National Tide 1980

Chapter 1119 Noisy Tokyo

The beginning of November 1986 was actually a very important time node for both China and Japan.

In the Republic of China, due to the fourth 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 common people of the Republic, this period of time has become a benchmark milestone for ideological emancipation and aesthetic breakthrough.

From then on, not only did the bikini shock wave shake the ancient land of China from south to north, allowing people to wear clothing more freely, more openly, and more freely, but the craze for female bodybuilding also quickly spread throughout the Republic.

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%, the lowest level since 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. Out of jealousy, because the interest rate on current deposits was reduced from 75% to 26%, 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 proven that it is not just the aunts of the Republic who are obsessed with gold, Japan's Obasan is also the same.

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 order to cope with the huge impact of the appreciation of the yen on local manufacturing and industrial exports, the current 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. Therefore, three consecutive interest rate cuts began in early 1986. Cut the base rate directly from 5% to 5%.

In the more than half a year since then, the Japanese economy has basically returned to normal. The pressure on the manufacturing industry to be depressed due to the appreciation of the yen has been relieved a lot. The anger of the Japanese working class and manufacturing companies has also been alleviated, and there has not been much inflation in the country.

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 and achieved 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 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.

So why continue to cut interest rates?

If not for anything else, it’s 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 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 may not necessarily be beneficial, but being anti-American is definitely It ends badly.

So when Minister of Finance Miyazawa Ki who was originally ordered to go to the United States to intercede with his father in the hope that the yen would not continue to appreciate, he came back in vain and was met with disappointment by U.S. Treasurer Baker.

Nakasone Yasuhiro instructed Miyazawa Kiichi, a hapless man, to deceive the Japanese people with bold words, change his words in public and boast of his own credit for the failure, and falsely claimed 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 maintain its status quo.

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 telling Vice President Mie Noyasu, who was born in 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 was lucky enough not to 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 are they unable to predict the misfortunes they will encounter in the future, they are even intoxicated with this speculative dream and unwilling 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 had only left here for less than four months, he still felt that Tokyo had changed a lot in this short period of time.

On the streets of downtown, all the advertisements promoting material supremacy have been updated.

All kinds 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.

The Japanese 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.

It turns out that even high school girls are imitating adults and starting to think of ways to make money to buy designer bags.

There are also many new exotic restaurants popping up on the streets.

Italian and French food are no longer uncommon, as are Spanish, Hungarian, Greek, Thai, Malay, Indian, Mexican, Turkish, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It’s like Tokyo has become a small United Nations.

And whether high-end or low-end, all businesses are booming and crowded.

Cafes and bars are crowded with various bosses and young employees.

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 his 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.

Late at night, the streets of Tokyo are full of drunken men and women walking together. From five-star hotels to hourly love hotels, it is hard to find a room.

Taxis have 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 was nothing we could do about it. Even though Japanese workers had the longest working hours in the world at that time, Japan's manufacturing industry under the bubble economy was only surviving under the strong support of the government, and it was becoming more and more hollow.

Of course, Japanese workers can't make any money. Their hard work can only barely ensure that the company operates normally and they don't lose their jobs or go 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 restaurants and 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 14-year-old Rie Miyazawa, who had just appeared in a Mitsui Fudosan commercial, was riding on 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.

Therefore, for Ning Weimin, this completely opposite hustle and bustle 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 was stuffed with sales brochures and could only be disposed of as garbage.

The phone recordings in the room were also full, but almost all of them were calls made by people selling goods and financial fraud in recent months. These spam messages crowded out the calls that were 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.

Then of course he 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 all old, weak 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. They just kept urging him to come to the company to deal with the problem.

Tan Gong Restaurant was doing a booming business, and it was 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. The profit can be 3 million yen, which is a huge profit.

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 shop workers are demanding a salary increase amid the surge in workload.

However, since Ning Weimin returned to China, the matter could not be resolved in time, and many people were already eager to resign.

New people could not be recruited all of a sudden, which resulted in a huge manpower gap. At present, it is all domestic employees who serve as two persons. Two security officers, Bian Gang and Zheng Qiang, who are good at Japanese, both I had to come and greet the guests in person.

But it cannot be said that these domestic people have no resentment. 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 my sense of responsibility to persevere. Some people start to get sick due to 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 received is similar to the situation at Tan Gong Restaurant, and now the bookstore business 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.

Therefore, 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 had to try her best to make time for herself.

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, so he can finally 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. Operating costs and the difficulty of hiring people have further increased. It is a completely inevitable trouble of prosperity.

But then again, one can imagine how dazzling the data on the property and stock markets will be under this general 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. .