewildered expression that had fooled Johnny's and the audience alike:

"To be honest, I'm quite curious. The income in the Chinese film and television industry is so much higher than in Japan, so why don't I see many Japanese actors willing to try their luck there?"

This remark piqued the interest of Takeru Satoh and Ryunosuke Kamiki, who were already pondering issues related to China.

"I've heard that Chinese actors earn a lot of money, but I don't really know how much. Xiao Run, do you know anything about this?"

Takeru Satoh nodded and asked with some curiosity.

Sakurada Jun was inwardly delighted at the bombshell he was about to drop, but outwardly maintained an innocent demeanor:

"You know a little bit, for example, I remember there was a female celebrity surnamed Zheng this year, who should be considered a regular A-list actress, and she earned 160 million."

"That's quite a lot! For an actor, that's a considerable annual income!" Takeru Satoh said with deep respect.

Throughout 2018, Takeru Satoh took on a 150-episode morning drama, a 10-episode primetime drama, two starring films, a dual-lead film, and a special guest appearance, making him a true workaholic.

With film and television fees, GG income, and other sources, the publicly disclosed income for the year was approximately 1-2 million.

There are definitely extras in private, but there's no need to put them out in public.

As a top-tier celebrity in Japan, this income is to be expected. However, an ordinary first-tier celebrity in China can earn 160 million, so this income level may indeed be higher than that of the Japanese entertainment industry.

However, just as he was sighing, Jun Sakurada gave him a strange look: "What are you thinking? This is the money someone earned from one drama!"

"A drama series earns over 100 million?" This time, it was all six stars who exclaimed in surprise, their eyes wide as if they had seen a ghost.

It should be noted that in Japan, the salary for a top-tier lead actor in a normal prime-time drama series is roughly between 100 million and 300 million yen per episode.

Based on ten episodes, the direct salary an actor could receive for a prime-time TV drama would be approximately 20 to 30 million yen.

This is why Japanese actors primarily rely on sex work for their income.

But not all of these people present are qualified to receive that amount...

"You mean, someone else's salary for filming one drama is equivalent to my total salary for filming seven or eight dramas in three years?" Sato Takeru's eyes widened like a toad, completely losing his previous airs as a movie star.

However, Jun Sakurada just gave him another strange look: "You can earn 200 million yen from one drama?"

"How is that possible! That's why I said I need seven or eight dramas to—wait!" Sato Takeru said, but suddenly realized a bizarre possibility, and his expression gradually became somewhat comical.

"Xiao Run..." His voice sounded like he was sleepwalking, "What you just said, '1.6 billion,' the unit should be Japanese yen, right?"

"What Japanese yen? Why would a Chinese celebrity use Japanese yen for settlement when they have nothing better to do? Of course, it's RMB!" Sakurada Jun thought to himself with a wicked grin as he dropped the final bombshell.

This time, he was met with pairs of bloodshot eyes.

Is it red-hot? Red-hot is good.

Once the market turns red, it's clear that the company is interested in the Chinese market and needs to proactively try to operate within it.

And if I, Jun Sakurada, am involved, I'll have some popularity to ride on.

This is wisdom.