Chapter 99: Turmoil Unfolds in Tokyo

There was nothing much to it. I had simply grown suddenly interested in this man named Morita Jiro and discovered that his eldest son was also an alumnus of the University of Tokyo. Tao Zhiming studied her expression as he spoke. And then, in the news, I saw your father’s name.

Ueda Natsuna fixed him with a stare. “So?”

Tao Zhiming felt that something was off.

He had only wanted to look up Ueda Masahiro after seeing his name in the news, and ask Natsuna a few questions, since Morita Jiro was clearly no ordinary figure.

Unexpectedly, he had received an oddly cold response instead.

Looking at the somewhat gloomy expression on her face, Tao Zhiming paused before saying, “Nothing.”

“What did you find out?” Natsuna pressed, refusing to let him off.

“Nothing, really,” Tao Zhiming said truthfully. “I just thought that your family actually has ties with the Morita family, and then I remembered Professor Yamamoto. It seemed your father likes keeping company with economists.”

Natsuna studied his face carefully and found that his gaze was clear and unclouded.

After a moment of silence, she finally relaxed a little. “That’s true. Father does care about these things. The economy... is a major issue for the country right now.”

“I see...” Tao Zhiming thought about it briefly, then asked, “I only happened to come across this news by chance, but somehow I keep feeling that both yesterday and today, you haven’t been very happy. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Natsuna said as she stood up. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going back to practice my swordsmanship.”

With that, she was already gone.

Lin Qiyu found it a little strange and looked at him, asking in a low voice, “You care a lot about this news?”

“Is it strange to take an interest when I see a classmate’s father’s name?” Tao Zhiming brushed her off, then said, “Let’s officially start looking for what Professor Yamamoto wants!”

Lin Qiyu’s attention shifted at once. She spread out her notebook and picked up her pen.

Tao Zhiming glanced at her curiously. “Lin Qiyu, you’re only twenty, and yet you’re not lively at all. Whenever you’re not studying, you’re either working on business with total solemnity.”

“...And otherwise?” Lin Qiyu didn’t even look up. “I didn’t come to Tokyo to play around.”

“I have nothing to say.”

Thinking of the situation back home at this time, Tao Zhiming wondered whether the saying about the dazzling world making one dizzy simply didn’t apply to her.

As he began following the notes Lin Qiyu had recorded to search for the materials Yamamoto wanted, his mind kept turning over the matter as well.

His interest in the news did not begin with Ueda Masahiro’s name.

It was Morita Jiro who truly mattered.

At this point in time, the wealth of the Japanese archipelago was no joke.

In 1987, Forbes published its first global billionaire list, and the very first person to be crowned the world’s richest man was a Japanese. His name was almost absurdly grand: Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, number one.

But after the bubble burst, this man, once worth 165 billion dollars and once the richest in the world, was thrown into prison. And the one who then took his place was precisely Morita Jiro.

The Morita family had once been the wealthiest family in Japan. Even after the bubble collapsed, they did not fall; on the contrary, even twenty or thirty years later, the Morita family’s assets could still rank among the top ten in Japan.

There was another reason Tao Zhiming knew the Morita Group so well: one of Shanghai’s future landmarks, the so-called bottle opener, the Shanghai World Financial Center, had been acquired and developed by the Morita family after obtaining the land.

So when he saw the news that the Morita family was preparing a Roppongi Hills project, Tao Zhiming could not help but become fully alert.

He had to trust the Morita family’s judgment.

Besides, the timing was too uncanny. The Morita family rose rapidly during the bubble era; could this have something to do with that project?

And at this point in time, might it have some connection to the major matter of the privatization of the national railways?

Lin Qiyu could tell that Tao Zhiming was not very focused today, so she set down her pen. “You care a lot about that news?”

“Hm?” Tao Zhiming turned to look at her, then smiled freely. “Yes, it has something to do with the business I want to do.”

“Then follow the clues and investigate it,” Lin Qiyu said, pointing at the screen. “After we solve this matter, we can concentrate on finishing our task. One thing at a time.”

“So rigid,” Tao Zhiming said, raising an eyebrow as he flexed his fingers. “But you’re right.”

Lin Qiyu saw his whole state change completely, as though a cripple had suddenly stood up.

The agility of those fingers, that level of focus...

But it was obvious that his target was very clear.

What transport planning, what Tokyo redevelopment plan...

After a while, Lin Qiyu even saw him begin searching for information related to Ueda Masahiro.

Tao Zhiming was surprised, because only then did he realize that Ueda Masahiro was actually a rather active figure.

His most important current identity was as a board member of Kasumikaikan, an organization created by Japan’s old aristocracy, who could not bear to remain idle.

The so-called aristocracy referred to the noble class that existed in Japan before 1947. After that system was abolished, the former nobles became commoners, and naturally they could not bear idleness, so they founded an association: Kasumikaikan.

Nominally dedicated to inheriting and promoting traditional culture, it in fact possessed no small amount of power.

Even the volunteers for the enthronement ceremony of the Heisei era were drawn from Kasumikaikan.

After uncovering this, Tao Zhiming became even more interested in the relationship between Ueda Masahiro and Morita Jiro.

Could it be that Morita Jiro’s true rise was also connected to Kasumikaikan?

Tao Zhiming stood up and began pacing.

In this bubble-era Tokyo, the forces at work, both seen and unseen, were gradually becoming clearer.

On the surface, there were the companies and conglomerates active in finance, real estate, manufacturing, and commerce.

Inoue Ryu, Omiya Hiroshi, Kinoshita Shufu, Morita Jiro—these were the figures standing at the front.

Behind them, in the shadows, were the territorial divisions of top underworld powers like the Inagawa syndicate, and midlevel forces such as the Shindo group and the Kitashiro association, tied by countless threads to small and medium-sized companies and ordinary merchants.

Deeper still, and more obscure, were figures like those in Kasumikaikan, people who controlled many inheritances, the intricate family networks within conglomerates, and men like Yamamoto Akito, all exerting tremendous influence around future policy.

Kinoshita Shufu’s bold gamble and Morita Jiro’s maneuvers were probably both centered on Tokyo’s massive redevelopment and the privatization of the national railways, positioning themselves in real estate and elsewhere.

As for Kinoshita Shufu’s true purpose in buying that plot of land, Tao Zhiming still was not clear.

But one thing could be confirmed: for Mogo Property to become the third-highest revenue company in all of Japan in 1986, it must have encountered a huge opportunity this very year.

...

Omiya Hiroshi was also troubled by this issue, because it was one of Watanabe Akio’s tests. That test would determine whether he had any chance of entering the core decision-making circle of the Yuwa Group.

But after all, he was a man who had struggled in the Japanese business world for many years; his sources of information were not comparable to Tao Zhiming’s at present.

In a high-end kaiseki restaurant, the private room opened onto an elegant garden.

Omiya Hiroshi sat to one side, pouring fine sake into the cup of the man opposite him, and said respectfully, “Executive Director Dazaki, if that is the case, then the war surrounding the national railways has not even reached its most intense stage yet?”

“Of course not.” Dazaki Ichiryu, an executive director of Kanko Bank, the main bank of Yuwa Trading, lazily lifted his cup and said with a sigh, “This concerns colossal interests measured in the hundreds of trillions in the future. Right now, all sides are engaged in secret talks, lobbying, and exchanges. Not only are they dividing up the national railways’ prime assets, but even the less desirable assets left to the liquidation team are being targeted by many people trying to buy them cheaply.”

“But...” After raising his cup to invite him to drink, Omiya Hiroshi said, “The liquidation team is burdened with enormous debt. Even the less desirable assets should not be sold cheaply so easily, should they?”

“What matters most is still the location of the land,” Dazaki Ichiryu said with a smile. “Once the privatization of the national railways is complete, those major private railways and quasi-major private railways will also have a broader field for expansion. This is going to be a fierce competition indeed. Tokyo right now is full of undercurrents and rising winds.”

Omiya Hiroshi fell into thought. “Could it be... that Mogo Property has raised such a huge sum of money not merely to operate the land they already purchased, but rather... to participate in this feast as well?”

“Who knows?” Dazaki Ichiryu said with a pleasant smile. “But I hear the proposal for that ‘Mogo Elysium Town’ project was very well received at the Sumitomo Bank board meeting, and they even have land to use as collateral. As a peer, I can only envy them.”

“Executive Director Dazaki, then... if it were Kanko Bank, how much lending credit could it assess for that proposal?”

Dazaki Ichiryu held up three fingers.

“Thirty billion!”