Chapter 353: Tokuma Bookstore
Minato-ku, Tokyo.
Downstairs of the Changheshiba main gate, Shirakawa Kaede and Matsuzaka Keiko were both standing in front of the building in formal attire, looking up at the building in front of them.
"It looks very impressive," Keiko Matsusaka tightened her windbreaker and exclaimed with some emotion.
The entire building is more than twenty stories high, and it stands out particularly on the neon streets where buildings are generally not that tall.
However, Shirakawa Feng laughed when he heard her sigh, "It is magnificent, but Tokuma Bookstore is only a part of it."
"Eh," Keiko Matsusaka turned around in surprise, "Isn't this building the headquarters of Tokuma Shoten?"
Although she subscribed to many magazines of Tokuma Shoten, this was her first time visiting the main branch.
"To be precise, it's the 5th to 9th floors. Let's go, Takei-san and the others are probably waiting for us." After saying that, Shirakawa Feng took her into the building.
The Changhezhi Gate Building is also one of the landmark buildings here.
However, compared with the Shirakawa Electric headquarters which is about to open, it is still slightly inferior.
Well, it’s almost there. In two days, the Shirakawa Electric headquarters building will be officially put into use.
Because they had made an appointment in advance, Baichuan Feng and his friends had just arrived at the 5th floor, where reception staff had already been arranged.
Led by the staff, as soon as we entered Tokuma Shoten, Hirotomo Takei came to greet us in person.
"Junior Brother Baichuan, I finally got you here."
Hiroto Takei pulled Shirakawa Kaede and patted his shoulder enthusiastically. The two knew each other very well, so there was no need to use ordinary social etiquette.
"Brother Takei, please don't say that. If Tokuma-san hears it, wouldn't it be very rude?"
Baichuan Feng greeted him with a smile. It seemed that this senior brother was very anxious.
"Alas," Takei Hirotomo waved his hands in annoyance, "We are all leaving soon, so let's not talk about this anymore. As for Tokuma-san, you will know in a moment."
It can be seen that Hirotomo Takei was very troubled by Tokuma Yasushi. No one knew what he had been going through, but he couldn't help but start complaining in front of the door of Tokuma Bookstore.
In response to his complaint, Shirakawa Feng smiled and said nothing, but introduced Keiko Matsuzaka next to him.
Of course, Takei Hiroyuki knew Matsusaka Keiko, and he also knew a lot about the romantic affairs of this junior fellow student.
He was very amused when he read the report in the Daily News about three women competing for a husband.
He even relied on his previous relationship with the newspaper and secretly called Ken Matsumoto of the Mainichi Shimbun, hoping to get a closer look at the incident.
However, Matsumoto Ken was still waiting for his financial sponsor Shirakawa Kaede to visit, so he flatly rejected Takei Hirotomo's gossip.
He even said sanctimoniously that it was all a mistake made by his reporters. This was absolutely not the case and the Mainichi Shimbun had already apologized for it.
Hiroyuki Takei, who didn't get to eat the fresh melon, was now in front of one of the three girls. While being polite, he didn't forget to wink at Shirakawa Kaede.
This old man has no shame. He is over 60 years old and still has no sense of seriousness.
Baichuan Feng simply ignored his look. As long as I didn't feel embarrassed, it would be others who were embarrassed.
After the greetings, on the way to the meeting room, Hirotomo Takei also introduced the basic situation of Tokuma Shoten.
In fact, he had already talked about these with Shirakawa Kaede before, but perhaps because he was about to leave, Takei Hirotomo became a little nagging.
The predecessor of Tokuma Shoten was the Asahi Entertainment News Agency, which mainly reported on the entertainment industry and gossip news.
Its founder at that time was Mr. Hirotomo Takei, who came from the Yomiuri Shimbun and had a considerable influence in the media industry.
Mitsuo Muta, the founder of Yomiuri TV, and Hirotomo Takei were good friends . It was with the former's help that Hirotomo Takei founded the Asahi Entertainment News Agency.
The war had just ended and Christmas Mai was imposing censorship in Neon.
In order to resist this practice, various news agencies have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.
The Asahi Entertainment News was founded in that context, but its reporting content is focused on the entertainment industry.
At that time, due to the influence of the social environment, people could not even fill their stomachs, so who would care about gossip about celebrities?
Therefore, when it was first established, the business situation of Asahi Entertainment News Agency was not optimistic.
It just so happened that Hirotomo Takei was passionate about journalism and soon founded the Nitto Shimbun.
As a result, the Asahi Entertainment News Agency, which was already not well-off, was hit even harder and its business situation deteriorated sharply.
As a last resort, Hirotomo Takei once again turned to Mitsuo Muta, one of the investors, for help, and the latter introduced Yasuyoshi Tokuma, who was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun at the time, to him.
According to Hirotomo Takei, Yasuyoshi Tokuma is a stubborn, strong and troublesome partner.
But Hirotomo Takei also admires his political stance. This "stubborn" Tokuma-san is a staunch anti-right-winger.
However, the Yomiuri Shimbun's stance is right-of-center, so one can imagine how much criticism he will face within the news agency.
This is also the reason why Mitsuo Muta introduced him to Hirotomo Takei. Everyone in the Yomiuri Shimbun was looking forward to his departure.
Yasuyoshi Tokuma, who left the Yomiuri Shimbun, unexpectedly did well at the Asahi Entertainment Shimbun.
The company's creditors, employees, and customers all praised him, and the news agency's affairs were handled in an orderly manner.
Although the situation of Asahi Entertainment News is not so optimistic, at least everyone sees hope.
Later, when the capital was adjusted and the company was preparing to reorganize, everyone unanimously suggested that Yasuyoshi Tokuma be responsible for the operations of the new company.
It was from then on that Hirotomo Takei stepped back and only retained his original shares.
The Asahi Entertainment Newspaper was renamed Weekly Asahi Entertainment Publishing, and later in 1968 it became Tokuma Shoten.
Therefore, Hirotomo Takei and Yasuki Tokuma are both key figures in Tokuma Shoten, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are the founders of the bookstore.
In addition, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, who led Tokuma Shoten, took a completely different management approach from Hirotomo Takei, and his style was more radical.
First, it acquired MINORUPGON Corporation, reorganized it into Tokuma Music Industry, and began to engage in record industry activities.
Later, it acquired Daiei, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and reorganized and rebuilt it.
In addition to these expansions in the newspaper industry, the company did not stop and acquired the Tokyo Times, whose performance had deteriorated, in the 1970s.
As of today, in addition to publishing, newspapers, movies, music, etc. are all within the investment scope of Tokuma Shoten.
To be honest, after learning about the situation of Tokuma Shoten , Shirakawa Kaede was quite impressed by Mr. Tokuma.
Even at his old age, he is still full of fighting spirit and is always busy in the business world. He is much more courageous than his senior brother Takei.
However, Hirotomo Takei chose to enter the real estate industry at this moment, which shows that he has good vision. I just hope that when the bubble comes in the future, it won't be too bad.
Otherwise, Baichuan Feng would be busy taking over assets for him, just like now.
In the office, with the introduction of Hirotomo Takei, Shirakawa Kaede finally met Tokuma Yasukai-san.
He was wearing a dark brown suit and his hair was combed meticulously. Although his face was covered with wrinkles, he still looked energetic, especially his pair of eyebrow drooping eyebrows.
Seeing Shirakawa Kaede and the others coming in, Tokuma Yasushi quickly stood up and said, "Shirakawa-san is surprisingly young. Although it may be a bit rude to say this, you really look like a student. That's amazing."
There have been a lot of reports about Shirakawa Kaede recently. As a person working in the journalism and publishing industry, Tokuma Yasuyoshi naturally knows something about him.
So even though it was the first time they met, Tokuma Yasushi recognized him at first sight.
"You are too polite, Tokuma-san. Shirakawa has heard about your deeds a long time ago. In this regard, you are the one that the younger generation looks up to."
In the late 1930s, Yasukazu Tokuma worked as a special manager at the Shinsanmeisha Publishing House, yes, that “legendary publishing house”.
The main purpose of this publishing house can be roughly summarized as "post-war literature."
The so-called post-war literature is anti-war, anti-militarism, and anti-right wing...
More specifically, there are a series of movements, but... don't talk about state affairs~ don't talk about state affairs~
In short, in that era, it took great courage to hold high such a banner.
It is a miracle that Mr. Tokuma is still alive today and has not been sunk into Tokyo Bay.
So even though Baichuan Feng didn't care much about Zhengzhi, he still admired him very much in his heart.
But when Tokuma Yasushi heard Shirakawa Kaede's compliment, he burst into laughter.
"Everyone's teenage years are filled with a sense of justice. I was just a little more sober than the people around me at that time."
As for his open-mindedness, Baichuan Feng had no other thoughts except giving him a thumbs up in his heart.
"Tokuma-san, I am sorry to bother you today."
After talking and laughing for a while, Baichuan Feng didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
Hearing him say this, Tokuma Yasushi quickly gestured for everyone to sit down in the reception area.
After a cup of black tea was served and he took a sip, he slowly spoke.
“I was originally worried that the investors introduced by Takei-san might not agree with some of my business ideas.
But if it's Shirakawa-san, it would be a lot more reassuring."
"Hey, why do you say that?" Baichuan Feng asked curiously.
Tokuma Yasushi smiled quickly, "Because I know that Shirakawa-san is not someone who sits quietly for long. It is our nature to be active."
After hearing his explanation, Baichuan Feng burst out laughing.
Tokuma Yasukazu's implication was that they were of the same type, and that their common trait was that they both attacked everywhere in the business world.
The reason why the other party had such an impression of Baichuan Feng was because he knew the existence of Baichuan Holdings.
As a journalist, he is much better informed than the average person.
The breadth of industries involved in Shirakawa Holdings is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the current Shirakawa Electric.
For a company that has only been established for a few years, its business empire has already expanded so widely. This is really extraordinary.
Not to mention Tokuma Yasukazu's speculation about Shirakawa Kaede, the latter was also moved after hearing the former's explanation.
If that's the case, it seems that Mr. Tokuma has a lot of ideas about Tokuma Shoten.
And the other party said this to his face, was he reminding himself that the operation of Tokuma Bookstore would still follow his previous route and would not be easily changed?
We are all active people, but there is always someone who wants to be the leader and walk in front .
The remaining one can only swallow his temper and follow the former's footsteps.
Shirakawa Feng turned his gaze to Tokuma-san, who was still full of energy, and sighed in his heart.
He is indeed a person with a strong personality.
