Dear Comrade

Chapter 4. black screen (4)

Chapter 4. black screen (4)

“How much do you plan to take from NTT’s upcoming IPO?”

“………………………………”

Jeonghwan’s words came from behind him, and Nakao’s footsteps, who had just crossed the threshold, stiffened.

Even if it was just one word, Nakao’s body, which had been working out for a while, stopped all movements as if it had been electrocuted.

Jeonghwan looked at it as if he was enjoying it, then tilted his teacup and shook his head, and threw another word to his back, standing in the doorway.

“I understand that the listing will be next year, that is, 1987. Maybe around February? I can understand why you are so obsessed with Yamanote Line construction while rejecting my joint proposal. You will need to secure enough funds before going public. Am I wrong?”

“How do you do that……!!!!”

Nakao’s face, which had no choice but to slowly turn around at the subsequent blow, was filled with an indescribable astonishment.

I had no choice but to do so.

How did that kid know the information that had been transmitted only in secret whispers from the offices of Kasumigaseki, the deepest part of the prime minister’s residence?

“Hmm, why don’t you sit down and review my proposal again? Well, even speaking up to this point, if the Minister decides that I cannot be a business partner, it is unavoidable.”

“…………”

“Thank you for not telling me right away to the Republic. So, I’ll give the Minister one more chance. However, if the Minister ignores even this negotiation, all the judicial authorities I know, including the prosecution, the media, the prime minister’s office, and even the opposition parties will all be blaming the neighborhood that the biggest corruption in history is related to the privatization of Japan’s largest telecommunication company. Are you willing to take it?”

“…………”

At Jeonghwan’s words, Nakao twisted his lips and changed the color of his face several times, but with that or not, Junghwan smiled mischievously and added a word.

“Don’t stare too hard, Minister. Joseon people are good at bluffing in the South and North Korea, but they are also very jealous, so people who step on me are not good at seeing things even if they die. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the Joseon proverb, ‘When your cousin buys land, your stomach hurts’.”

Nakao looked at Jeonghwan with trembling eyes as he drank his tea again after being bloated, then took a deep breath and regained his composure.

Then he turned and entered the tea room again, sat down across from Jeonghwan, and muttered.

“…I was wrong. I think your suggestion is worth hearing.”

“It is a wise choice.”

Junghwan said that and smiled again.

NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), also known as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.

Originally, it was established under the leadership of the Ministry of Telecommunications immediately after the end of the Pacific War and was initially called ‘Japan Telegraph and Telephone Corporation’, and its main business was to expand communication infrastructure such as telegraph networks.

However, as the years passed, Japan’s economic power surged and the demand for telegraph telephones increased exponentially. Naturally, the scope of the telephone company’s work increased significantly, and later, in Japan, the ‘communication’-related business became a bridge in some way. It has grown into a huge public corporation.

However, regardless of the era, a large bowl of rice always attracts many flies, so when the problem of corruption soon surfaced, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone decided to privatize the telecommunication industry in order to innovate the still serious inefficiency and bureaucracy characteristic of public corporations.

And with the railroad and tobacco industries facing similar problems, due to the enactment of a special law in 1985, Japan’s largest telecommunication company and the world’s leading telecommunication company, NTT and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co., Ltd., which would later become the holding company of NTT Group, were established.

In the future, as wireless communication develops, NTT DoCoMo will fall out as a subsidiary of NTT, which is the mainstay of wired communication.

“The establishment of the company was last year, that is, in April 1985, haven’t you been aiming for it since then? Given the current economic conditions of the post-war period of the greatest boom, NTT’s stock price will jump like crazy once it goes public…. The Ishibashi Real Estate Company will need a place to invest the remaining funds from the Yamanote Line land transaction, so it’s just the right time. It’s a good environment for an ignorant person to suspect that someone has given you inside information. Isn’t it?”

“…how… how did you know… can you teach me?”

“It is a trade secret.”

Effortlessly putting up with the embarrassment, Jeonghwan talked like that, raising Nakano’s question to him.

To tell the truth, neither Junghwan nor Jung knew exactly that Nakano would profit from insider trading during the NTT IPO in February 1987.

All he knows is the history of the origins and launch of the world’s leading telecommunications company, NTT, as seen in books and materials.

In a word, though, Junghwan thought to himself that if there were sufficient grounds, it should be called as speculation and inference, rather than skipped over.

The NTT’s predecessor, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Ministry of Transport and Communications, is bound to have a strong connection with the Ministry of Construction, the department in charge of Nakao from the beginning.

In the 1980s, when expanding telecommunication infrastructure meant the same as building more utility poles, building and managing utility poles across the country is also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Construction.

Even if the ministries are different, in the 21st century, the Ministry of Transport and Communications in question overlapped enough to be reborn as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport through the integration of constructivism and inter-ministeriality. It was inferred that they knew the timing of the listing in advance and were aiming for profits.

‘The liver is too big. Isn’t there a saying in Japan that you pretend to eat alone?’

Junghwan thought so as he stared at Nakao, who was still staring at him with a puzzled face.

In the listing to be held in February 1987, NTT started at 1.5 million yen per share and rose to a record high of 3.18 million yen in April.

Of course, when the current bubble is over, NTT, like most real estate and stocks, will temporarily burst and its value will drop significantly…

NTT is still one of Japan’s most valuable companies in the 21st century as telecommunication demand has increased significantly due to the government’s support and the immediate IT bubble in fear of who is not a public company.

And the basis for Junghwan’s judgment was that Nakao couldn’t just pass up this business with stocks like that of gold.

“For financial crimes such as insider trading, the larger the amount, the more severe the punishment. Even if the Special Prosecutor’s Office in Japan suddenly goes crazy or is under some kind of external pressure and the Yamanote case is passed on, this case will never be overlooked. You are directly tampering with national assets.”

“……Tell me the conditions.”

‘Good.’

Jeonghwan noticed that the weight was tilted to the opposite side on the scale in Nakao’s mind, and he called for joy inside.

Of course, he did not show anything on the outside, and with a polite voice, he coaxed him.

“The conditions have not changed since before. If you yield half of the Yamanote Line site, we will buy it from Takayama Real Estate at a good price. One square meter…about 30 million yen.”

“……Is that all?”

“Listen a little more. I would like to have a good relationship with the Minister in the future. In that sense, as I said earlier, we will hand over half of our stake in Takayama Real Estate to the Minister, Ishibashi Real Estate. instead…..”

“instead?”

“Please always join us in the Minister’s ‘business’ in the future. Including NTT, of course.”

“…………”

“It means reducing the burden and sharing the profits. And remember what I said earlier.”

“…what do you mean?”

“I mean what I said earlier that I am Kim Jong-il’s competitor. The way to make money is to buy when it’s cheap and sell when it’s expensive. Then wouldn’t that be applicable to people, personal networks, and connections?”

“………………no way….!!”

“I am telling the Minister to buy me stock in advance. Even if you invest, there is nothing to lose right now, and if it rises in the future, wouldn’t you expect a huge profit from the market?”

‘If I said this, I would have understood.’

Nakao, who reached out to the Cabinet Intelligence Investigation Office, couldn’t be unaware of the importance of networking.

And in the original network, both the positive and the negative ones have their own value.

For example, the next leader of North Korea…. No one else, and no one who has risen to the position of minister in a country could not know the value of it.

And I don’t know if he understood Jeonghwan’s meaning or not, but Nakao sighed and nodded his head.

“……Okay, I don’t think this will hurt me too much. I accept your offer.”

“Haha… Thank you. After all, it is faster to meet and reach an agreement with superiors rather than working-level officials. You are truly a great politician who will lead the future of Japan.”

Jeonghwan trembled with the joy of the agreement being made, but Nakao, who was the party, sighed heavily and spoke as if muttering.

“You are a great politician. Heh heh… I’m not in a position to say something like this, but it’s a compliment I can’t hear straight. Because these days, I have little doubts about the future of this country, Japan. Even in the midst of a great boom that has not been seen since the beginning of history, it is very strange that I can’t shake these thoughts. Isn’t that right?”

“…………??”

“In this country, Japan, the people have never won their rights with their own hands. Currently, it is taking the guise of a democracy, but it is not a democracy obtained from below. It was transplanted by the US military government that occupied Japan after the war. And we Japanese accepted it like a docile sheep. Without ever thinking about what democracy is and what sacrifices must be made to truly achieve it.”

“……Do you really need to worry about that?”

Jeonghwan frowned at Nakao’s words of lamenting out of nowhere and asked that question.

What does this mean for a country that enjoys enormous wealth that is unimaginable even in a dream of 90% of the people of North Korea?

“Anyway, most of the people, whether in North Korea or Japan, have little interest in their own political system. They are interested in daily bread, alcohol, and sports, aren’t they? How many people would think that a dictatorship or a democracy is important if you feed them well? In that respect, Japan is a very successful country.”

“…it might be. However, the problem is that Japan’s current political system is not a pure dictatorship or democracy, but an erratic system. Not only the public but also politicians are blinded by the wealth in front of them, so they don’t think about such issues at all. No one wants to worry about that. No one wants democracy in Japan.”

“……”

“People often say that Japanese politics is a politics of darkness. From the point of view of a person who has been involved in the political arena for a long time, that evaluation is correct. Japan is actually an oligarchy rather than a democracy. The government is established through consensus and compromise between factions, not the will of the people…. The people have no interest in what the nobles and superiors that have been doing since before the Meiji era are doing it. As a person like me, I am grateful.”

“It is a reasonable political system. These days, when I see things like upholding the constitution, straight-line system, etc., and there are no winds in the lower neighborhood of southern Joseon, I feel that way even more.”

Nakao stood up for the second time today, gazing at Jeonghwan who said that without thinking.

Unlike when he first entered this tea room, Junghwan thought that his eye wrinkles looked particularly deep.

“Well, think of it as just an old man’s complaint and listen with one ear and let it flow through the other. I’m also in a position to receive instructions, but I’m just saying this because I’m frustrated. I was once young too. It was very different from now. I envy you for being able to assert that I have nothing to do with you, like you before. Still, if I could give you one piece of advice, learn to hide your heart a little more.”

‘….are you taking orders?’

“Politicians must never reveal 100% of their inner feelings, whether to subordinates or superiors. But since you showed your inner feelings for a while, I will show you a little bit of my inner feelings out of caring for my juniors.”

“……What do you mean by that?”

Jeonghwan, who sensed that there was something more, asked a question to Nakao, who was just walking towards the door, but he responded without looking back.

“Before, you have nothing to do with this matter, but unfortunately I do. The reason I had no choice but to accept your negotiation earlier is because if this thing leaks out, the aftermath will not end on my side. I am not black There’s one more true darkness behind me. I am only here on behalf of that person. how about Isn’t Japanese politics really a politics of darkness?”

“…………”

Junghwan’s lips twitched slightly at Nakao’s unexpected words.

Considering the person who could be the dark side of the Minister of Construction, Nakao, and whose henchman Nakao is…

‘Haha… was that so? Even here, it’s comparable to North Korea.’

“Please contact me again through the secretary. good tea Then see you next time.”

Junghwan just stared at Nakao’s back, who had disappeared leaving only those words with his eyes without meaning.

And a few months later, as the construction of the extension of the Yamanote Line was announced, the land price of the planned site soared to 50 million yen per pyeong, and two companies, each sharing 80% of the site, sold the site and made a huge profit. took it

One of them was Ishibashi Real Estate, which had a reputation in the industry for a long time, but the other, Takayama Real Estate, the name of a real estate company they had never heard of before, made people who did not know the situation just tilt their heads .