Chapter 304

In Japanese society, business operators attach great importance to information and often establish specialized intelligence sections and intelligence rooms.

Some companies even cooperate with universities to set up specialized "business spy" courses to cultivate business spies and counter-espionage talent.

Therefore, some even call Japanese society an "information society."

But it must be said that a large amount of business intelligence provided crucial help for Japan's rapid rise after the end of World War II.

In 2002, a retired intelligence expert in Japan pointed out in a media interview: "Post-war Japanese manufacturing was able to quickly occupy the European and American markets; our intelligence personnel deserve the credit."

At that time, the media even cited a statistic obtained by the intelligence department when writing the article: 54% of Japan's gross national product came from the contribution of competitive intelligence.

This number sounds exaggerated, but if only indirect influence is counted, it may not necessarily be untrue.

In the publishing industry where Akiwara Yuto is currently located, there are similar conventions.

For example, the Kyoikukan sent a large number of business spies to the other three major publishing houses to obtain first-hand business news.

Some of these business spies even climbed to middle-management positions over a long period.

And regarding the rising Tsutaya Bookstore, which is the former President Anjiu Publishing House, Reiko Shime, as a high-level executive in Keihan Publishing's Intelligence Department, naturally could not miss the opportunity to send business spies.

Upon learning that Akiwara Yuto might need talent in bookstore management, she had already arranged for two suitable university graduates to participate in the relevant recruitment.

With resume packaging and the recommendation of intermediaries, she did not believe that Akiwara Yuto or Nishijima Sota could see any flaws.

On the other side, after signing Aisa Sugihara, Akiwara Yuto began to formally execute his plan.

This plan was nominally to build a chain of second-hand bookstores across the country, but in reality, it was to form a logistics network system suitable for the publisher's existing books through the attached warehouses and manpower.

Under this system, future books published could bypass distributors and circulate directly outside Tokyo, thereby achieving the goal of breaking the monopoly of the two major distributors, Tokyo Sales and Nihon Sales.

In terms of specific operations, he still comprehensively referred to the opinions of Nishijima Sota and Aisa Sugihara.

Inject capital into the current corporate account, and then start direct-operated stores in several key cities; as for other prefectures with populations under 5 million, invite franchises through loans.

However, although the funds and execution personnel were in place, both the renovation of numerous stores and the training of personnel required a certain amount of time.

As it stands, it will take at least more than half a year.

Just as he and everyone else were busy, time quickly reached October.

And at this time, he pulled himself out of his heavy workload and began to get busy with another matter—the second-half nominations for the Uemura Prize.

The Uemura Prize in this world is similar to the Akutagawa Prize of his past life, holding selection activities twice a year.

The first-half annual awards ceremony had already passed, and at that time, Akiwara Yuto successfully had "Suspect X" nominated through his connection with Kawai Shinta.

However, because his relationship with the stubborn Honkaku school was poor at the time, he only ended up as a "tourist" and did not win the grand prize.

But the nomination list for the second half of the year would be announced in about a month.

So on a specific weekend, Akiwara Yuto made a special trip to Kawai Shinta's home.

Upon seeing Kawai Shinta, Akiwara Yuto respectfully handed the souvenir to him.

"Chairman Kawai, sorry to bother you; this is Gyokuro tea from Fukuoka, please accept it."

The so-called Gyokuro tea is the highest grade among Japanese teas, and the cultivation process is extremely complex. Some even claim that one might not find a single tree capable of producing Gyokuro among a hundred tea trees.

Kawai Shinta smiled and took the souvenir without saying "thank you."

The relationship between the two had already passed the level of whether or not to be polite.

In fact, he also knew the purpose of Akiwara Yuto's visit today.

"Akiwara, you came this time for the Uemura Prize, right?"

"Yes," Akiwara Yuto also said very frankly: "Please let me know, what are the chances of me being nominated this time."

Although he spoke of nomination, he was actually referring to winning the award.

After all, most factions of mystery literature now could be considered to be convinced by him.

In such a situation, as long as he is nominated, winning the award is basically nine times out of ten.

But to his surprise, Kawai Shinta shook his head, "Akiwara, you might have to wait until next year to be nominated."

Hearing these words, Akiwara Yuto became puzzled.

Although he had been busy writing traditional literary works in the second half of the year, he had at least published "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders."

Could it be that this work still couldn't be nominated?

Kawai Shinta seemed to see through Akiwara Yuto's thoughts and explained: "The list of judges for this time has already come out, and there are no judges from the New Honkaku school."

No judges from the New Honkaku school?

Akiwara Yuto suddenly realized upon hearing this explanation.

All entries for the Uemura Prize must be recommended by judges to be nominated, but generally speaking, all judges tend to recommend works from their own school.

So if no New Honkaku writers serve as judges, then the New Honkaku "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" naturally cannot be selected.

His mind turned for two seconds, and he suddenly asked another question: "What happened?"

According to convention, there are usually one or two New Honkaku writers serving as judges for the Uemura Prize, but it was too strange that there wasn't a single one this time.

Could it be that some accident occurred?

Kawai Shinta continued: "Akiwara, after your 'Zodiac' was published, the relationship between the New Honkaku school and the traditional Honkaku school changed. The selection of judges this time was also caused by the conflict between the two factions."

Akiwara Yuto asked in confusion: "But whether it's New Honkaku or traditional Honkaku, don't they both insist on the philosophy of trick priority?"

Could it be that his "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" was the root of the conflict between the two?

Kawai Shinta shook his head, "Akiwara, traditional Honkaku insists on realism, while New Honkaku focuses on innovation; there is an irreconcilable contradiction between the two, and the ideological dispute triggered by your 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murders' was just a small fuse."

Even without you, they would sooner or later have had a dispute over who is the orthodoxy of the Honkaku school."

Akiwara Yuto nodded subconsciously after hearing this explanation.

But if that's the case, does he really have to wait until next year?

Soon, Kawai Shinta gave him a solution.

"Akiwara, if you want to be nominated, I hope you can write a social-school mystery work."