In Chapter 8, author and lawyer Shin Ushijima explores social and educational evolution in postwar Japan underpinning upcoming changes in corporate governance.
Author and lawyer Shin Ushijima with his latest book, "Japan for Sale." (©Japan Forward)
Corporate Japan is changing, and so are the complex relationships between the business world and the individual human beings who own, manage, and make it work. Author and lawyer Shin Ushijima uses his rare talent to weave a fictional story about love, loyalty, betrayal, war and peace, and the collapse and rebirth of the protagonists as well as their country. Join us below for the next chapter in this gripping saga.
Find earlier chapters through the Table of Contents
Chapter 8: Japan for Sale!
The Destiny of the Baby Boomer Generation
Reiko Nishino probably disliked the societal trend of outsiders enrolling in her school. Ohki had no idea why that was, however. Reiko's family lived only a few minutes on foot from the elementary school. They ran a confectionery shop with part of their home allotted for manufacturing their confections.
Ohki now had come to believe that Reiko's remark at the time had possessed a certain feeling of universality and inevitability. In contemporary terms, you might compare it to the conflict between globalism and nationalism, or perhaps globalism and anti-globalism sentiment.
That was in 1960, the era when Japan had just emerged from its postwar reconstruction and was beginning to enjoy high economic growth. It was a time when the labor dispute surrounding the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine was characterized as a clash between big capital and big labor. There was also the turmoil surrounding the revision of the Japan-US Security Treaty.
Reiko likely felt a sense of resentment towards the boy who had transferred from Tokyo. In her eyes, this classmate who seemed forced into her life from the "outside" possessed a completely alien logic and undisguised ambition to go far. In particular, as a local girl who had grown accustomed to living in her hometown and region, she might have psychologically resisted this imposition. Ohki could now appreciate how Reiko's pushback at that time had reflected the historical inevitability for postwar Japan.
It seemed to Ohki that Reiko's reaction to him when they were young mirrored the political protests against Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi and the security treaty that occurred around the same time. But on a much, much, much smaller scale. It almost felt like it had been just a small episode that could have happened anywhere, anytime, in the history of the world.
Encroachment of the 'Outsiders'
In the context of corporate governance, it seemed at the time as though there were increasing calls to reflect on the shift from the primacy of shareholder rights to shareholder-centricity, symbolized by the term "multi-stakeholder."
The simple reality was that there was disparity between Tokyo and local areas, as well as disparity between the wealthy and those who were left behind in poverty. Moreover, this inequality continued to widen.
Shareholder sovereignty was deeply entrenched, even for listed companies. For example, even someone who has long reigned as the head of a behemoth listed company like Canon could be immediately fired if he did not receive a majority of the votes for re-election at a shareholders' meeting. In Japan, a significant number of shareholder votes, or "voting rights," were now held by foreign investors.
The fact was that in some cases foreign investors even held a majority stake in giant Japanese corporations. JTC was the term used to refer to "traditional Japanese companies" whose shares were traded publicly. Foreign investors had long owned about 30% of these shares. In fact, 70% of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was conducted by such investors.
That was the actual situation.
And Ohki believed that the ratio of foreign ownership would only grow. It was Ohki's job to be involved in these developments, and he believed it was his mission. The phrase "era of massive acquisitions" had begun to appear frequently in the media. The attempted takeover of Seven & i Holdings suddenly made the possibility seem very real.
Queen of Flowers
Come to think of it, there was one more instance where Reiko employed a word very similar to, or even more pointed than, "outsider" to stab Ohki in the heart. Above all, Reiko appeared in the eyes of young Ohki, who had come from Tokyo, as a certain kind of girl. It came in the form of an encounter between the majestic "Flower Queen," surrounded by her admirers, and the commoners.
These memories of Reiko later came to mind when Ohki first read Shuichi Kato's poem "Sakura Yokocho." Upon encountering the line, "Ah, always the Queen of Flowers," Ohki immediately and without hesitation concurred. He said to himself, "Ah, for me, the 'Flower Queen' will always be Reiko Nishino."
He was a high school student at that time.
When Reiko uttered a putdown, she exuded the aura of the "Flower Queen," someone who looked down on every boy and girl in the class, not just Ohki, as if they were her "subjects." Despite being a young girl, she had the mature, almond-shaped eyes of an adult. Those were the same eyes as the woman shown sitting in the carriage in the 1883 painting, "An Unknown Woman," by Russian painter Ivan Kramskoi when he was 46.
Through the Entry Gate
Without showing any sign of the emotions he felt inside, Ohki placed an entry card with the building's pattern printed on it onto the contact surface of the gate to open the small, double-leaf transparent door for Reiko. Then the green light on the contact surface instantly changed to red, and the partition door snapped open. It would immediately close after one person had passed through it.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Reiko picked up the card that Ohki had placed on the reader to the right of the gate with the fingertips of her right hand. Ohki then placed his own white entry card on the gate reader. Ohki's card had rubbed against the reader so many times that the image printed on it had long since worn off, and it had turned completely white.
He stood there with her in the elevator hall. There were five arrays of elevators. They went to the cluster of seven elevators that went to the 45th floor. When someone pressed the elevator button, a small light lit up above one of the doors. They waited in front of that elevator, and the door soon opened. Reiko Nishino got on first. When Ohki pressed the button marked "45," the door closed, and the elevator began to speed smoothly upwards.
Sapphires?
After following Reiko into the elevator, Ohki turned and faced the doors. At that moment, he noticed that the necklace around Reiko's neck was swaying. It was a long, double-layered necklace of gold and jewels. Each connected gemstone had a unique flower shape, making it instantly recognizable to Ohki as a Van Cleef & Arpels creation. The jewels appeared to be sapphires.
He glanced at Reiko's right hand without really looking, and noticed that the same Van Cleef & Arpels sapphire was there in a ring that shone subtly on her index finger. It seemed that they had traveled all the way from Myanmar to Nagatacho just to accompany the "Flower Queen."
Even so, why sapphires?
Ohki felt it was a pleasant coincidence since his birth month was September. Gemstones normally had absolutely no connection to Ohki's daily existence, except, of course, if his client ran a diamond business. Although he had known since childhood that the sapphire was his birthstone, he had never once thought about it during his 75 years. Of course, obviously the fact that Reiko Nishino was wearing sapphires today had nothing to do with any of that.
Small sapphires also subtly sparkled in both of her earlobes.
Van Cleef & Arpels necklace, ring, earrings, and a custom-made lemon-yellow bag. All of these things added up to show she enjoyed a very materially affluent life.
Come to think of it, she had worked for her company, Hiroshima Kosan, for a long time. And her husband, its owner and president, had just recently passed away. Reiko was, in her own right, managing director of a mid-sized real estate development company in Hiroshima. And it was a title that had substance. It was not just a nominal one.
Managing Appearances
The wrinkles on her face were barely noticeable. Perhaps she had had plastic surgery, Ohki thought to himself. But her cheeks did sag a little, and the pair of skin creases extending bilaterally from the sides of her nostrils to the corners of the mouth were noticeable. Nor could she hide the wrinkles on her neck. There were definitely some of those. A feeling akin to relief washed over him. It was definitely an odd feeling. He could understand the thinking of a woman who wanted to have plastic surgery. However, he felt a certain kind of ease with a woman who elected not to have that done.
These were the selfish musings of a man who had forgotten about the ways in which his own body had changed.
When they exited the elevator, a large door stood to their left. Wide black wrought-iron frames enclosed the full-length glass panels of the double doors. This was the entrance to the offices of the Ohki Law Firm.
When he moved to open the door on the left by pushing the long handle with his left hand, the lighting briefly formed a cross shape and was reflected in the all-glass door. He pointed it out to Reiko, as if to say, "Just look at that." When the door began to move, the reflection vanished.
They entered a very spacious lobby, around 85 square meters. It was big enough to house an entire small law office. The floor was covered with a finely textured, pearly white Italian marble, known as Perlino White.
Looking to the rear right, three Barcelona chairs were lined up, instantly recognizable by their large, curved stainless steel legs that intersect in an X shape. They were covered in a dark green leather that Ohki had custom ordered.
Chipped Marble
In 2008, when the office's interior decoration was decided, Ohki had been very particular about the details. This entrance area had been completed just before the Lehman Shock.
Ohki had been well aware of how important the entrance of a law firm was in creating a favorable impression. He learned that lesson firsthand from the entrance to Anderson Mori & Rabinowitz ー the law firm he joined after first becoming a lawyer. At that time, in 1979, no other law firm in Japan could boast of such a grand entrance.
Ohki himself realized the true value of having an impressive entrance when he started co-managing a law firm in the Aoyama Twin Towers in 1985. The lawyers themselves were of course important. But so too were appearances. Above all, lawyers need to project an image that instantly makes clients feel, "These lawyers are with me."
The marble reminded Ohki of the limestone caves at Akiyoshidai he had visited on a school trip when he was in elementary school. After 63 years, he still had in his possession the marble paperweight with its flowing black and white pattern that he bought back then as a souvenir. It was a 13-centimeter-long piece that included two square rods, one 2.5 centimeters and the other three centimeters.
When did the corner of the middle section begin to chip? No matter. He kept it on hand and continued to use it. He remembered that actually he was the one who caused the damage. But it was so long ago that he could no longer recall the details.
Follow the story as it continues.
(To read the book in Japanese, please visit the publisher's website.)
READ Other Books in English by Shin Ushijima:
Author: Shin Ushijima
Ushijima & Partners, Attorneys at Law
Translation by: John C Carroll
(Edited by Susan Komori, Japan Forward)