Reborn Tokyo Golden Age.

Chapter 516 General House

Can Ji Dao swallow up large enterprises, or control listed groups behind the scenes?
This may sound a bit unbelievable. When will a group of Yakuza who only know how to fight and kill, do something sensible?
But this is not surprising in Neon. Yakuza is just a joking name for low-level gangsters.

The top management of the Jida is divided into different ranks according to their levels: chairman, president, and president.

Just from the name, you can tell that just like inside the company, Jida is running itself like a club.

Even the slightly higher level Yakuza wear serious suits and leather shoes.

For those who didn’t know, they thought they were employees of a certain company.

Although they are also engaged in various gray businesses, almost all the top leaders of the Yakuza hope that they can successfully clean themselves up and become the so-called upper class members of society.

So with certain financial resources, they began to actively participate in various economic investment activities.

The rise of the bubble just gave them an opportunity to take advantage of it. The two industries of securities and real estate have always been the hardest hit areas targeted by the Yida.

The violent organization behind Toyota Corporation has the shadow of the Sumiyoshi Kai. Even the two people who assassinated Kazuo Nagano in front of reporters were from Shigeo Nishiguchi.

Using two of his subordinates to do the job, he got hundreds of billions of yen in exchange.Who wouldn't be tempted by such an extremely cost-effective deal?
Of course, according to the agreement, after ten years, the subordinates will be released from prison, and the team leader will not be able to escape.

At the same time, a large sum of compensation has been handed over to their families in advance.

This kind of thing is very common in the Yakuza. As long as the compensation is adequate, some people will do it.

But when you have money, you want power.

Huge wealth cannot bring satisfaction to the extreme, and they want to go further.

Making waves in a large listed company, drinking and chatting with elites in the business and financial circles, is the most exciting thing to do.

Isn't the reason why Nishiguchi Shigeo established a connection with Fuji Bank because he hoped to penetrate into the bank and then build an alliance of interests with the top officials of the cabinet?
However, the road to the summit is destined to be bumpy, and the Sumiyoshi Association's current actions are not going too smoothly.

The reason why those big shots are willing to pay attention to them is simply because they can do dirty work.

In essence, these upper class people have never opened their eyes to see them.

Even if you are polite now, it is mostly for the sake of your ancestors or simply the product of the current consensus of interests.

So the ambitious Shigeo Nishiguchi began to change his thinking. He wanted to take control of a listed company as an opportunity to formally complete the change in status.

The rising star Shirakawa Electric Co., Ltd. has undoubtedly become his target, because the opponent is young enough and must have no foundation.

This little sheep-like existence is the most suitable to become his prey.

Is this Nishiguchi Shigeo's wishful thinking?Will a large listed company accept his mercy?
Not to mention that there are similar examples in Neon's history, such as the current Industrial Bank, Neon's largest private bank.

In the 70s, Kodama Yushio served as a senior advisor to Industrial Bank, and behind him stood the Yamaguchi-gumi.

With his wide open door, the Japan Airlines Alliance under the control of Industrial Bank has simply become his back garden.

A violent member of the dignified Yamaguchi-gumi can actually become a high-ranking member of the Japan Airlines Alliance.

What’s even more incredible is that during a certain period of time, the Yamaguchi-gumi also obtained the operating rights of certain clubs under the Japan Airlines Alliance?

This is the ultimate act. They can openly control transportation companies with state-owned assets.

Although in the 80s, with the death of Kodama, the Yamaguchi-gumi had to withdraw from Japan routes.

But there is no doubt that the ultimate taste has never been forgotten.

Now, as bubbles inflate and financial markets become chaotic, the ambitions of some violent gangs have also grown to an unprecedented level.

Not only Sumiyoshi, but even the Yamaguchi group is already taking action, and their target is Sumitomo Bank.

But that happened in Osaka. At this time in Tokyo, Sumiyoshi would like to try the weight of Shirakawa Electric first.

However, Nakamura Minoru's reminder just now made Nishiguchi Shigeo hesitate.

According to his understanding, the founder of Shirakawa Electric was only half Chinese, and the forces behind it were even more ignored.

As for making friends with government officials?How many business people have a bad relationship with officials?

Nishiguchi Shigeo believes that once he reaches that point, he will only be able to win over more politicians.

Besides, even now, the Sumiyoshi Association may not lack the so-called political umbrella behind it.

But to be on the safe side, Nishiguchi Shigeo decided to find a pathfinder first to test the reaction of Shirakawa Electric.

And when it comes to violent gangs, the sharp weapon against listed companies is none other than the General House.

The simple explanation of the General House is the people who do the business of "commercial shareholder meetings".

As a product of Neon's unique national character and commercial culture, the Guild House business, like the Yakuza, operates in broad daylight, but it can also be called a strange existence.

What they do is just like litigants.Specially focus on those listed companies and exploit their loopholes or weaknesses for their own personal gain.

Its origins can be traced back to the Meiji period. At that time, with the rise of the Meiji Restoration, the concept of joint-stock companies was also introduced to neon.

Since it is a joint-stock company and a listed company, there is no shortage of group shareholders.

According to the regulations of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, companies listed on the first section of the market must have at least 2 shareholders.

As stock market transactions proceed, these issued shares can be purchased by any shareholder.

So gradually this became the soil, and some shareholders owned several shares of the joint-stock company.They abused their power, demanded improper money from the company or took bribes, and people were born.

The interest group formed by these shareholders is now the famous General House.

According to Neon’s Commercial Law and Society Law, listed companies must hold a regular shareholders’ meeting at a certain time each year.

Shareholders who hold a legal share of shares have the right to participate in the general meeting of shareholders.

For listed companies, especially large companies.The shareholders' meeting they hold every year is often attended by tens of thousands of people.

When there are more people, there will be all kinds of birds.

Some people with ulterior motives usually seize the pain points of listed companies and question whether business operators need to be responsible for certain things.

Although they are just a group of insignificant small shareholders, in front of tens of thousands of people, corporate executives are often made disgraced.

The Japanese people have an innate habit of saving face. If they are criticized in public or quarrel with others regardless of image, it will be considered a violation of traditional shame.

These corporate executives absolutely disdain to argue or defend with small shareholders at shareholder meetings.

Therefore, in order to end the shareholders' meeting as soon as possible, business managers either make peace with those who make things difficult for them.

Or they can promise benefits privately to make these small shareholders feel more at ease at the shareholders' meeting.

Over time, the shareholders' meeting became a "face meeting" or an "applause meeting."

As for those small shareholders who have tasted the sweetness, it seems that this is also a way to make money.

So, deliberately or unintentionally, they took advantage of legal loopholes and became frequent guests at the shareholders' meetings of various listed companies.

They initially called themselves "professional shareholders," and their specialty was to make a lot of noise and talk nonsense at meetings, questioning every aspect of the company's operations.

If the company fails to respond to their problems, they aggressively publicize the company's operational failure.

Or the leader who spreads rumors may have untrustworthy character and morals, thereby suppressing the stock price and causing heavy losses to the company's managers.

Over time, the "club house" formed by these professional shareholders has almost become a huge headache for listed companies.

Later, in order to avoid possible losses, most company operators will adopt an avoidance policy, that is, spend money to buy safety.

They pay a certain amount of protection fee to the General House every year to prevent them from making trouble when the general meeting of shareholders is held.

Under this kind of connivance, the appetite of the General Assembly grew bigger and bigger, and they began to be no longer satisfied with just showing off their skills at the shareholders' meeting.

They also try to get deeply involved in the decision-making and operations of many companies, even to the point of provoking fights and bloodshed.

In the course of its century-old history, the General House even had a fight with the Yamaguchi-gumi.

With the development of the neon economy in the 60s, as more and more listed companies were listed, the size of the general house also expanded repeatedly.

Real estate, communications, transportation and other industries all have their shadows behind them, and the Yakuza and the Association hit it off in controlling the needs of large companies.

The General House is responsible for controlling the shareholders, while the Yakuza is responsible for providing them with security.

With the cooperation of each other, the General House once had a scale of more than 6000 people.

Moreover, due to the exchange of interests, many black and white bosses use the clubhouse as an intermediary channel for rent-seeking power.

No one in the business or political circles was spared, and some people even said rudely that "no one in Japan's companies can escape the headquarters, not even one."

Although this is a bit exaggerated, it is enough to show the status of the General House in the neon sky.

And with so many years of development, do you think the General Assembly will only cause trouble at shareholders' meetings?

It's too simple to think like this. As a fighter among the elite, the Association has long developed a mature and complete "Shareholders Meeting Participation System."

There is not only a detailed division of labor, but also a "one-stop service".

For example, for companies that have sufficient funding, the Federation will send people to shout at meetings, "I have no objection, I agree, long live!"

They use such actions to interrupt the speeches of shareholders who really have thoughts and opinions, thereby depriving ordinary individual shareholders of their rights to participate in operations and ensuring that the shareholders' meeting ends as soon as possible.

Look, as long as the money is in place, a tough guy can turn into a flatterer.

It is not that the General House has never had the idea of ​​​​Shirakawa Electric in the past, but its stock price has remained high, and there are still very few shares in circulation.

As a result, most of the people who sneaked in from the general office at the shareholders' meeting were the company's employees wearing Shirakawa Electric work clothes!

Looking at the densely packed employees of the company, even the toughest people have to consider the consequences of complaining about Shirakawa Electric in person.

Besides, because of the protection of No. [-] Bank, the association still took each other's face into consideration and did not go too far towards Shirakawa Electric.

But things are different now. As the stock price plummets, the market is flooded with more Shirakawa Electric shares.

Moreover, there have been changes within the First Bank, and the General Assembly no longer has to worry too much about the latter's influence.

This situation is definitely good for the General House.

So when it comes to choosing a pathfinder, the first thing Nishiguchi Shigeo thinks of is the General House.

If you want to control a listed company, of course you start with the shareholders' meeting.

(End of this chapter)