National Tide 1980.

Chapter 1364: Cannot Expand

The day when the crew of "Dream of Red Mansions" left Japan in triumph was August 8th.

Coincidentally, this day is not only Japan's Armistice Day, but also the Obon Festival in Japan.

Keiko Matsumoto's parents rushed back to Japan from Harbin in northeast China a few days ago just for the Obon Festival.

To be honest, the old couple hasn't really had enough fun in China.

If it weren't for the fact that Obon is an important day for Japanese people to worship their ancestors, during this period, many workers would take their families and leave the city and return to their hometowns to worship their ancestors and reunite with their relatives.

They would not come back so early. They want to go to the south of China to have a good look.

But there is no way around it. Japan is a society that values ​​righteousness and human relationships, and as a company boss, you cannot help but give your subordinates some convenience.

Moreover, since Han Yingming knew that his trading company was bound to be short of staff during this period, then as the boss of the company, it would be better for him to come back and look after the company.

To prevent the company from having any problems or troubles due to lack of manpower.

As for after they came back, Han Yingming and his wife were no longer as carefree as they were in China.

Both of them were busy with gift-giving and socializing for the Obon Festival. In addition, Han Yingming had to take care of the company's affairs, and Han Changzi had to tidy up the home he had been away from for a long time.

Of course, this trip to China also gave Han Yingming strong trust and confidence in Ning Weimin's life.

He did not forget to follow his son-in-law's advice. When he came back, he carefully dealt with his stock account and sold 70% of his stock positions.

Including the twenty shares under his name, they began to fall again, and the price has returned to NTT, which is worth 2.5 million yen.

So at this point, Ning Weimin finally breathed a sigh of relief and no longer had to worry about whether his father-in-law's stocks would suffer heavy losses.

As for himself, the workload on his shoulders was certainly getting heavier and heavier, and he was much busier than Han Yingming.

All the businesses under his name are booming. Although they are all managed by dedicated people, he still needs to check on them and take care of them from time to time.

Besides, even the Tangong Restaurant has opened three stores in Japan now, and he would have to travel for several days to visit each store.

Just for this reason, it would be strange if he could feel at ease.

In addition, he also promised to help his wife plan a music album to see if he could help Keiko Matsumoto realize her dream of being on the charts, which would also require him to devote energy and time.

In addition, the first TV series invested by Wu Studio, "Black Leather Notebook", has also started filming, so Ning Weimin has to visit his wife at work from time to time to show his concern.

He was running around all day long and had no time to rest.

Logically speaking, since he is so busy and has so many things to do, he should have had an assistant or secretary long ago, so that he can focus on the big things and free himself from trivial matters, saving a lot of effort.

But the problem is this is Japan.

It is really not easy to find someone here who can speak both Chinese and Japanese, can understand his business philosophy, has sufficient ability and experience to handle all aspects of the affairs, and can make him feel more at ease.

So there is no way, this matter cannot be done for the time being.

Ning Weimin would rather be a little tired and troubled than to find someone to touch his core business interests.

For the time being, I can only rely on the employees of Dadao Trading Company to help with some paperwork and ticket and hotel bookings to reduce the workload.

But the good thing is that Dadao Trading Company is not busy and most of its employees are disabled.

Although they have limited mobility, they work diligently, are patient, and are grateful. They never make Ning Weimin anxious with paperwork and ticket bookings, so they are truly worth the money.

Then again, being increasingly busy undoubtedly proves that Ning Weimin's personal career is still in a rapid growth period and has not yet reached its ceiling, which is certainly a good thing.

Now his path is getting wider and wider, and he has a purpose in his work. Even though there are pain points, he is still happy.

Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the cultural exchange activity of "Dream of Red Mansions" visiting Japan, which he planned.

Although the crew has left now, the impact of this move is significant and it surprised him.

This trial run allowed him to find a way to export Chinese culture overseas.

He not only gained a lot of benefits from it, but also saw an extremely bright future.

This is not an exaggeration at all. In fact, just a simple calculation of the income and expenditure will show how well he did the job.

In terms of costs, the expenses Ning Weimin spent on hosting the crew of "Dream of Red Mansions" included applying for visas, organizing activities, setting up the venue, setting up booths, hiring temporary staff, and all expenses including the crew's food, drink, and defecation in Japan, travel expenses, pocket money, advertising remuneration... and so on, totaling no more than 20 million yen.

According to the domestic private exchange rate, it is roughly equivalent to 1.2 million to 1.3 million RMB.

But how much did he earn from it?

That's a huge amount.

The first is organizing events, which generates a large portion of revenue from catering.

Even the chefs at the Altar Palace have tried their best to lower their prices.

But these snacks, which are famous for their affordability in China, are actually quite expensive in Japan.

A steamed bun made with old-fashioned dough costs 200 yen, which is equivalent to 12 yuan.

A meat bun or meat pie costs 300 yen, which is equivalent to 18 yuan.

This is a hundred times the price in China.

But the fermented taste brought by the old yeast fertilizer from Fengzeyuan can make the Japanese open their wallets absolutely willingly.

In addition, a bowl of eight-treasure porridge costs 400 yen, which is equivalent to 24 yuan, which is 150 times the price in China.

The simple sesame sauce cold noodles and fried noodles can be sold for 500 yen, which is equivalent to 30 yuan.

Although it is just a common meal for Beijing residents every day in summer, the exotic flavor from China masks the outrageous profits.

A serving of Jianbing Guozi, traditionally made, costs 600 yen. Since there is no bipo, sesame seeds are sprinkled on it instead.

There is also an upgraded version of the pancake with some marinated meat or smoked chicken shreds, which sells for 900 yen.

Although these things would definitely be regarded as "heretics who betray their teachers and ancestors" in the eyes of the people of Tianjin.

But the Japanese were very satisfied after eating it, and kept saying "I'm so happy" to show that they liked it very much.

In addition, although milk is very cheap and shaved ice is very common in Japan, a cup of palace cheese or bayberry shaved ice can make the Japanese taste like a high-end dessert, so it is not surprising that it sells for 600 yen.

As for the unique foods such as sour plum soup, pea yellow, and grilled lamb skewers, they provide a taste enjoyment that Japanese people rarely get to experience.

Therefore, the unit price of 800 to 1,000 yen cannot stop Japanese customers' curiosity.

In fact, the lines in front of these stalls are often more than 20 meters long.

As for things like steamed bun gift boxes, pastry gift boxes, and tea and snack gift boxes, each event attracts about 20,000 people. Even though the selling prices are as high as 2,000 to 3,000 yen, they are still in short supply and sold out every day.

To be honest, every time Ning Weimin organizes an event, he can earn up to 7 or 8 million yen from catering services.

He held it for six days in total, and the total profit from catering was about 44 million yen.

Just with this item, we have achieved a profit and doubled the money.

What's more, this is only part of the profit. The retail of handicrafts also has huge profits.

You know, the Japanese are detail-oriented by nature, and from an aesthetic point of view, they like this kind of purely handmade craftsmanship. In particular, Japan began to promote the culture of craftsmen as early as the Meiji era, and established the "Living National Treasure" recognition system in 1955.

The Japanese government protects master artists and craftsmen after strict selection and confirmation, and invests huge amounts of money to prevent the loss of their skills.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Japanese, they have always believed that purely handmade products represent high quality and are worth a high price.

It just so happened that the handicrafts that Ning Weimin shipped from China were incredibly cheap, even with the shipping fee included, because the labor cost in the country was so low.

Even a straw insect or an embroidered purse can be sold for 600 yen.

A lacquerware makeup box or a small comb is 1,800 yen.

A chrysanthemum brooch made of lacquerware costs 3,600 yen.

Embroidered round fans, scented fans, and palace lanterns are 4,800 yen.

Baoyu's magical jade, Baochai's golden necklace and locket, Shi Xiangyun's golden unicorn, and Daiyu's white hairpin are all 5,500 yen.

The small mirror of Fengyue Baojian is 4,000 yen each, and the octagonal glass palace lantern is 6,000 yen each.

The silk doll is 18,000 yen each, and a set of twelve gold hairpins is 180,000 yen.

There are also supporting packages, the beauties for Jia Baoyu and Jia Lian are 20,000 yen each, and those for Jia Mu and Liu Laolao are 12,000 yen each.

The most expensive bonsai is 35,000 yen each, and 60,000 yen for a pair.

Think about it, doesn't this mean you can earn as much as you sell?

So for every event, Ning Weimin earned more than 6 million yen from the sales of handicrafts as if it were a piece of cake, and after six days, he made a profit of 30 million yen.

This is because the quantity of goods is limited. In fact, there is not much goods left after two days of selling. Otherwise, I would make more money.

However, this is not all, because the real profits, once the market is fully opened, will all come from books and audio-visual products.

No matter what, this is, after all, a cultural exchange activity with the theme of the big IP "Dream of Red Mansions".

The more people who come to participate in the event have fun eating and playing here, the more they will be amazed by Chinese handicrafts, and the more deeply the theme of "Dream of Red Mansions" will be rooted in people's hearts.

After eating and drinking their fill and being amazed enough, many passers-by fans who were learning about this Chinese story "Dream of the Red Chamber" for the first time were interested in learning more about it.

In addition, TBS has only aired 20 episodes so far, and many people who have become fans of the TV series want to know the story later and also want to revisit the previous plots.

So it was inevitable that books and comic books would sell well.

Ning Weimin printed 15,000 copies of the Japanese version of "Dream of Red Mansions", the text-only version, and 20,000 sets of the comic book version. He was originally worried that they would not be able to sell, but he did not expect that after the activities in the past few days, most of them were sold out.

With sales of 126 million yen, the profit was nearly 90 million yen. If the sales of various tapes were added, the final profit would be 150 million yen.

What Ning Weimin is worried about now is no longer how to sell the remaining books, but whether to print them again.

Especially when this series of activities continues to stimulate the ratings of "Dream of Red Mansions" and attracts continued media attention, it is impossible to list all the benefits and advantages that come from it.

From Ning Weimin's perspective, there are still a few benefits that are worth looking forward to.

The first is that TBS TV station is very satisfied with this cooperation, which means that the introduction of Chinese TV series in the next step will not be a problem.

Second, TBS also informed Ning Weimin that given the current good ratings, he already has a lot of TV fans.

It was suggested that he could just release the videotapes of the first twenty episodes of Dream of the Red Chamber to make some money.

Based on Director Kaga's professional experience, it is estimated that if both sales and rentals are included, the sales volume should be at least 10,000 units.

If we calculate based on the price of 7,000 yen per videotape, the sales would be at least 1.4 billion yen, with a profit of 500 million yen.

That is the final profit of four million US dollars.

Although the money will not be available all at once, it may take one or two years to get it in full.

But if there really is such a huge profit, then the $400,000 that Ning Weimin spent on buying the copyright can be recovered tenfold.

This is selling and renting videotapes.

Selling fans doesn’t make that much money.

Third, because of the remarkable results of this broadcast and publicity, several local Japanese TV stations have taken the initiative to find TBS Director Kaga, hoping to use him to contact Ning Weimin.

These local stations all hope that after TBS TV station finishes broadcasting "Dream of Red Mansions", Ning Weimin can bring this TV series to their stations for broadcast.

Of course, this cooperation is different from the 1 million yen per episode premiere contract originally signed by Ning Weimin and TBS.

TV series are only popular during the current season, and the effect of subsequent broadcasts will be greatly reduced.

These local TV stations have limited resources and cannot afford to pay a lot of money, so they can only give him a small amount of money.

Generally, the broadcasting rights will cost 50,000 to 100,000 yen per episode.

But according to Director Kaga, for a good drama like "Dream of Red Mansions" which has achieved a relatively high viewership rate in the morning drama time slot and has attracted a certain amount of social attention, it has been proven in practice that it is normal to sell 200,000 or 300,000 yen per episode.

In other words, if we calculate it at 200,000 yen per episode, then one round of broadcasting of Dream of the Red Chamber in local areas would bring in 7 million yen.

If it could be broadcasted in thirty or forty local TV stations across Japan, it would make a lot of money.

  Think about it, how can Ning Weimin, who is now almost the only overseas agent for TV dramas in the Republic, not be excited? Not excited?

Although he had long known that the overseas copyrights of domestic TV dramas were a huge gold mine worth exploring, he did not expect the value of this gold mine to reach this level.

Now it seems that the $400,000 he spent without considering the gains and losses was a "black-hearted" move.

If we look at the long term, there are still three other of the four great classics waiting for him to work on.

Then there is no doubt that the path he is taking now will bring him infinite glory in the future.

  How could he not have expectations for the future and look forward to making good money from the Japanese with our cultural IP?

So, Ning Weimin is now really high-spirited and full of enthusiasm.

Everything he was thinking about had already been planned for the next decade or so.

It is no longer limited to specific operations, but is all strategic layout.

Not only does he want to make money from the Japanese through food, clothing and shelter, he also wants to deceive the country's citizens in terms of ideology, aesthetics, culture and entertainment.

It doesn't make sense that if the Americans can give the Japanese a feminine education, we can't try to enslave them through culture, what if that works?

However, just when Ning Weimin was happily planning for "My future is not a dream".

When he thought he had control over everything in the future.

Perhaps God saw that he was too happy and could no longer hold on to him, and perhaps God was afraid that he would start to become arrogant, so he wanted to teach him a lesson.

Perhaps it is because everything has its limits and excessive joy leads to sorrow, and people cannot always get what they want and have everything go smoothly.

Anyway, the sudden misfortune gave Ning Weimin a hard slap in the face, and immediately woke him up from his dream of being omnipotent.

The crew of "Crazy Rich Asians" encountered inexplicable troubles during filming in Singapore.

And almost at the same time, "Black Leather Notebook", which Keiko Matsumoto had just started filming, also fell into an incredible dilemma.