Rebirth in Japan: The Heiress Who Conquered the World

April 20, 1991, Saturday, 9:30 AM.

Marunouchi, Saionji Group Headquarters.

When Takahashi walked into the small conference room, the first thing he saw was the white nameplate in front of the main seat at the long table.

His name was written on it.

The other seats in the conference room were already full of people.

Saionji Maki sat in the first seat on the left, with two stacks of files covered in red and blue labels in front of her desk. She was wearing a dark grey suit today, her gaze behind black-framed glasses resting on a data sheet, and the red and blue pencil in her hand had just crossed out a few rows of numbers.

Sitting next to her was Executive Director Gondo.

Further back in order were Sasaki from the Group’s Legal Department, the head of the Financial Settlement Department, the counsellor from the Metropolitan Government and Public Affairs Office, and Saionji Masato from SIS.

Any single one of these names, placed in an ordinary company, would be enough to chair a project meeting involving billions of yen.

Now, they were already sitting at the table waiting for him.

Satsuki sat by the window on the right side of the long table.

A cup of black tea was placed in front of her, and several documents related to cooperation with the Soviet Union were pinned down near her hand.

She raised her head and showed him a very natural smile.

”Good morning, Senior Takahashi.”

”Good morning.”

Takahashi subconsciously bowed slightly, but his gaze fell back onto the nameplate in front of the main seat.

He had originally thought that today was just to come and receive an evaluation of his report.

On April 17, he submitted his first judgment on Isomura Hisanori on schedule. After the report was sent into the Head of Family’s room, Chizuru only notified him to attend a meeting at the headquarters on Saturday morning, neither mentioning the format of the meeting nor telling him how many people would attend.

Takahashi had prepared for this for a whole night.

Which inferences in the report lacked sufficient evidence, and which conclusions might be questioned by Satsuki, he had gone over again and again. He had even silently practised how to explain himself after being pointed out an error while on the train.

Only this scene before his eyes had never appeared in his preparations.

Chizuru stood by the door and handed him a meeting agenda.

”Mr. Takahashi, the materials have been prepared according to the order of your report.”

Takahashi took the agenda and opened the first page.

In the column for the moderator, his name was written as well.

”This is...”

”You will moderate today.”

Takahashi looked up at Satsuki.

Satsuki picked up her teacup and gently blew away the heat on the surface.

”You cited the materials they provided in your report and evaluated their judgments.”

”Now everyone is here.”

She took a sip of black tea, her eyes curving slightly.

”Senior Takahashi cannot just write and not use them, can you?”

This sentence sounded very relaxed.

But Takahashi felt that the agenda in his hand suddenly became much heavier.

That the six people on paper were under his command was the authority Satsuki personally granted ten days ago. But having authority written in a document and having these people sit in front of him waiting for his arrangement were completely two different things.

He was only twenty years old.

He had not even truly entered to work in any company yet.

Saionji Maki, the youngest person at the long table, was also several years older than him. Gondo had already been managing large construction companies when he was in elementary school, and the litigation and acquisition documents Sasaki had handled were probably more than the books Takahashi had read in his three years of university.

The chair at the main seat was only two steps away from him.

Yet Takahashi felt that those two steps were farther than walking from Gakushuin University to Marunouchi.

He glanced at Satsuki and forced himself to calm down.

Just like usual at school would be fine... It was just reporting... Calm down, calm down...

Whether the report was well written or not already had an answer when it was sent into the Head of Family’s room on the 17th.

What needed to be verified today was whether the person who wrote the report could let the judgments on paper leave the desk.

Takahashi took a deep breath, walked to the main seat, put down the file bag, pulled out the chair, and sat down.

The leather chair sank slightly downward.

He raised his hand to adjust his tie, and when his fingertips touched the knot, he realised his hands were a little cold.

”Thank you everyone for taking the time today.”

After speaking, Takahashi realised that his tone was more formal than at the university seminar.

”Today is mainly to verify the report I submitted on the 17th. Much of the content in the report comes from the materials provided by you, and there may also be areas where my understanding is insufficient or my judgment is inaccurate.”

”Therefore... I kindly ask everyone to add your comments in the order of the agenda.”

After he finished speaking, he opened the notebook in front of him.

The conference room was quiet for a moment.

Maki raised her head and glanced at the agenda.

”According to the order you arranged, shall we first discuss the abilities Mr. Isomura has demonstrated?”

”Yes, thank you for your trouble.”

”What about the scope?”

Takahashi paused for a moment.

”Policy understanding, personnel coordination, external communication that can be confirmed during the campaign, and any other parts you think are valuable are all acceptable.”

The pencil in Maki’s hand stopped on the paper surface.

Takahashi immediately realised that ’other valuable parts’ was almost equivalent to having no scope limit at all.

But the words were already spoken, and taking them back now would only make him appear more flustered.

Maki opened the first file.

”Between March 28 and April 7, Isomura attended sixteen major policy meetings.”

”According to the meeting minutes, he was able to understand the relationship between thirty-day settlement, receivables financing, and the restart of suspended projects, and could also re-explain the three policies in public speeches into content that ordinary voters could understand.”

”The campaign team’s initially prepared speech draft was forty-three pages long. The final version used was only eleven pages, and the part concerning small and medium-sized construction companies was personally modified three times by Isomura.”

Maki pulled out a few photocopies and pushed them along the tabletop toward Takahashi.

”He deleted a large number of financial terms, changing ’securitisation of receivable claims’ to ’after finishing the work, you do not have to wait another ninety days to get your money’. This shows that he at least knows what he is promising.”

Takahashi nodded while taking notes.

”What about coordination skills?”

”It depends on what kind of coordination you mean.”

Maki raised her hand to adjust her frame.

”Making Saionji, Seibu, banks, and the Construction Industry Association appear on the same list during the campaign shows that he can accept complex support structures and is willing to leave room for different factions.”

”But the one truly responsible for pulling these people together was Saionji.”

”If this matter is directly recorded as Isomura’s administrative coordination ability, there is not enough evidence.”

”Understood, thank you very much.”

Takahashi bowed his head to write down this sentence, and then looked at Gondo according to the agenda.

”Executive Director Gondo, regarding the thirty-day settlement, on the construction department side...”

”First confirm from which day the calculation starts.”

Gondo placed a project payment process chart on the table.

”After the contracting company submits the completion report, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government needs to send people to inspect and accept it. Once accepted, the engineering department produces a confirmation letter and hands it over to the financial department to process payment.”

”If what Isomura promised is that as soon as the project ends, the money must reach the contractor’s account within thirty days, then many projects cannot achieve that.”

Takahashi stopped writing.

”Because of the inspection time?”

”Inspection is only one part of it.”

Gondo reached out and tapped a few boxes in the middle of the flowchart.

”Design changes, additional engineering, site visas, budget item adjustments—if any single item is not confirmed, the claim amount cannot be finalised.”

Takahashi looked at the several positions in the flowchart that Gondo had pointed to one by one.

”In the opinion statement you submitted on April 14, there is a drainage project in Koto Ward.”

Gondo’s finger stopped at the ’budget adjustment’ column.

”The construction company submitted the completion report on March 2, and did not obtain final confirmation until April 18, a total of forty-seven days. Verifying additional engineering took twelve days, audit review took seven days, site inspection took nine days, and the remaining nineteen days were all spent on budget item adjustments and submitting supplementary documents.”

The several people beside the conference table raised their heads one after another.

Gondo lowered his head and flipped through the twenty-six-page opinion statement in front of him. When he turned to the nineteenth page, his movements slowed down.

The last row of the appendix was precisely the set of numbers Takahashi had just reported.

”Have you been exposed to this project before?”

”I have only read this opinion statement.”

Seeing that Gondo was still staring at the appendix, Takahashi added another sentence:

”I have a relatively good memory for numbers. Materials that I have read completely once, I usually still remember afterwards.”

Maki lifted the red and blue pencil from the paper surface.

”Usually?”

Takahashi hesitated for a moment.

”Up until now, I have not forgotten any yet.”

After a brief silence, Gondo folded the nineteenth page separately and pushed it back to the centre of the table.

”Since you remember it so clearly, let us use this item.”

His finger pressed down on the line recording forty-seven days.

”It is closer to the trouble Isomura will face after taking office than the normal process I drew just now.”

”With the amounts uncertain, the bank will not accept that accounts receivable financing either.”

Hearing this, the head of the financial settlement department casually flipped open their documents.

”The bank can provide financing based on the provisional amount first.”

”The premise is that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is willing to confirm the minimum payout, or a designated institution assumes the risk of the difference.”

Gondo turned his head sideways.

”On what grounds would the Metropolitan Government confirm the minimum payout for a project that has not passed inspection yet?”

”That is why policy design is needed.”

The financial head looked at Takahashi, tone becoming a bit more serious.

”Mr. Takahashi, the report states that accounts receivable financing can provide cash to the contracting company in advance without increasing the immediate expenditures of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. This point holds up financially.”

”But the risks will not disappear.”

”If the bank bears the risk of delayed project inspection and final amount adjustments, it will raise interest rates; if the Tokyo Metropolitan Government bears the risk, it turns into a de facto credit guarantee.”

Sasaki flipped his legal opinion to the next page.

”And if the metropolitan government provides credit convenience to a specific bank or a specific contracting company, it will immediately run into administrative fairness issues.”

”If only Saionji’s partner banks are allowed to participate, the ordinances and procurement procedures will be very difficult to pass.”

”If it is fully open, bank access standards, debt confirmation methods, and rules for handling disputed projects all need to be written into a public system.”

The counsellor from the Metropolitan Administration and Public Affairs Office also chimed in.

”And the Metropolitan Assembly.”

”To accelerate payments within the existing budget, the governor can ask various bureaus to improve processes. But when it involves adding guarantees, establishing special funds, or changing public project settlement rules, the assembly will definitely intervene.”

”The assemblymen left behind by the Suzuki faction will not easily let Isomura turn all his campaign promises into his own political achievements.”

He reached out and took Gondo’s flowchart.

”Even if the ordinance passes, the internal metropolitan government might stall using review procedures. The Construction Bureau says it has to wait for the Finance Bureau, the Finance Bureau says the debt amount must be confirmed by the Construction Bureau, and the Audit Department then requests a supplementary fairness explanation.”

”Every department can say they are handling it.”

”And then thirty days will have passed.”

The meeting gradually became lively.

Everything everyone said made sense.

And precisely because it all made sense, the problems started multiplying.

Gondo discussed the realistic time between project completion and acceptance. The finance department cared about whether the claims could enter the bank’s balance sheet. Sasaki considered the legal responsibilities that might arise after the system was made public. The Metropolitan Administration Office put the Metropolitan Assembly, the bureaucratic system, and post-election political resistance into the same diagram.

Saionji Masato subsequently talked about SIS’s observations of Isomura’s campaign team.

He believed that Isomura was good at judging public sentiment and could quickly absorb advice provided by professionals, but the campaign team’s chain of command was very short, and many decisions could be made directly by the candidate himself.

The metropolitan government did not operate that way.

”A campaign office only has dozens of core members. When opinions disagree, Isomura can call people into a room to talk it out.”

Masato pushed up his glasses, his gaze falling on Satsuki at the other end of the conference room.

”But the metropolitan government has hundreds of thousands of employees, plus the Metropolitan Assembly, ward offices, affiliated organisations, and long-term cooperative industry associations. Whether he can bring his campaign-style decision-making methods in remains to be seen.”

Takahashi immediately wrote down this remark.

”This is very important. Could you elaborate a bit more...”

Masato continued.

At first, Takahashi kept asking follow-up questions.

A dozen minutes later, he could only keep turning pages.

The first item on the agenda was originally scheduled for thirty minutes, but it had already exceeded forty-five minutes. The second item had not yet started, yet six definitions regarding ”thirty-day settlement” had appeared on the table.

More troublesome was that by the end of everyone’s speaking, their gazes would naturally turn toward Satsuki.

They obeyed today’s arrangements.

Yet this obedience stemmed from Satsuki’s command.

Takahashi sat in the main seat, but Satsuki remained the true centre of this conference room.

As long as she spoke, all arguments would stop immediately. As long as she provided a direction, the six people could quickly converge their opinions into an execution plan.

Satsuki had the ability to immediately point out problems, and the ability to make everyone absolutely obey.

Yet she simply sat by the window drinking tea.

Occasionally flipping a page of Soviet documents, occasionally raising her eyes to look at the conference table for a moment.

She was waiting.

From the beginning of the meeting until now, Satsuki had only spoken a few words when necessary. Sitting by the window, she occasionally flipped through the documents at hand, more often just quietly watching the people at the long table.

She handed the main seat over to Takahashi, and along with it, the authority to decide how the meeting should proceed.

Yet he never truly caught it.

What on earth was he being polite for?

Worrying that interrupting Gondo would make this Executive Director who had worked in the construction industry for decades feel that he did not understand the rules; worrying that restricting Maki’s reporting scope would expose that he had no idea how to chair a corporate meeting; every time Sasaki mentioned legal provisions, he subconsciously wanted to let the other party finish, as if missing a single sentence would make his subsequent judgments look like that of an outsider.

He even cared about whether his wording was humble enough.

”Please supplement,” ”If convenient,” ”The parts you deem necessary.”

Every sentence was thorough.

And it was precisely this thoroughness that allowed the six people around the table to return to their respective familiar positions. They placed the most complete materials, the most professional opinions, and the most secure risk assessments on the table one by one, and then waited for Satsuki to make a choice among them.

But if Satsuki had to do everything, then what was he even here for?

Takahashi looked down at his notebook.

Seven arrows had already been drawn under ”thirty-day settlement.” Acceptance, design changes, additional engineering, budget items, debt confirmation, bank discounting, assembly deliberations—behind each item were new conditions.

The campaign records provided by Maki, the personnel relationships organised by Masato, and the legal restrictions cited by Sasaki were also engraved in his mind without missing a single word.

All of this content was very important.

If he continued to listen in the original order, he could certainly compile meeting minutes more complete than the seventeenth-day report.

Every department’s opinion would be properly retained, every risk would be written into the appendix, and no one could pick out any obvious omissions.

This was the safest approach.

But.

Then what?

Could Isomura actually pull it off?

And where should Saionji stop?

These questions would still remain buried in dozens of pages of data, waiting for Satsuki to dig them out herself.

This was not much different from his first sixty-page report. The data was getting more and more abundant, but the conclusion was getting further and further away.

Takahashi’s fingers holding the pen gradually tightened.

The nib stayed in the same spot for too long, and the ink seeped into the paper, leaving a small dark mark.

He suddenly understood that Satsuki letting him sit here was not because she lacked someone to record opinions.

These people around the table also did not need him to prove that he was more professional than them.

What he truly needed to do was make different departments stop before the same problem, and then, out of all the valid opinions, select the one that could be put into action.

Even if this choice meant putting certain opinions aside temporarily.

Even if someone therefore felt that his considerations were not thorough enough.

Takahashi loosened his fingers and moved the pen away from that ink blot.

When he raised his head, the financial head was explaining the bank’s discounting method for unconfirmed claims, Gondo had already opened the next flowchart, and Sasaki also had a piece of supplementary legal advice pressed under his hand.

If this continued, half an hour later, there would only be another stack of correct materials on the table.

Takahashi took a breath.

”Everyone, hold on a moment.”