National Tide 1980

It has to be said that many important turning points in life often have signs.

But sadly, most people in it often turn a blind eye to it and are unaware of it.

On March 18, 1988, Japan's first all-weather rooftop stadium "Tokyo DOME", commonly known as Tokyo Dome, was completed and officially put into use next to the Moto-Korakuen Stadium.

With the blessing of 225 white double-layer curtains in the stadium, this stadium has become a new attraction in Tokyo.

In April 1988, coin-operated shower boxes began to appear in major public baths in Tokyo, which became a symbol of modern and convenient life in the hearts of Japanese people who love bathing.

In the same month, Japan's graduation season arrived.

Due to the abnormal economic prosperity, even the employment methods of graduates this year are very different from the past.

The couriers began to deliver express to every household in the apartment long before the graduation season.

The boxes are full of books like phone books, full of company information, industry introductions and job search guides, all of which are distributed free of charge to fresh graduates by companies in need of workers.

There are also many large companies that take the initiative to go deep into famous schools to actively invite outstanding students to join, and this competition for talent soon escalates into a war.

Strong large companies began to entertain their favorite talents in clubs, and treated them with caviar and champagne.

On May 5, 1988, Japanese TV completed the first satellite live broadcast at the top of Mount Everest, which also made the Japanese believe that their satellite technology has caught up with the United States and the Soviet Union and become the third most powerful country in the world.

In short, everything that is happening in Japan now makes the Japanese who are immersed in the asset bubble more and more confident, ambitious, and firmly believe that Japan's national destiny will last forever.

Especially the economic data released by Japan last year, according to the data in 1987, Japan's per capita GDP reached US$21,141, while the per capita GDP of the United States was US$20,000.

This means that in 1987, Japan's per capita GDP exceeded that of the United States, marking that the Japanese economy reached a new peak at that time.

This astonishing data made the Japanese almost crazy.

Not only did most Japanese people really start to believe that "Japan First" written by Ezra Vogel was indeed far-sighted, but also that the United States was really nothing.

It also made all the people more and more convinced that the Japanese economy was on the rise, and that Japan's stock market and real estate market would continue to soar.

However, not many people noticed that the health of Japan's Showa Emperor Hirohito was frequently warned, and he had publicly told all the people that he was ill many times.

The Japanese who were immersed in the happiness of the bubble would never think that Japan, which is now in its heyday, would actually use the life span of Emperor Showa as a dividing line.

Soon, with the end of the Showa era, it will take a sharp turn for the worse, and will never recover from it, entering a long economic bear market.

And there will be at least decades of miserable days waiting for them in the future when they need to slowly pay off their debts.

What they take today will be returned tomorrow without a penny difference.

This may be called "not knowing the true face of Mount Lu, just because they are in this mountain".

Now in the whole of Japan, only Ning Weimin can see how stupid the Japanese are and their miserable future.

However, he will not interfere in this matter, but will be happy to see it happen.

Because in his heart, this is a kind of karma.

Japan's prosperity comes from the national disasters it has repeatedly caused to China, and even eating the blood of China.

As the saying goes, Feng Shui turns around, and it will be my turn next year.

When China rises, a country like Japan where villains succeed should pay the corresponding price. This is the cycle of justice.

So in such days, in addition to trying his best to take time to accompany his wife, do prenatal examinations, and study how to raise children scientifically.

He desperately borrowed money, leveraged to speculate in stocks, and increased the extent of Japan's bubble for the country and the people.

Even when he finally had some time, he also took a sneak peek at Japan's high-quality assets and quietly began to take advantage of the fire.

In April, MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group publicly announced that its magazine "Ordinary PANCH" would be discontinued.

Ning Weimin suddenly had an idea and set his sights on this famous popular magazine.

It must be said that MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group is not an ordinary publishing company.

When it comes to Japanese magazines, if you want to choose a company that cannot be avoided in any case, it can only be this company.

The history of the rise of this company not only carries the epitome of the dramatic changes in Japan's post-war popular culture.

Moreover, the magazine product line of this publishing group covers almost all aspects of Japanese life, and has nurtured generations of Japanese youth with unique aesthetics and values.

It can be said that it is the most representative Japanese trend during the bubble economy period in Japan in the 1980s, or the most famous magazine publisher that led fashion to create popularity.

Even after the bubble collapsed in the 1990s, the circulation of magazines gradually declined, and many magazines under this publishing house were discontinued, but this still did not affect its status in the Japanese magazine industry.

Even after entering the Internet era, in the unfavorable environment of paper publications.

Popeye, anan, Casa BRUTUS, Ginza, these legendary Japanese lifestyle magazines under his command are still strong and have always maintained a certain level of sales. There are almost no rivals in the Japanese magazine field that can match them.

Of course, Ning Weimin is not omniscient.

In his previous life, his understanding of Japan was not enough to pay attention to Japanese popular magazines and understand the relevant industries in Japan.

It can be said that he had no idea about the MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group before, and he knew nothing about its future business conditions. These were not his focus at all.

He just started to collect information and investigate the background of this publishing group because he had a certain interest in taking over this publication.

But even so, it doesn't matter. It still won't affect his evaluation of this magazine and this magazine that is about to be discontinued.

On the contrary, because of some of the things he investigated and some basic information he learned, he aroused his desire to get this discontinued magazine.

For no other reason, it was because he found that the industry status and rise process of this magazine publisher in Japan were really amazing, and it was completely leading the trend in Asia.

At the same time, because he had never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run, and he had a general understanding of the model of domestic popular magazines in the future.

At least he had flipped through a few copies of "Rayli", "Men's Wear", and "Harper's Bazaar".

Therefore, when he randomly found some "Ping Ping Panch" and flipped through them, he felt that he had accidentally discovered the source of domestic popular magazines and found a legendary treasure.

He couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart that this magazine that was about to be discontinued really met his needs.

According to what Ning Weimin learned, this time-honored publishing group was founded after Japan's defeat in 1945.

At the beginning, it was called "Fanrenshe", and the first magazine it launched was called "Ping Ping".

This name comes from the magazine of the same name under "Ping Ping Sha" founded by Japanese right-wing politician Shimonaka Yasaburo. The distribution license of this magazine was inherited from the "Army Pictorial" magazine.

Although, both Heibonsha of Yasaburo Shimonaka and Army Pictorial were ideological products that advocated aggressive wars during World War II.

However, Heibonsha blossomed the most brilliant flower of Japan's postwar consumerist trend on the collapsed war machine.

Tokyo in 1945 was a ruin. Japanese young people were busy day and night for a life of hunger. The Japanese dream of life and the vision of the future were out of reach.

Looking at the Tokyo youth who worked hard for life, "showing the happy side of life to all the Japanese young people who were struggling to survive" became the lifelong pursuit of the two founders, Iwahori Kisuke and Shimizu Tatsuo.

This concept has also been carried through by them to this day.

And it must be admitted that the two founders of "Honjinsha" are not simple people.

Iwahori Kisuke wanted to do writing work when he was in the Department of Journalism at Meiji University.

And Shimizu Tatsuo was called the "God of Magazines" by the outside world.

He is the only person who can start three different magazines and sell more than one million copies at the same time.

They all noticed that after World War II, Japanese society was extremely short of supplies, and cultural trends had transitioned from the "high culture" era of defeat to the "popular culture" era.

Therefore, the "Hyonbo" they founded not only had a strong tendency towards entertainment consumerism and urban exquisiteness, but also fully considered the needs of the general public.

In 1952, they used "7s" to summarize the positioning goals of "Hyonbo" magazine:

screen (movie) stage (stage) song (popular music) sex (sex) sport (sports) style (dressing) story (novel)

This is the original template of almost all popular fashion magazines, and it is also the secret of the success of "Hyonbo" magazine.

"Hyonbo", which was the first to establish this point, completed an unprecedented comprehensive penetration of Japanese popular culture during the period of drastic social transformation.

Due to the popularity of television, movie and song stars have unprecedented exposure and fans, and Japan gave birth to a new generation of TV stars at that time, such as Misora ​​Hibari and Nakamura Kinnosuke.

"Honohō" seized this opportunity and invested heavily to report all the gossip about the popular stars on and off the stage, becoming the most influential entertainment magazine in Japan in the 1950s.

In order to follow the popular Toei star Nakamura Kinnosuke, "Honohō" sent an editor from Tokyo to Kyoto to shoot and collect materials. He followed Nakamura Kinnosuke every day to wander around the streets of Kyoto. This report cost 1 million yen.

In order to take photos of artists with the theme of Mount Fuji, three editors stayed in a high-end hotel in Mount Fuji for several days and spent 2.5 million yen.

Although the styles of the publishing giants in the Japanese publishing industry at that time, such as Iwanami Shoten, Chuokoron, Shinchosha, Bungeishunju, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, were mainly ideological enlightenment or literary criticism.

The publishing industry did not have a high opinion of "Honohōsha", a publishing house that relied on idol gossip and photos to win half of the market, and thought they were really "annoying".

Therefore, the "Honohō" series of magazines were considered by the traditional industry as street readings with vulgar content.

But the founder, Tatsuo Shimizu, remained steadfast in his beliefs and ignored these prejudices.

He believed that the current popular thoughts and lifestyles were the driving force behind the advancement of Japanese society. The popular culture of singing and dancing, feasting and revelry could represent modern Japanese society. The prejudice against "Honour" was cultural discrimination by Japanese intellectuals.

As he expected, any opposition could not stop the needs of the people and the success of trendy magazines.

In the 1960s, Fanrensha was renamed Pingfan Publishing, and it had become a super-large publishing company with three million-level sales.

For example, the magazine "Honour PANCH", which targeted younger groups and mainly college students, was launched during this period.

This magazine benefited from the population structure at the time. It was launched when the first wave of post-war baby boomers in Japan entered university.

Compared with the frugal young people in their 20s in the early post-war period, the young people born in this wave of baby boomers wanted to participate in Japan's emerging consumer society and could afford it economically.

Therefore, the first issue became a hit and sold 620,000 copies.

In less than two years, the circulation exceeded 1 million copies.

Around 1973, Pingfan Publishing was officially renamed as MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group.

At this time, the first magazine "Pingfan" had a peak circulation of 1.51 million copies per issue, making it the top entertainment magazine in Japan from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Moreover, as the trend vane of Japan at that time, many magazines under MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group had imitation products from competitors.

For example, the top magazine "Pingfan" imitated Shueisha's "Star", and the later "Pingfan PANCH" had Shueisha's "Weekly Press", "anan" had Shueisha's "non-no", and "POPEYE" had Kodansha's "HotDog-PRESS"...

It can be said that the magazines of MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group are the leaders of Japanese fashion magazines, and even the objects of imitation by Asian fashion magazines. Almost every magazine has a corresponding imitator.

So as sales rose, the editor of "Pingfan" also became an enviable profession.

Going abroad to collect materials, big budgets, attending media screenings, interviewing celebrities, staying in the best hotels, and going to the most high-end restaurants, all of this is exactly the life that young Japanese people yearn for most during the economic takeoff period.

Even in the bubble period of the 1980s, MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group continued this success and continued to lead the fashion trend in the industry.

So the suspension of "Ordinary PANCH" is definitely not because the magazine can no longer operate.

Although there are reasons for the gradual decline in sales in recent years and the magazine circulation has fallen below 500,000 sales, this magazine is still far from losing money.

The main reason for the suspension is that MAGAZINE HOUSE Publishing Group believes that its magazine products have many overlaps, and the circulation performance of "Ordinary PANCH" has retreated to the top ten of its magazine products within the group.

For the group, this is a piece of chicken ribs, which is tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away.

It is better to simply stop publishing, integrate high-quality resources, and then make full efforts on better magazine products.

And this provides Ning Weimin with a rare opportunity for mergers and acquisitions.