My 1999

In the era of Kojiro Tsutsumi, land speculation was a very profitable business.

But later, in order to ban land speculation, the Japanese government began to formulate the "Land Law", and the era of land speculation gradually came to an end.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi keenly captured this market signal and decisively shifted the focus of Seibu's business from hoarding and buying and selling land to regional development, and made use of his past expertise to focus on leisure tourism and the hotel industry.

Years of experience told him that it is difficult for isolated projects to attract the public's attention in leisure tourism. There must be complete supporting facilities, convenient transportation, comfortable hotels and rich entertainment projects.

This decision is similar to the development of scenic spots by Global Tourism Group.

Of course, Boss Tsutsumi is a pioneer.

Xu Liang is also running his own business by following other people's path.

But no matter what kind of cat it is, it is a good cat that can catch mice.

After aiming at the direction, Seibu Group borrowed heavily and specially chose the remote mountainous areas of big cities to buy a lot of land, build railways, leisure villas, amusement areas, golf courses, ski resorts, tourist hotels and resorts.

Tokyo Shinagawa area is Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's first test field.

Seibu first built a Prince Hotel there, but the benefits were average.

Later, it continued to expand its business, adding recreational facilities such as skating rinks, ski resorts, and tennis courts, and the benefits of the hotel began to improve significantly.

This hotel later became a landmark building in Shinagawa.

Every time Akio Morita returned from a business trip abroad, he would first stay at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel to relax his nervous mood before returning home.

The success of the Shinagawa area greatly inspired the confidence of Mr. Tsutsumi.

He boldly promoted and replicated this model throughout the country, and successively carried out regional development in Furano, Hokkaido, Kasumigaseki, Iwate Prefecture, and other places, making them tourist attractions.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi had a unique vision. Most of the places he chose were remote places with good natural conditions but inconvenient transportation and unknown, or places that were once famous but have declined.

Not only that, the Seibu Group also made a big investment to improve the city's transportation, built railway stations and bus stations, and provided hotels, supermarkets, libraries, theaters, schools and other supporting facilities.

A backward agricultural town quickly became a medium-sized city with a population of 800,000.

For a time, the Tokorozawa model set off a huge wave in Japan.

A large number of local officials came to visit Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and invited him to develop the local area.

This regional development model pioneered by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi also brought endless wealth to the Seibu Group.

Konosuke Matsushita once again praised him, saying that Yoshiaki Tsutsumi not only inherited his father's business, but also added new ideas, created the brilliant achievements of the Seibu Group, and was the "ancestor of revival."

The Seibu Group, which withdrew from the land business, therefore promoted the leisure and entertainment industry to major, medium and small cities and towns in Japan, and opened Seibu Department Store and Seiyu Department Store throughout Japan.

The real glory of Seibu was still in the mid-to-late 1980s.

In 1985, facing the growing Japanese economy, the Americans, who felt threatened, forced Japan to sign the "Plaza Accord."

Since then, the yen has continued to appreciate, causing severe damage to Japan's exports.

In order to cope with the adverse effects, the Bank of Japan cut interest rates five times in a row, reducing the benchmark interest rate from 5% to 2.5%.

A large amount of hot money began to flow into the property market.

Major companies built large-scale projects in Tokyo and other places, and ordinary citizens also bought houses enthusiastically, and many people even quit their jobs to speculate in real estate.

Driven by this, real estate prices in Japan soared, with Tokyo's housing prices doubling every year and other small and medium-sized cities doubling every two years.

By 1990, the land price index of the six major urban centers of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Yokohama and Kobe had risen by nearly 90% compared with 1985. The total land assets in Japan could buy four United States!

The entire Japanese property market is like the old United States before the subprime mortgage crisis, with a raging fire and blooming flowers.

This time, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi failed to grasp the pulse of the times.

The Seibu Group, which has many layouts in Japan, also took the opportunity to increase investment in leisure and entertainment and hotels, and borrowed a lot from financial institutions.

Intoxicated by the huge success of the Tokorozawa model and immersed in the praise of everyone, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi had long forgotten his father's warning.

Under his leadership, the Seibu Group's business reached its peak.

The entire Seibu Group has built dozens of ski resorts and hundreds of golf courses throughout Japan; the total number of rooms in Prince Hotels across the country exceeds 20,000, making it the number one chain brand in Japan.

Not only that, the Seibu Group has also become a giant in Japan's retail industry, owning well-known brands such as Seibu Department Store, MUJI, and Yoshinoya.

At its peak, the Seibu Group controlled one-sixth of Japan's operating real estate, with a total number of employees exceeding 100,000 and total assets of US$165 billion, 10 times that of the Panasonic Group at the time.

As a result, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was listed as the world's richest man by Forbes in 1987, with a personal wealth of US$20 billion at his peak.

At that time, Gates Sr.'s personal wealth was less than US$1 billion.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's success is inseparable from the background of Japan's post-war economic boom.

However, after becoming a "god", Yoshiaki Tsutsumi seemed to have forgotten this point. He became more and more arrogant and conceited.

He believed in Xunzi's theory of human nature, did not make friends, and did not use talents.

This guy once said in front of everyone: "I don't need subordinates with too good brains. I have my own plans for the company's business policies and development goals.

The people below just need to be loyal to me and do what I tell them to do."

He even had a famous saying that was earth-shattering:

I would rather use slaves than talents.

This kind of arrogance and dictatorship is not a big problem when the business is going smoothly, but once faced with a crisis, there will be a catastrophe.

The catastrophe of Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was the bursting of the Japanese housing bubble.

In 1990, in order to curb the ever-expanding real estate bubble, the Bank of Japan suddenly raised the bank reserve rate to 6% in a panic.

This was like a sharp knife that pierced the bubble in one fell swoop.

The Japanese real estate market began to plummet continuously, and none of the three major metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya) was spared. Tokyo's housing prices plummeted by 65% ​​in 3 months.

With the plummeting housing prices, land and houses could not be sold at all. More than 3,000 banks and real estate companies went bankrupt in this crisis. A large number of home buyers lost their fortunes overnight, and Japanese people who committed suicide and went bankrupt filled the rooftops.

The Seibu Group was in turmoil, with the value of its assets falling beyond recognition and the company's debt ratio soaring. The debt of the National Land Planning Company alone exceeded 1 trillion yen.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, who once "covered the sky with one hand", became helpless, and his subordinates, who were used to obeying orders, were even more at a loss.

Since 1996, the Seibu Group has been in deficit for 9 consecutive years, with a loss of 9.3 billion yen in 2004 alone.

That year, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's personal wealth also shrank rapidly to 3 billion US dollars, less than a fraction of its peak, and finally disappeared from the Forbes wealth rankings.

The Seibu Group, which fell from the altar, has been plagued by scandals since then.

In 2005, Seibu Railway was ordered to delist by the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Mizuho Bank then settled in Seibu and conducted a comprehensive cleanup of the group's assets.

In the same year, 71-year-old Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison and suspended for 4 years for multiple charges including publishing false financial information, falsifying financial statements and illegally conducting internal stock transactions.

A generation of myths and legends came to an end.

"Seeing this Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, do you know who reminds me of?"

"Who?"

"Li Cunxu."

Jiang Xiaoyang thought for a moment, "Li Keyong's son, the founding emperor of the Five Dynasties Later Tang?"

Xu Liang nodded, "Before the 'Three Arrows to Avenge Hate', Li Cunxu banned thieves, cared for the orphans and widows, recruited hermits, stopped corruption and violence, built dikes and defenses, and was lenient in prisons. He was wise and powerful.

After destroying the Later Liang and unifying the Central Plains, he was full of ambition and pride, renovated the palace, plundered the people's wealth, was suspicious of meritorious officials, and favored actors. If there were not so many tricks, how could Dasong unify the world."

"It seems that many emperors are like this, wise in the early stage and foolish in the later stage, such as Emperor Minghuang of Tang." Jiang Xiaoyang said.

"Compared with Li Cunxu, he is flattering him. In front of Emperor Minghuang of Tang, he is not even worthy of carrying shoes." Xu Liang said disdainfully.

Li Longji lived too long. If he had died twenty years earlier, his evaluation would definitely be ranked in the top three among the emperors of China.

He is not much worse than Li Shimin.

An old man who refuses to die is a thief.

It is absolutely true.