Reborn in Tokyo: From Heiress to Global Tycoon

Chapter 243 The Collapse of the Load-Bearing Wall

The blue echo found an outlet for its dreams in Shinjuku, while on the other side of the city, a grand building that held the fate of millions of ordinary people together was collapsing.

Mid-April. The cherry blossoms in Tokyo began to fade.

The continuous spring rain, mixed with the lingering chill, enveloped the underground parking garage of the Nagata-cho House of Representatives in a damp and gloomy atmosphere.

Ichiro Osawa's black bulletproof Toyota Century sedan had just driven into the speed bump in the garage.

A dozen or so anxious-looking men suddenly rushed out from behind the shadow of the load-bearing pillar, their leather shoes making a jumbled sound on the wet cement floor of the garage. Their usually impeccably pressed suits were now completely soaked through by the cold rain, heavy and wrinkled, clinging to their backs.

The crowd instantly closed in, using their flesh and blood to completely block the car's path.

"squeak--"

The driver slammed on the brakes. The tires screeched as they spun across the wet pavement.

"Mr. Osawa! Mr. Osawa!"

The crowd immediately surged to both sides of the vehicle. They frantically pounded on the bulletproof windows of the back seats, leaving messy watermarks on the dark privacy film.

"Please! Stop the proposal to repeal the Large Retail Stores Landing Act! If foreign supermarket chains come in, all our hundreds of local retail stores will go bankrupt next month!"

"Secretary-General Osawa! The bill restricting cross-shareholding can't be passed! The big conglomerates have already started selling off their shares, and the supply chain isn't getting any orders at all! My processing plant is going to lay off two hundred workers tomorrow!"

Rain dripped from the ventilation openings in the underground parking garage. Faces contorted with despair pressed against the cold glass. Some even knelt beside the car doors, their hands gripping the handles tightly, pleading desperately.

Inside the carriage, the temperature control system quietly delivers warm air.

Ichiro Osawa sat comfortably in the back seat of a bulletproof car with a dark privacy film.

He was wearing a well-tailored dark suit. His hands were clasped together on his knees.

Through the thick soundproof glass, he looked at the gaping mouths, bloodshot eyes filled with extreme fear, and hands that had turned white from pounding on the glass.

The thick bulletproof glass filtered out the roars from the outside world, reducing them to an extremely faint, muffled hum.

Ichiro Osawa's gaze lingered on several familiar faces for half a second. One of them was the president of a local manufacturing company who had contributed a staggering 30 million yen in political donations to Osawa's faction during last year's general election.

Ichiro Osawa calmly withdrew his gaze.

He raised his right hand and pressed the button on the vehicle's intercom on the center console.

"Honk the horn." Ichiro Osawa's tone was flat. "Drive past."

The driver in the front seat swallowed hard.

"drop--!!!"

The piercing high-pitched loudspeakers blared loudly inside the enclosed underground parking garage.

The driver shifted into drive and slowly pressed the accelerator with his right foot. The heavy V12 engine roared deeply. The black sedan moved forward without stopping.

The metal emblem on the front of the car was pressed mercilessly against the chest of the protester at the front.

"Ah! The car is moving!"

"Mr. Osawa! You can't do this!"

The crowd erupted in screams of terror. But faced with the several-ton steel machine that showed no sign of slowing down, the protesters instinctively backed away to the sides.

Several people, unable to retreat in time, fell into the dirty puddles in the garage.

A black Toyota Century sedan forcefully pushed through the crowd, its tires crunching over puddles, leaving the desperate protesters completely in its exhaust fumes, and drove straight to the VIP elevator entrance.

……

House of Representatives First Members' Residence. Secretary-General's Office.

Osawa Ichiro handed his slightly damp trench coat to his secretary, Hirano, who came to greet him.

He strode over to the large desk and sat down in the leather chair.

"What were the security guards doing? They let those people block the underground parking garage." Osawa Ichiro picked up the warm black coffee that had been prepared on the table and took a sip.

Hirano hung his trench coat on the coat rack and strode to the table. A fine layer of sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Mr. Osawa... the National Federation of Small and Medium Retailers has been staging a sit-in protest outside the headquarters for three days now." Hirano's hands were nervously clasped together in front of him. "And several key financial backers of the Kanto Real Estate Alliance. Since the banks forcibly withdrew their loans last month, their assets have entered bankruptcy liquidation proceedings. Our retail stronghold and real estate financial backers..."

Hirano gritted his teeth and bowed his head to report to his superior.

"They're all wiped out. The faction's base is collapsing."

Ichiro Osawa put down his coffee cup.

Those damned bureaucrats of Xiaguan.

A sinister glint flashed in Da Ze's eyes.

The Ministry of Finance, with its "Total Volume Regulation," launched a surprise attack, bypassing him and directly crippling the financial chains of real estate tycoons. Now, the foundation of the retail industry has been completely overthrown by the repeal of the "Large Store Law."

His political capital in the country is dwindling at a visible rate.

He picked up the heavy document that was placed in the center of his desk.

Draft Amendment to the Anti-Monopoly Law.

The core provisions of this document aim to strictly limit the cross-shareholding ratio between Japanese companies and break down the old equity defense network between zaibatsu.

Osawa Ichiro's fingers gently stroked the cover of the document.

He knew better than anyone else that submitting this document would be tantamount to declaring war on Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and other old zaibatsu that controlled the lifeline of the Japanese economy. This would thoroughly enrage the true power holders hidden behind the scenes.

With real estate tycoons all gone and grassroots voters turning against them, they're now stirring up a hornet's nest for the old financial magnates.

But he had no other choice.

Now that domestic bureaucrats and the old guard have alienated him, the only thing he can cling to is Washington's political endorsement. Only by fulfilling his promises to the Americans and using the power of Wall Street to suppress domestic opposition can he retain power in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle.

Ichiro Osawa pressed the internal phone button on the desktop.

"Hirano."

"exist."

Ichiro Osawa pushed the draft amendment to the Anti-Monopoly Law forward by half an inch.

"Make copies immediately." Ichiro Osawa's eyes were fixed on Hirano. "Distribute this draft to all the core members of your faction. Inform them to prepare to force it into the agenda during this afternoon's Diet deliberations."

Hirano's pupils contracted sharply.

"Teacher..." Hirano's voice trembled, "The market has just fallen below 30,000 points. If a bill restricting cross-shareholding is introduced at this time, the zaibatsu will inevitably sell each other's shares on the market to comply with regulations. This will trigger a massive sell-off, and could even crush the entire stock market..."

"Go and carry it out."

Osawa Ichiro coldly interrupted his secretary's advice.

"Political growing pains are a necessary step. Washington is watching us. Once we get a commitment from the United States, these minor domestic troubles will eventually subside."

Hirano dared not say another word. He picked up the heavy document with both hands, bowed deeply, and quickly left the office.

Ichiro Osawa leaned back in his chair.

He turned his head and looked at the gloomy Tokyo sky outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

……

Marunouchi, Mitsubishi headquarters building.

Office of the Supreme Advisor.

Behind the large mahogany desk, a floor-to-ceiling glass wall offering one-way visibility overlooks the entire Tokyo Station.

The air inside was extremely oppressive. The central air conditioning system delivered a constant temperature, but it couldn't dispel the heavy atmosphere that permeated the room.

Hiroya Iwasaki, the top advisor of the Mitsubishi Group, sat upright in the main seat of the Chesterfield leather sofa. He clasped his hands together and leaned on a rosewood cane with a pure silver handle.

On the rosewood coffee table in front of him, a photocopy lay casually tossed about.

It was that draft amendment to the Anti-Monopoly Law that was leaked in advance through internal channels.

On either side of the sofa sat the presidents of several core companies, including Mitsubishi Bank, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Mitsubishi Estate. Their faces were ashen, and their breathing was heavy.

"That mad dog, Daze."

The president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries broke the silence first. He loosened his tie, and the veins on his forehead bulged slightly.

"The market index just fell below 30,000 points! Those small and medium-sized enterprises are already being driven to the brink of bankruptcy by banks withdrawing loans. Now they're introducing a bill restricting cross-shareholding ratios, clearly forcing us to dump our shares on the secondary market!"

The eyes behind the glasses of the Mitsubishi Bank president were also bloodshot.

"If we don't sell, the Ministry of Finance's compliance review will immediately begin once the bill passes. The huge fines and administrative penalties we'll face then will be enough to completely humiliate us in the industry. But if we sell now..." The bank president swallowed hard, "If we dump hundreds of billions of yen worth of shares, Mitsui and Sumitomo will definitely follow suit. The stock market will collapse."

"But what if we don't dump our shares now, and Mitsui beats us to it? That would mean we'd have to take over..."

Hiroya Iwasaki listened quietly to his subordinates' argument.

He raised his right hand.

Rough fingers tapped lightly twice on the sterling silver handle of the cane.

"Tap, tap."

The dull thud instantly silenced the argument inside.

All eyes were on the old man who controlled the vast Mitsubishi empire.

Hiroya Iwasaki reached out his left hand and pulled a document from the folder beside him. The document cover was marked with a red "Top Secret" stamp.

He casually tossed the top-secret report, which contained the latest financial data from Mitsubishi Bank, onto the center of the coffee table.

"Your view is blocked by that clown, Ichiro Osawa."

Hiroya Iwasaki's voice was deep and hoarse, yet it possessed an undeniable penetrating power. His gaze slowly swept over each of the company presidents present.

"Dasze was merely a tool Washington used to knock on doors."

"What's really hanging over our necks is the 8 percent red line of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) agreement."

The expressions of the club presidents changed drastically.

Hiroya Iwasaki looked at the financial data in the top-secret report, his tone calm.

"Over the past few years, through internal resolutions of the 'Friday Club,' we have built a network of cross-shareholdings among our core companies. Mitsubishi Bank has purchased large amounts of shares in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Estate, while the Heavy Industries and Estate have in turn held shares in the bank. With the soaring stock market index in the past few years, these cross-shareholdings have generated trillions of yen in unrealized gains on our financial statements."

"In order to cooperate with our overseas operations, the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Finance gave the green light to the audit rules and tacitly allowed us to directly convert these book figures that had not been realized into Mitsubishi Bank's core capital."

"It is precisely by relying on these inflated financial figures that Mitsubishi Bank has been able to maintain its capital adequacy ratio above the 8% red line set by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for many years. By preserving this foundation of international business, our New York and London branches have been able to circumvent domestic credit restrictions and issue low-interest corporate bonds on a large scale in overseas financial markets. The massive amounts of US dollars raised have supported your cross-border mergers and acquisitions in various industries."

Hiroya Iwasaki's fingers slowly tightened on the sterling silver handle.

"But now, the market index has fallen below 30,000 points."

"Gentlemen, more than half of the paper profits from our cross-shareholdings have already evaporated."

The air in the room seemed to be sucked out in that instant.

"If it falls any further," Hiroya Iwasaki's voice turned cold, "Mitsubishi Bank's core capital will be breached. If our capital adequacy ratio is violated, our international settlement licenses in London and New York will face the risk of being revoked."

"Without international licenses, the Mitsubishi Empire will be reduced to a local conglomerate that can only eke out a living within its island nation."

He looked directly into the eyes of the Mitsubishi Bank president.

"This is the real guillotine hanging over our heads."

The president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries broke out in a cold sweat.

"Your Excellency, Supreme Advisor... what do you mean?"

Hiroya Iwasaki narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The foundation of our competitive advantage has crumbled along with the broader market, and there's no point in wasting time navigating Congress. With Washington's support, this bill will most likely pass."

"Since the market downturn and the passage of the bill are a foregone conclusion, and since this defensive network is destined to be torn apart..."

He gripped his cane with both hands and leaned forward slightly.

"We must act immediately."

"Before Mitsui and Sumitomo could react, we secretly sold off all the shares we held in peripheral supply chain companies and non-core related subsidiaries."

"Cut off an arm to survive. Reclaim all available cash. Protect the core businesses of Mitsubishi Bank and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at all costs."

The president of Mitsubishi Bank sat up abruptly.

"But Your Excellency! If we lead the sell-off of these foreign stocks, the market liquidity simply can't handle it. If it triggers panic..."

"Let others bear the cost of a market crash."

Hiroya Iwasaki leaned back in his armchair, his gaze fixed on the vast city visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"The law of survival has always been this: only the fastest runner survives."

……

The core strategic room on the fourth basement floor of the Saionji Industrial Headquarters.

A huge LCD screen occupies an entire wall.

In the center of the screen, the green curve of the Nikkei 225 index is exhibiting an extremely strange fluctuation. The index is struggling to stay above 29,000 points, while trading volume has seen an abnormal increase in the past hour.

On the auxiliary machine screen, rows of red sell orders scrolled down like a waterfall.

[Nikon Corporation: A single sell order of 5 million shares was placed. Buy orders failed to meet the demand.]

[Kanto Specialty Chemicals: Ten million shares were sold off in a single transaction. The stock price hit the daily limit down.]

Tokyo Optical & Precision: Continuously subjected to market selling by institutional investors.

Executive Director Endo, holding a trading platform monitoring report that had just been automatically generated by the underlying data gateway, strode to the control panel.

His forehead was covered in a fine layer of sweat. His eyes behind his glasses were fixed on the stock codes that were being sold off in large quantities.

"Young Miss".

Executive Director Endo's voice sounded slightly tense.

"Mitsubishi has made its move."

He laid the monitoring report flat on the rosewood table.

"Underlying data tracking shows that starting at 10:00 AM, institutional investors within the Mitsubishi system began selling off shares of peripheral supply chain companies and non-core related subsidiaries on the secondary market regardless of cost."

"After detecting the unusual activity, Mitsui and Sumitomo's proprietary trading desks also began to show signs of following suit and dumping shares. The cross-shareholding defense network of the zaibatsu has begun to break down from its very periphery."

Executive Director Endo took a deep breath and pointed to the stock codes on the report that had hit their daily limit down.

"A large number of stocks in technology and precision manufacturing companies have been sold off. These are high-quality underlying assets that we previously flagged in the CTRPS model."

He turned his head and looked at Saionji Satsuki, who was sitting upright in a leather swivel chair.

"An offshore special purpose vehicle (SPV) matrix. Should we take this opportunity to use our dollar reserves to accumulate shares?"

The strategic indoor temperature control system is operating quietly.

Satsuki was wearing a minimalist dark blue cashmere dress today. Her long black hair was tied back with a plain silver hairpin.

She sat gracefully in a swivel chair, holding a bone china teacup filled with Darjeeling tea in her right hand.

Satsuki stared at the massive sell orders flooding the screen and the market index plummeting downwards.

She shook her head slightly.

"Executive Director Endo, it's too early to make a move now."

Satsuki gently placed the teacup back onto the sandalwood tray.

"The stocks they're dumping are still ridiculously overpriced."

Executive Director Endo was taken aback.

"But Miss, these companies' price-to-earnings ratios have fallen to their lowest point in the past three years. Many precision manufacturing plants have even fallen below their book value..."

"That's a false net asset value on the books."

Satsuki placed her hands folded on her knees, her gaze coolly fixed on the large screen.

"The old tycoons are now selling off peripheral stocks in an attempt to cut their losses and survive. They are using these marginal shares to raise cash in the market to fill the gaps in their capital adequacy ratios and desperately try to keep their core banks alive."

"The market index has only recently fallen below 30,000 points. On the books of major banks, they are still using the method of borrowing new money to repay old debts and various forms of financial fraud to desperately cover up those massive, underlying non-performing loans that are enough to overthrow the country."

"The abscess has not yet fully ruptured."

"The real debt underlying these stocks far exceeds their current market value."

Executive Director Endo's breathing gradually calmed down. He looked at the waterfall of sell orders and understood the logic behind it.

Going to take over now is like trying to catch a falling knife halfway up a mountain.

Satsuki interlaced her fingers. Her elbows rested lightly on the armrests of the leather seats.

"Don't take over the losses."

"Keep the offshore special purpose vehicle (SPV) matrix silent. Not a single purchase order should be placed."

"The financial giants are dumping shares of each other in a scramble for cash. This chain reaction of panic selling triggered by institutions will completely destroy the last bit of liquidity in the market."

Satsuki turned her head, her gaze fixed on the huge LCD screen in front of her.

"This will push the Nikkei index into a real abyss at the fastest speed."

She stared at the center of the screen.

"The more the market falls, the more valuable our forward put options in our Cayman Islands trust account become."

Center of the screen.

The green symbol representing the Nikkei 225 index is plummeting at an extremely steep and chilling rate under the extreme pressure of massive sell orders.

[28, 500 points]

[28, 100 points]

The flickering, emerald-green light was reflected in Satsuki's clear, black-and-white pupils.

The whole of Japan is wailing along with this thin thread.