Chapter 1119 Noisy Tokyo
Early November of 1986 was actually a very important time node for China and Japan.
In the Republic, due to the 4th national "Hux Cup" men's and women's bodybuilding competition held in Shenzhen, Chinese female bodybuilders wore bikinis for the first time and gracefully entered the country's highest level bodybuilding competition.
For the people of the Republic, this period of time has become a benchmark milestone for ideological emancipation and aesthetic breakthrough.
Since then, not only has the bikini shock wave shaken the ancient land of China from south to north, allowing people to wear clothing more freely, more openly, and more as they please, but the craze for female bodybuilding has also spread rapidly throughout the Republic. All over.
However, for Japan, this period of time became a key turning point when the economic bubble began to enter an aggressive period.
On October 31, the Bank of Japan, at the behest of the Ministry of Finance, lowered its benchmark interest rate for the fourth time this year.
The Japanese yen's benchmark interest rate dropped to 3%, which has reached the lowest level after the war.
This move will certainly help push up the prices of major asset classes.
As a result, Japan's real estate and stock markets, which were already in full swing, surged again like a raging fire cooking oil.
This also prompted the ordinary people in Japan who were originally honest and responsible to finally be unable to bear it anymore. They were jealous because the interest rate on current deposits was reduced from 1.75% to 0.26%, and they began to save money and move away.
Ordinary citizens also invested their hard-earned money into these two speculative markets and participated in the speculative game.
Even the gold market, which was already sluggish at that time, was also speculated by the elderly in Japan who relied on pensions because of its function of preserving value.
History has proved that it is not only the aunts of the Republic who are obsessed with gold, but also Japan's Obasan.
In this way, the speculative carnival of all Japanese people began.
But to be honest, this overall reduction in the benchmark interest rate was originally unnecessary.
In response to the huge impact of the appreciation of the yen on local manufacturing and industrial exports, the sitting Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was almost called a dog by the Japanese people, asked the Ministry of Finance to urge the Bank of Japan to cut interest rates as soon as possible, so starting from early 1986 After three consecutive interest rate cuts, the base rate was cut directly from 5% to 3.5%.
In the more than half a year since then, the Japanese economy has basically returned to normal. The appreciation of the yen has alleviated the pressure on the manufacturing industry from depression. The anger of the Japanese working class and manufacturing companies has also been alleviated, and there has been no domestic epidemic. Too much inflation.
It can be said that at this stage, the Japanese government and central bank have perfectly used the standard operations for the appreciation of the yen, achieving the expected effect of improving the real economy.
Even during this process, the Bank of Japan has long observed the side effects of the rapid appreciation of the yen, and observed the extremely abnormal prosperity of the stock market and real estate market this year.
If nothing else, the price of land in Tokyo has doubled this year, and the Bank of Japan's policymakers know that they should be cautious in lowering the benchmark interest rate.
They are even considering raising interest rates as soon as possible at the appropriate time to curb the further spread of the bubble.
Then why continue to cut interest rates?
For no other reason than because the U.S. economy has been extremely bad this year.
This year, the total foreign trade deficit of the United States reached a record high of 145 billion US dollars, but the GDP growth of the United States in 1986 was only 2.9%.
After all, Japan is the son and the United States is the father. The father has not yet recovered. Baker, who is in charge of the financial direction of the United States, can't do it. You have to continue to cut interest rates for me. As a son, you must obey orders.
Japanese politicians are very clear on this point. Although Yasuhiro Nakasone, representing the Liberal Democratic Party, won the election again in September and secured the prime ministership, this old boy understands that being pro-American does not necessarily mean There are benefits, but anti-Americanism will definitely end badly.
So when Minister of Finance Miyazawa Ki, who was originally ordered to go to the United States to intercede with his father, hoping that the yen would not continue to appreciate, returned home, he was frustrated by the U.S. Treasurer Baker.
Nakasone Yasuhiro instructed Miyazawa Kiichi, an unfortunate guy, to deceive the Japanese people openly, to change his words in public and to boast of his own credit for the failure, and to falsely claim that he and his American father had reached certain negotiation results. As long as Japan lowered interest rates, the United States would Allow the yen to remain as it is.
Bank of Japan Governor Sumita, who was born in the Ministry of Finance, even pretended to be confused, and deliberately announced the decision to cut interest rates without knowing it from Yasu Mie, the vice president of the Bank of Japan.
And also for Japanese people, they lied that this was a prudent decision made by the Bank of Japan to fully consider the economic situation and support domestic enterprises.
At this point, the fundamental flaws of Japan’s economic colony have been exposed.
This is actually the reason why Japan has been lost for thirty years, but Germany luckily did not suffer.
Does an economic colony still have the right to choose its own destiny?
They will always be pressed to the ground and rubbed by their American father. After being fattened, they must be obedient and harvested.
Moreover, the reason why pigs are stupid and cannot escape the fate of being slaughtered by humans is because pigs can only see the feed and bait in front of them, but cannot see the shining butcher knife that is about to fall in the future.
The same is true for the Japanese in this era. The Japanese people, who lack professional financial knowledge and have no discernment, are easily deceived by Japanese politicians and the Bank of Japan.
Not only can they not predict the bad luck they will encounter in the future, they even indulge in this speculative dream and do not want to wake up, starting an increasingly extravagant way of self-narcosis.
The pleasure brought by crazy consumption also makes Japanese people further believe that tomorrow will be better and richer.
As a result, the greedy human nature in this land has intensified and completely lost control.
Ning Weimin returned at this time.
Even though he has only been away from this place for less than four months, he still feels that Tokyo has changed a lot in this short period of time.
On the streets of a busy city, all the advertisements promoting material supremacy have been updated.
A variety of clothing, bags, cosmetics, etc. have had a huge impact on ordinary people.
International luxury brands like LV have become wildly sought after by the Japanese public.
Japanese people seem to be less dissatisfied with the more expensive things are. There is a long queue in front of the LV Ginza store, and the trend is becoming more and more popular and younger.
In fact, almost half of the customers waiting to patronize are extremely young girls.
Even high school girls are imitating adults and starting to think of ways to make money to buy designer bags.
Many new exotic restaurants have also appeared on the streets.
Italian and French food are no longer uncommon, as are Spain, Hungary, Greece, Thailand, Malay, India, Mexico, Turkey, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It seems that Tokyo has become a small United Nations.
And whether high-end or low-end, all businesses are booming and crowded.
The cafes and bars are crowded with various bosses and young staff. Glenfiddich, Dalmore Whiskey, Hennessy XO, French Louis XIII and other foreign wines have become their favorites.
If someone orders sake, even the waiter won’t bother to talk to you.
As the saying goes, when a person is rich and his upper body is full, he starts to think about the lower body.
Desire-mongering naked director Toru Muranishi collaborated with Kuroki for the first time this year, and it was a home run, which directly led to the rise of AV and wiped out the market for pink movies that once swept the screen.
On the streets of Tokyo late at night, there are all drunk men and women walking together. From five-star hotels to hourly love hotels, it is hard to find a room.
Taxi has become the most popular business. Without using the meter, exorbitant prices have become common.
In order to hail a taxi, some people waved 10,000 yen bills and stood on the roadside to stop the taxi.
On the contrary, the blue-collar class is in a hurry and has poor food and clothing.
Almost completely excluded from the prosperity brought about by Japan's bubble economy.
There is no way around it. Even though Japanese workers had the longest working hours in the world at that time, the Japanese manufacturing industry under the bubble economy was only surviving with the strong support of the government, and it was becoming more and more hollow.
Of course, Japanese workers cannot make any money. Their hard work can only barely ensure the normal operation of the company and keep them from being unemployed and hungry.
In addition, various beauty pageants and singing competitions have begun to appear on television.
There are also variety shows interspersed with various types of food, and even food shows have appeared.
Nine out of ten variety shows will definitely feature food recommendations.
And these programs will definitely make a group of famous chefs popular.
The ratings of financial programs are soaring day by day. Now even Japanese housewives are beginning to pay attention to the real estate market, stock market and foreign exchange trends.
The fourteen-year-old Rie Miyazawa, who had just appeared in an advertisement for Mitsui Fudosan, took advantage of this wave and her name was remembered by the Japanese people.
There are also news that the Japanese have purchased a large number of properties in Hawaii, USA, and invested in the hotel industry, which are also frequently broadcast on news programs.
This not only greatly promoted the national pride of the Japanese, but also made more Japanese regard Hawaii as their preferred tourist destination.
In short, the entire society is permeated with an atmosphere of extreme encouragement and worship of material things.
"Momentism", that is, carpe diem, has become a consensus widely recognized by young people in Tokyo.
“Consumption is virtue” has become a common phrase that can be seen on almost every page of any newspaper in Japan.
So for Ning Weimin, this completely opposite noisy environment in the capital suddenly made him nervous, who had recently adapted to a peaceful life and a peaceful environment, and felt very noisy and uncomfortable.
Even more so when he arrived at Keiko Matsumoto's apartment in Nishi-Azabu and settled his luggage, he didn't feel relaxed at all.
Because the mailbox in the apartment is stuffed with sales brochures, it can only be disposed of as garbage.
The phone recordings in the room are also full, but almost all of them are calls from people selling goods and financial fraud in recent months. These spam messages have crowded out the calls that are likely to contain important information. .
As soon as the pager used in Japan is turned on, it is bombarded with digital messages, and there is no need to resume the pager.
Of course he then took the initiative to contact his subordinates. Unfortunately, the news he received from various companies was mixed, which did not completely reassure him.
First of all, there was a lot of complaints from Dadao Trading Company.
Those employees were old, weak, women and disabled. They had been frightened by the sudden harassment and the bottomless actions of the violent group. They did not become calm because of his return, but kept urging him to come quickly. The company handles the problem.
Business at Tan Gong Restaurant is booming, and it is getting better and better day by day during Ning Weimin's absence.
Now it is almost operating at full capacity. The daily turnover, excluding the kickbacks given to the soliciting girls, is between 6 million and 7 million yen, and the profit can be 3 million yen. , I made a lot of money.
However, the biggest problem at present is that labor costs in Japan's service industry have soared due to the unprecedented prosperity of the market. Many Japanese store clerks are demanding a salary increase amid the surge in workload.
However, due to Ning Weimin's return to China, the matter could not be resolved in time, and many people were already eager to resign.
New people can’t be recruited all of a sudden, which creates a huge manpower gap. At present, it’s all domestic employees who work as two people. Bian Gang and Zheng Qiang, who have relatively good Japanese skills, The two security officers had to come to greet the guests in person.
But it cannot be said that these domestic people have no grievances. They work a lot but earn less. Their salary is not even a bit different from that of Japanese employees.
Currently, I rely on my friendship with Ning Weimin and sense of responsibility to persevere. Some people start to get sick because of excessive fatigue, and they inevitably complain behind their backs.
If this matter is not handled as soon as possible, bigger problems will arise and even seriously undermine internal unity. This is definitely a hidden danger that cannot be ignored.
As for Huiwentang Bookstore, Ning Weimin didn't even make a call. In the end, he had to ask Tan Gong, the pastry chef who was responsible for delivering tea and food to the store every day, what was going on.
The news I got is similar to the situation at Tan Gong Restaurant. Now the business of the bookstore is booming.
But the problem is that Japanese society has begun to experience a labor shortage, especially college students, who have become a hot commodity. Many people do not need to work at all. They only need to participate in interviews with major companies to get good food, drink and financial rewards.
So the two original college students from prestigious universities in the store resigned. The store manager Kagawa Rinko couldn’t just hire an outsider to look at the store, so she left everything to them. She could only try to make time for herself. superior.
Her sister Miyoko Kagawa and Director Taniguchi occasionally come to help. Fortunately, Director Taniguchi also has a son who is studying at a third-rate university and also needs to work-study. Finally, he can come to the store on time every afternoon and evening.
For this reason, the daily operating hours of Huiwentang Bookstore have been further adjusted and changed to open from 3 pm to 10 pm.
To put it bluntly, this is a new problem that has arisen under Japan's new economic situation. The operating costs and the difficulty of hiring people have further increased, which is a completely inevitable trouble of prosperity.
But then again, one can imagine how dazzling the real estate and stock market data will be under this social situation.
When Ning Weimin next called his stockbroker Kenichi Sagawa and Miyoko Kagawa, who was working at Aoba Real Estate to learn about the relevant situation, all he learned was Exciting good news.
(End of this chapter)