Kitada Kase and Takayuki had a pleasant conversation. For his family, Takayuki's deposits weren't that significant, but in terms of his performance, it was a different story. Therefore, as the president of the bank, Kitada Kase had to treat Takayuki especially well.
Furthermore, Takayuki was clearly soone with a bright future, and such people were worth getting to know.
He then invited Takayuki to dinner, but Takayuki wasn't interested in dining with an older man. If it had been a beautiful lady, he might have considered it—he could have brought Tsukino Ai along—but he declined Kitada Kase's invitation, saying that he had other things to attend to.
Kitada Kase was a bit disappointed but didn't take it too seriously. Takayuki was indeed a busy person with many projects on his plate, all of which required a lot of energy, so it was completely normal for him to decline.
"Mr. Takayuki, you're truly young and promising, and your future is definitely sothing to look forward to. At my age, I don't have that sa hope anymore. Now, it's just about increasing my performance a bit more before I consider retirent," Kitada Kase said, sowhat wistfully, before Takayuki left.
Kitada Kase wasn't young either, but in his family, he was still considered relatively young. Generally, soone like him could hold real power until they were about eighty, so his statent was likely a humble one.
Takayuki, who didn't consider himself very good at socializing, could imdiately understand the aning behind Kitada Kase's words and smiled, replying, "Mr. Kitada, you still have plenty of ti to strive for success. I rember a saying from China: 'You live and learn,' and the spirit of striving can last a lifeti too."
...
...
Kitada Kase was quite pleased with Takayuki's words and smiled genuinely, saying, "You're right. I should indeed think that way. Now, your deposits at our bank are considered part of my performance. That's why I was concerned when you were withdrawing so much money. But now, I don't need to worry anymore. The remaining focus is on other areas of my performance."
Kitada Kase was being candid with Takayuki, and Takayuki, curious, asked, "Other performance areas? Are they also related to deposits?"
"Not entirely. We also have so of our own investnt business. Mr. Takayuki, you must have heard about the previous financial crisis, right?"
Financial crisis?
Takayuki wasn't too interested in finance. While he had a general understanding of financial trends, he didn't have anyone around who was particularly knowledgeable about it. Plus, he feared that this parallel world's financial history might differ too much from his past life's tiline, which could lead to him making disastrous financial decisions. So he refrained from diving into the financial sector, sothing he wasn't particularly good at.
But after thinking for a mont, he rembered sothing.
"You an the mass withdrawals caused by most banks crashing, which led to a public panic and a collective withdrawal of funds?" Takayuki asked.
This kind of situation had a more formal na: a bank run. A panic among the public to withdraw money from the bank, which caused headaches for the banks. Eventually, the Pri Minister's office issued new decrees to exempt interest on loans and deposits, hoping to calm the public's panic. However, the effect was minimal, and the banks continued to struggle for a while.
Kitada Kase nodded and revealed a slightly uneasy expression. "That ti was really the darkest hour for our banking industry. But thankfully, it's over now. However, we're still left with quite a ss to clean up, such as bad debt investnts and loans that we're never going to recover."
Listening to Kitada Kase, Takayuki couldn't help but think of a scene from the TV series Hanzawa Naoki, where the protagonist goes to great lengths to collect on loans.
Kitada Kase continued, "On one hand, keeping deposits is part of my performance, and recovering as much of the money as possible is also my performance. I've probably done most of what I can to stabilize the deposits, and having soone like Mr. Takayuki backing us up has been very reassuring."
Takayuki never expected that his habit of saving deposits would make him a safety net.
Because the internet transactions weren't fully established yet, people still preferred using cash and other thods for transactions. This ant that Gastar Electronic Entertainnt's daily cash deposits into the bank had been a great boon to Kitada Bank. As a partner, they were delighted. Having cash flowing into the bank was a huge benefit.
Takayuki alone couldn't reverse the poor economic situation, but he did alleviate the bank branches' struggles during the run.
In a sense, the bank owed Takayuki a favor.
Kitada Kase then showed a disgusted expression and said, "In contrast, companies like YOO are quite annoying. They don't like keeping deposits and are always trying to borrow money. When they can't get funds from us, they completely give up on Japanese banks and even occasionally badmouth us. People like that are really unpleasant."
YOO, this guy really just picks fights with everyone. This was typical of Nagao's character—if sothing didn't go his way, he'd lash out.
Takayuki wholeheartedly agreed, saying, "YOO is indeed annoying. One of the reasons I want to make large investnts in ga developnt is to drive YOO out of business."
"Drive them out of business?" Kitada Kase suddenly beca interested. "How do you plan on doing that?"
Takayuki explained his idea: using Nagao's unwillingness to give up easily to force him into making large investnts, eventually draining him out.
"Alright, Takayuki, that's a good plan. If it works out, I'll treat you to a al. Don't refuse! I'll bring a few important mbers of our family along," Kitada Kase said with a smile.
Takayuki was taken aback and then replied, "That seems a bit exaggerated. I just want to get rid of YOO, but it looks like you're also eager to take him down?"
Kitada Kase nodded. "Of course, our family... No, not just our family, several of Japan's other major families also really dislike YOO. It's not just because he's annoying. He's actively encroaching on territory that originally belonged to us, taking away our profits. We've all been trying to figure out how to get rid of him."
This was quite surprising.
Takayuki never expected that Nagao had beco so unpopular that several of Japan's major families wanted to take him down.
But after thinking about it, it made sense. Nagao's internet business had expanded rapidly, and his industries, including news portals, video platforms, and e-comrce, had indeed posed a challenge to traditional industries.
When it started affecting the financial conglorates' interests, it was only natural that they would dislike Nagao.
Takayuki's mind suddenly lit up, and he recalled sothing. He then said, "In that case, Mr. Kitada, would you be interested in joining in taking down YOO?"
At this mont, both Takayuki and Kitada Kase dropped their formalities and addressed each other without honorifics, signaling a closer relationship.
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