Reborn In the Tokyo Bubble Era

   Extra: Background Description

   This is the first time I wrote a commercial novel with a foreign background. In addition to the indistinguishable troubles caused by the names of people, the level and distribution of foreign background forces also made everyone feel a little dizzy.

  Here is a combing explanation.

   1. Consortium

  The Nippon Foundation has a long history and can be roughly divided into two stages: pre-war and post-war.

  【Pre-War Stage】

   Before the war, Japan gradually formed four old chaebols: Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Yasuda.

   (1) The Mitsui Foundation

  The founder, Hachiro Mitsui, Takari opened a silk and satin shop in Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto in 1673, and later also operated a bank. Since the 1820s, the Mitsui Exchange Shop, which mainly deals with money exchange business, has become a commercial capital plus usury capital; at the same time, it has subsidized feudal princes, arranged exchange for the Tokugawa shogunate, and became a wealthy businessman as a royal privileged merchant. .

  In the early years of the Meiji regime, the Mitsui family changed their identity from a royal privileged businessman to a political businessman in the new era, ensuring that their identity and interests would not be affected by regime change. In 1876, it was transferred to the new imperial court in the early years of the Meiji Restoration, and was taken care of by the Meiji government to control the country's financial industry. At this time, the Mitsui family started its own private bank, the Mitsui Bank, based on the integration of the Mitsui Exchange and its affiliated financial institutions and the control of the then official bank. Mitsui Bank was the first private bank in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Since then, it has continued to expand its industrial scope by relying on Mitsui Bank.

   With the implementation of the wartime system, the Mitsui chaebol cooperated with the military to expand its business to the military industry and occupied territories, and finally developed into a big chaebol with 151 direct, collateral and investment companies before World War II. Among them, the turnover of Mitsui & Co. alone reached 3 billion yen in the early 1940s. During World War II, the Mitsui Bank, the core of the Mitsui chaebol, merged with the First Bank of Japan and changed its name to the Imperial Bank. Its operating strength soon surpassed that of Yasuda Bank and ranked first among chaebol banks, which enabled Mitsui's monopoly chaebol companies and affiliated companies to obtain stronger and stronger financial support through this bank merger and opportunities for faster development. By the end of World War II, the size of the Mitsui chaebol was 1.5 times that of the Mitsubishi chaebol, twice that of the Sumitomo chaebol, and about three times that of the Yasuda chaebol.

   (2) Mitsubishi chaebol

   The history of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu can be traced back to the transportation business that Yataro Iwasaki ran in the Tosa Domain. In 1870, Yataro Iwasaki served as the leader of 99 chambers of commerce in the Tosa Domain Kuroyashiki (an organization responsible for storing and selling goods from various local daimyo) established by the Tosa Domain in Horie, Nishi Ward, Osaka City. In 1871, Japan implemented the abolition of feudal territories and set up prefectures, and 99 chambers of commerce became individual enterprises. So Iwasaki Yataro purchased three ships from the Tosa Domain, established the Mitsubishi Chamber of Commerce in 1873, and began to operate shipping (later developed into Nippon Yusen) and commerce (later developed into Mitsubishi Corporation) and other businesses.

The Mitsubishi Consortium started with shipping and commerce. In 1917, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Mitsubishi Paper were established. In 1918, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Mining were established. In 1919, Mitsubishi Bank was established. In 1920, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding was divided into Mitsubishi. Internal combustion engine manufacturing and subsidiaries such as Mitsubishi Electric. Since then, with Japan's continuous war, the domestic demand for military products has surged, and Mitsubishi's industry has achieved unprecedented development.

   (3) Sumitomo chaebol

  Sumitomo is one of the oldest conglomerates in Japan with a history of over 400 years. As early as the 16th century, the Sumitomo family developed and expanded by creating and operating a copper mine on Shikoku Island and became Japan's official copper supplier, mainly serving some of the most powerful and famous families in Japan at that time, including in 1603. - The Tokugawa shogunate who ruled Japan for more than 260 years in 1868.

  After the Meiji Restoration, while absorbing Western technology and expanding copper production, related businesses such as the machinery industry, coal-fired industry, wire manufacturing industry, and forestry were also developed one after another, gradually developing into a modern consortium centered on industry, mining, and finance.

   By the beginning of the 20th century, the Sumitomo family had rapidly developed into the third largest financial chaebol in Japan. In the 1930s and during World War II, some politically influential monopoly groups became the main followers of the Japanese government, and the Sumitomo Foundation was no exception. During this period, the family concentration of the Sumitomo Consortium became more obvious, and most of the consortium's industries were concentrated in the hands of the Sumitomo family. By 1937, the 16th generation of the Sumitomo family owned as much as 90% of the consortium's total share capital.

   (4) Yasuda chaebol

  The Yasuda family was originally a privileged merchant in the Meiji Restoration era, and started by operating a coin exchange. In 1863, Yasuda Zenjiro used 250,000 taels of gold as the capital to open the "Ysudaya" bank in Tokyo, which developed smoothly. In 1879, after the approval of the government, Yasuda established a private Yasuda Bank based on the bank, and gradually expanded to the fields of textiles, construction, railway transportation, etc., forming a management group including a number of enterprises. In 1912, Yasuda set up the holding company of "Ysuda Maintenance Company", which initially formed the Yasuda chaebol, which had a great influence on the Japanese economy.

   In 1923, the ambitious Yasuda Zenjiro annexed 10 banks at a time. By the early 1930s, the Yasuda chaebol had a large consortium including 14 banks, 12 industrial and commercial enterprises and 6 insurance companies.

   The Yasuda chaebol is the predecessor of the Fuji Foundation.

  【Post-war reconstruction】

  Before the war, in addition to the four major financial groups, of course there were dozens of other chaebols in Japan. These chaebols are basically controlled by a certain core family, realizing the monopoly chaebol with the combination of industrial capital, commercial capital and financial capital.

  After World War II, the US government, for its own economic interests, in the name of anti-monopoly, implemented a policy of restraint on the old chaebol, disbanded the Japanese chaebol organization, but retained the existence of its banking organization. Since 1951, out of the needs of the Cold War, the United States has gradually adopted a policy of supporting monopoly capital, prompting the reorganization of Japan's chaebol organizations.

  The amendment to the "Prohibition of Monopoly Law" in 1953 relaxed the restrictions on holding shares and part-time jobs in competitive companies. For example, the shareholding limit for financial institutions was expanded from 5% to 10%.

   Under the new policy environment, the financial institutions of the old chaebols regrouped their original subordinate enterprises, and evolved into a new Japanese consortium based on the high integration of financial capital, industrial capital and commercial capital. Among them, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Fuji, Sanwa, Daiichi Persuasion and other six consortiums are the largest, thus forming the famous six consortium-type enterprise groups in Japan. In the subsequent development, some other medium-sized consortia gradually emerged.

  After the war, the Japanese consortium was no longer completely controlled by a certain family like the chaebol before the war. Because of the policy made by the United States, Japan's post-war consortium can only achieve control over the consortium through closer ally-style relations. In this context, the old aristocrats, old chaebol families, political families, and business families who were originally in high positions were slowly connected through marriage and exchange of interests. Although the consortium is no longer fully controlled by a certain family, it can still achieve relative control through the interests of marriage, cross-shareholding, and even more shady handles.

  In the system of the post-war consortium, the core is still the bank, followed by the president coordination meeting among the presidents of the core enterprises under the consortium. Due to Japan's special history and the control needs of the United States, Japanese consortiums cannot be as blatant as South Korean chaebols. At least today, the Japanese consortium is no longer continuously controlled by a certain family. However, the establishment of the six major consortiums and other emerging consortiums after the war has always been inseparable from the efforts and continuous operation of some core families.

In this book, one of the core families behind the scenes of Mitsubishi and Sumitomo is still set as the founding Iwasaki family and Sumitomo family, while Hirano Takao and Kitagawa Atsushi appear in the front management of Mitsubishi and Sumitomo on behalf of these two families. The top roles of Suga Tokuo and Ansai Zenwei are the assistants of Hirano Takao and Kitagawa Atsushi respectively.

   In the system of the Japanese consortium, it has advantages and disadvantages to become the core enterprise of the consortium. The benefit is being able to get unprecedented resources and financial support, the drawback is that the independence of development is damaged, and it is difficult and difficult to further become the core family of the consortium. Mori Group and Mogami Hengchan are upstarts with relatively good development, and the consortium has become their shareholders and provided a lot of support. If these upstarts are further made into the core enterprises of the consortium, the consortium will invest in the upstart enterprises through its core banks and other core enterprises, so that the total shares held by the consortium members will occupy a controlling position. After that, the board of directors of the core bank and the presidents of the core enterprises can coordinate to realize the strategic control of the development of the upstart enterprises, personnel dispatch and other matters.

Those who have watched "Naoki Bansawa" may not understand, for example, Naoki Bansawa and Kondo, why are they sent here and there at one time, even in industries that have nothing to do with finance, the reason Right here. In addition to core banks and core enterprises, the consortium will also have many supply chain supporting enterprises and peripheral enterprises.

   All in all, there are six top Japanese consortiums after the war, and there are others, such as Tomowa, which was fabricated in this book. On the surface, the consortium is just an "alliance organization" with the core bank as the link and the president's association as the platform, but secretly, it is still a close organization deeply influenced by the old chaebol family, the old aristocracy, and the new political family. Their means of achieving stable control and coordination are often inseparable from interests, marriages and handles.

   2. National Railway Reform

   In the 1980s, the world's most prosperous economic wind was called the "neo-liberal economy". Under the banner of the "neo-liberal economy", Thatcher of the United Kingdom carried out the reform of state-owned enterprises, and Japan was also affected. He was about to strip the fat and bloated state-owned enterprises from government assets in order to "reduce the burden" for the government.

The Prime Minister of Japan at that time, and Yasohiro Nakasone, who is often mentioned in our entire series, proposed the great "privatization reform" and pointed the gun directly at Japan's three major state-owned enterprises: NTT Japan Telecom Telephone Company, JR Japan State-owned Railway Company , JT Japan Monopoly Society.

   Among these three state-owned enterprises, NTT is the best soft persimmon. In 1985, it started to discuss the reform plan, and in 1986, it announced the plan and prepared to go public.

   The second one is the National Railway.

  Japan Railways was state-run from the postwar period to the 1980s. Since 1964, Japan's National Railways' profit has fallen year by year due to competition from the expressway and aviation industries. By 1983, the share of railway passenger transport in all types of transport had dropped to 23%. The following year, the freight share fell to only 6%, and operating losses amounted to hundreds of billions of yen. The total debt exceeded 20 trillion yen in 1986, and by 1987 the losses together with the debt amounted to 37.5 trillion yen.

  The national railway reform, the main goal of the government at that time was to repay debts. However, the debts of trillions of yen are not borne by the private consortium forces that want to participate in the reform of the national railway. Therefore, it is mainly how to compete for advantageous assets, how to get rid of high-debt assets, and how to gain a dominant position in the enterprises after the national railway private reform and division after obtaining good assets.

   In this book, the land manufactured by Takeda, Mogami Hangsan and Mori Group is valued because of its proximity to the assets of the National Railway, which will help all parties to gain benefits in the private reform of the National Railway.

   But it should be noted that everyone may be surprised that such a large interest is not taken seriously by the consortium. In fact, this is an underestimation of the size of the large consortium. For example, the land made by Takeda was won by Tao Zhiming for 4 billion yen. At the moment, the core of the incident is the Ueda family with assets of 40 billion yen and the Mori Group and Mosami Hengsan, which are about a few hundred billion yen smaller. .

   But as revealed before, big financial groups such as the Iwasaki family are more concerned with the election of the ruling party, the next prime minister, government officials leading the reform of the national railway private sector, and competition with other financial groups. Even if these are ignored, there are often dozens of core enterprises under the consortium, each of which is at least the Mori Group and the most constant production level enterprises. The total asset size that can be controlled is actually more than the entire National Railway itself.

   Take the Mitsui Consortium as an example. The well-known Toshiba, Sony, Sanyo, NEC, and Toyota are all core companies of Mitsui. There are so many affairs to take care of, and attention has been devoted to the reform of the national railway, but not all of it, it is a normal thing.

   3. Old Chinese

  The Chinese were the noble class that existed in Japan between the Meiji Restoration and the end of World War II. The emergence of "Chinese" began on June 17, 1869, and the "Chinese Decree" that formally established the "Chinese system" was enacted on July 7, 1884. "Chinese" was officially abolished on May 3, 1947, with the entry into force of the post-war Japanese constitution.

   In 1869, after the return of the feudal vassal records in various regions of Japan, the original titles such as "Gongjia" (gongqing) and "Daimyo" (feudal lords) were abolished, and they were collectively referred to as Chinese. In 1871, Japan abolished the old identity system and divided its citizens into four categories: the royal family, the Chinese family, the gentry, and the commoners. The Chinese became the aristocratic class second only to the royal family and enjoyed many political and economic privileges.

   In 1884, the "Chinese Order" was promulgated, which divided the Chinese into five grades: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. Among them, the old Gongqing family granted titles of viscount and above according to their family background. The old daimyo family awarded the title of baron and above based on Shigao (the amount of salary) and performance in the Boshin War.

  In terms of economy, according to the laws at the time, the hereditary property of the Chinese was specially protected, and the transfer and mortgage of it as the "subject" was invalid. This prevents the loss of Chinese property and ensures their basic economic status. In addition, the Chinese also raised funds to set up the National 15th Bank (also known as the Chinese Bank) to ensure the preservation and appreciation of their property. In order to protect the old Chinese people who have always been poor, the Japanese government has also specially set up the "Old Tangshang Chinese Protection Fund" to help the poor Chinese.

   In terms of politics, the majority of members of the House of Lords are composed of ethnic Chinese, among which Dukes and Marquis over the age of 30 are ex officio members, and Earls, Viscounts and Barons are elected among those over 30 who hold their titles. Among them, there are 18 earl members, 66 viscounts and 66 baron members each, for a term of seven years. By convention, the chairman and vice-chairman of the House of Lords, the minister of the palace, and the president of Zongzhiliao can only be served by the Chinese. In the Meiji and Taisho eras, since the prime minister was appointed by the emperor, most of the prime ministers were of Chinese origin, among which famous ones such as Ito Hirobumi, Kuroda Kiyotaka, Kataro, Saiyuanji Gongwang, Konoe Fumio, etc. As the head of the Tokugawa clan, Tokugawa Iada was also ordered by the emperor to organize a cabinet, but refused the emperor's order due to the opposition of the family meeting.

   In terms of honor, the Chinese titles are hereditary. All the Chinese retain their seats in the palace. How high is the status of the Chinese? Take the baron of the lowest rank as an example, his seat in the palace is higher than that of the members of the House of Lords and the House of Representatives, and higher than the third class of high officials. The third-class senior officer is equivalent to today's army chief, the judge of the local court, the first-class clerk of the embassy abroad or the cabinet, and the provincial clerk.

   In terms of education, all Chinese children have the privilege of entering the Academy. In the future, as long as the grades in the Gakushuin can be ranked above the average, they will be able to enter the Tokyo Imperial University, the number one in Japan. Gakushuin students with lower grades can also enter Kyoto Imperial University to study, while ordinary people do not know how many years of suffering and hard work to be admitted to these two universities.

   In addition, the Chinese also organized the establishment of a Chinese Association to strengthen communication with each other. Tokugawa Jiada, the head of the Tokugawa clan, served as the curator all the year round.

   In 1947, according to the new Constitution of Japan, the Chinese system was officially abolished. According to statistics, at that time there were 17 dukes, 38 marquis, 105 earls, 351 viscounts, and 378 barons, a total of 889 people.

Although the    Chinese system was abolished, the old Chinese were still very active.

  It is certain that there are still many descendants of the Chinese who are active in politics and business. Among them, the head of the Hosokawa family even served as the prime minister of the cabinet, and the head of the Kamei family also served as a representative and a senator. In addition, the "Chinese Association" has not died out, and continues to exist under the name of "Xia Huiguan" (named because it is located in Xiaguan), with hundreds of members (membership is limited). The Kasumi Club occupies an area of ​​5,000 ping (about 16,000 square meters) and was built in 1968 as a 34-story high-rise building, which was the first in Japan at that time.

The members of   Xiamen Club must be the male contemporary head of the house and need to be approved by other members. The connection between the old Chinese people represents an upper circle.

   In this book, if Tao Zhiming was not the adopted son of the Uedian family, and gave birth to a son with Uedian Xana in a justifiable way, but gave birth to a son with the direct surname Uedian, it would not conform to the rules and would not be recognized.

   Therefore, the information generated here is poor, and it is difficult for everyone to imagine that Ueda Masahiro is willing to voluntarily give up this circle, and thus has excessive associations with the words Ueda Taro.

【Summarize】

   Although writing this subject may bring freshness to everyone, it also has this kind of threshold invisibly, which is really helpless.

   I can only say that I try to balance the progress of the plot and the background explanation.

   Actually, I don't want to be a riddle person either, but I always feel that there is something wrong with the explanation of Balabala in the text!

   This time, let me share these with you.

   (end of this chapter)