Chapter 311: Fight Hard

In the Japan of 1993, the mentality of the entire nation was very sad.

Because of the bursting of the economic bubble, the unemployment phenomenon nationwide was particularly serious, a large number of enterprises laid off employees and went bankrupt, and a large number of unemployed population appeared.

After these people became unemployed, because of the economic downturn, they were slow to find work.

Those who were lucky could, like Akiwara Yuto's predecessor, find some odd jobs on the street to maintain their lives.

Those who were unlucky could only sleep in parks and under bridges, and couldn't even find odd jobs.

It is conceivable that under such an economic environment, the entire society was filled with a sad atmosphere, and suicide remained high.

In this process, the Japanese government had been trying to inspire the people, such as promoting the "bowl of clear soup soba" spirit again, saying that they should grit their teeth and persist.

But for these calls from the government, the public basically treated them as farts.

The economy has such a big problem, isn't it the cabinet's pot!

Now we can't even eat, and you still want to pour us chicken soup?!

Helpless, government departments such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology could only use other methods to inspire the morale of the people.

So once someone gets some international honor, they are immediately pulled out and praised.

And don't say, because of Japan's worship of Europe and America, many people really eat this set.

And the news that Akiwara Yuto's work *Snow Country* was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award, after being reported by some media, was also targeted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, thinking that it could be operated well to inspire the people.

So under the promotion of the state machine, this news, which was only a nomination rather than a win, made it to the prime-time news of NHK and also made it to the front page of the five major newspapers.

In terms of exposure, it was even much higher than the Uemura Prize.

So in less than two days, basically most of the Japanese people knew the news that Akiwara Yuto was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award.

Under a large amount of exposure, various TV stations and related newspapers also launched targeted follow-up reports, inviting a batch of experts and scholars in the traditional literary circle.

But regarding this matter, these experts and scholars were actually quite disgusted in their hearts.

The Dublin Literary Award, although it ranks among international literary awards, the one in Sweden should be the most influential award.

Not to mention that it was only nominated now, and it was praised so high, what if the nomination failed?! Wouldn't that be a big joke?

However, although they were slandering in their hearts, few of these invited traditional literary experts and scholars dared to speak the opposite.

After all, most of them, besides their identity as writers or book reviewers, were also teachers in some universities or other academic institutions, and these institutions all had funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

What if they spoke the opposite and offended the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and were worn shoes when allocating funds?

After all, the current official is not as good as the first official. Politicians like the Prime Minister and the cabinet can be scolded at will without any sequelae, but civil servants who manage specific affairs should not be offended.

Under such motivation, there was a chorus of praise in public opinion, and even many experts directly "promoted" as if Akiwara Yuto had already won the award.

Under the chorus, the public was also fooled, seeming to feel that this was really an amazing award.

Along with it, Akiwara Yuto himself was also puzzled.

He didn't know that this was done by the Ministry of Education to divert public attention, just thinking that this world is really so different from the past life? Is this award really so awesome?

However, because of the large amount of publicity, many people who didn't like to read traditional literary works also became interested in *Snow Country* and prepared to go to the bookstore to buy one.

In less than a week, the 100,000 copies of the sixth edition of *Snow Country* were sold out.

But this was not a good thing, and it also brought new troubles to Akiwara Yuto.

Setagaya Ward, Tsutaya Bookstore.

As the three giants of the publisher, Nishijima Sota, Asano Aiko, and Akiwara Yuto sat in the conference room and held a meeting to discuss the follow-up impact of this matter.

Nishijima Sota frowned and said: "Regarding *Snow Country*, 123 cooperative bookstores in Tokyo have sent orders, requesting a total of 30,000 copies, but Tokyo Publishing Hanbai and Nihon Publishing Hanbai have increased their orders, requesting 60,000 copies each."

According to the past, if the distributors were willing to increase orders, he as the president would naturally be happy.

But now that there was another purpose, if he sold the books to the distributors, he would have a feeling of lifting a rock and hitting his own feet.

Akiwara Yuto scratched his head with his hand, and he also felt that this matter was a bit beyond his expectations.

In his plan, as long as the work won the Uemura Prize and had a lot of exposure, he could directly cast aside the distributors and connect with bookstores nationwide.

However, to achieve this goal, it must be done by building a nationwide warehousing and logistics network in Japan through second-hand chain bookstores. After all, Japan is not as good as the domestic express logistics of the past life, and the cost is still relatively expensive.

Like some bookstores in other prefectures, if they just want 30 or 40 copies in bulk, the logistics cost of shipping from Tokyo is simply not cost-effective.

"How many bookstores have been established now?" Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and asked.

"As of now, there are 5 direct-operated stores and 10 chain stores, and each store has a warehouse that can store about 5,000 books," Asano Aiko took over the conversation, "However, because it is newly opened, it is currently only maintaining a balance of payments."

Akiwara Yuto nodded silently.

Newly opened second-hand bookstores generally need word-of-mouth fermentation to attract customers, and it is already very good to be able to achieve a balance of payments at present.

However, with only 15 stores, it seems to be only 1/3 of the original plan, a bit more than heart but less than strength.

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while, gritted his teeth and said: "Reduce the quantity given to Tokyo Hanbai and Nihon Hanbai in this batch, let them order at most 10,000 copies each, as for the others, we do direct sales."

He thought it through, logistics costs are expensive, so be it. Even if there is no profit or even loss, the channels must be established first.

Like the internet companies in the past life, which one is not burning money to exchange for the market. Compared with them, the money he is spending now is just a drop in the bucket.

If you miss this opportunity and wait for the Uemura Prize results to come out, the effect will undoubtedly be much worse.

By then, if he wants to use this to break the market monopoly of the two distributors, Tokyo Hanbai and Nihon Hanbai, he will undoubtedly have to spend more energy.

Nishijima Sota and Asano Aiko looked at each other and nodded.

The consequence of doing this is undoubtedly to completely tear his face with the two distributors, and it is estimated that he will likely be threatened and blocked by the distributors in the future, and there may even be no small impact in the short term.

But if it continues like this, even if Akiwara Yuto is still highly productive every year, Tsutaya Bookstore's market share will sooner or later be further squeezed by Jingfan Publisher.

Things have come to this, and they cannot retreat.

Then take advantage of this opportunity of being nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and fight hard! ===== CHAPTER 312 =====