Chapter 495: Unprovoked Hostility, The Owner of 7-Eleven?
Tokyo, Chuo Ward, near Ginza, in a quiet villa district.
At this moment, Lin Haoran had just set down the phone, slightly surprised that the president of Nintendo would personally invite him to attend a dealer celebration banquet.
Strictly speaking, he was indeed considered a distributor for Nintendo, as his sales channels did include Nintendo's products.
It turned out that last year, Nintendo's newly launched portable game console, the Game & Watch, had sold over five million units — setting a record for a single product in the company's history.
Riding on this momentum, Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, now harbored ambitions of reaching ten million units sold.
This also explained why he had recently been expanding Nintendo's sales channels across Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and other regions.
In the world of game consoles, although Nintendo was growing rapidly, it still lagged far behind Atari in the U.S.
However, the tremendous success of the Game & Watch series gave Yamauchi hope that Nintendo might one day catch up.
After returning from Southeast Asia, Yamauchi decided to hold a celebration banquet in Tokyo to thank his distributors.
Although Nintendo's headquarters was located in Kyoto, the Tokyo metropolitan area represented their largest market.
The majority of the Game & Watch sales had come from Tokyo and its surrounding areas.
Having learned from the newspapers that Lin Haoran was visiting Japan, Yamauchi quickly pulled some strings to get Lin's contact information and extended the invitation.
Lin Haoran walked out onto the terrace.
Despite being located in bustling Chuo Ward, this villa district was peaceful.
On the street outside, security guards patrolled with flashlights.
The villa had cost Lin Haoran about 80 million yen — only about two million Hong Kong dollars — a real bargain.
In another twenty or thirty years, he estimated the property would be worth at least a billion Hong Kong dollars.
Even though Japan's real estate market would crash during the 1990s economic bubble, core areas like Tokyo would still retain considerable value — much like Central in Hong Kong.
The villa was near the Imperial Palace, essentially straddling the boundary between Chuo Ward and Chiyoda Ward.
Security here was top-notch — the Yakuza wouldn't dare cause trouble near the Emperor's residence.
This was exactly why Lin Haoran had chosen to stay here.
The villa had five floors, ten rooms, and even an elevator — more than enough to accommodate his 15 bodyguards.
Standing on the terrace, he could clearly see Tokyo Tower about three kilometers away.
At this time, the famous Tokyo Skytree hadn't yet been built, making Tokyo Tower the city's most iconic landmark.
Lin Haoran took a deep breath of the cool night air, calming his heart.
Gazing at the twinkling lights of Tokyo Tower in the distance, he eventually turned and headed back to his bedroom.
The night passed peacefully.
By the next day, February 12th, Lin Haoran, accompanied by Sato Shimono — head of Land Corporation's Tokyo office — conducted inspections of the company's properties.
Through this, Lin Haoran quickly realized that Land Corporation's presence in Japan was minimal.
Only three Wellcome supermarkets, one trade warehouse, and five Mannings beauty chain stores remained.
In short, Land Corporation's footprint in Japan had dwindled to just a few retail outlets.
"Boss, more than a decade ago, Land Corporation's operations here included finance, logistics, and real estate agencies.
But due to fierce competition with local giants, we had to shut most of them down," Sato explained while they stood inside a Wellcome supermarket in Shinjuku.
Perhaps because it was still morning, the store felt rather empty.
"Does this supermarket make money?" Lin Haoran asked after being led into the manager's office.
"Yes, Boss," the manager replied enthusiastically.
"Last year, our Japan operations earned about 200 million yen in profit.
Of that, the three Wellcome supermarkets contributed over 130 million yen.
Business picks up significantly in the evenings and on holidays."
Two hundred million yen — roughly five million Hong Kong dollars in profit per year.
Not impressive.
No wonder Land Corporation hadn't even bothered to set up a proper branch office here before.
Lin Haoran nodded thoughtfully and continued the tour.
Supermarkets like these were already quite modern, not very different from their future versions — self-service layouts, abundant product selection.
But to truly make big money, a chain needed scale —
economies of scale, bargaining power, and operational efficiencies.
With only a handful of stores, profitability would always be limited.
Still, since Land Corporation now planned to expand aggressively in Japan, retail needed to grow alongside real estate.
The Nintendo celebration banquet was scheduled for 7 p.m. that evening.
By 6 p.m., Lin Haoran, along with Kenneth Ho, Sato Shimono, and Zhao Xin, drove to a commercial plaza in the Ikebukuro business district.
The venue was a high-end sushi restaurant.
Because his bodyguards were still unfamiliar with Tokyo's streets, Lin Haoran had already recruited a few local drivers through Sato, all thoroughly vetted for loyalty.
Travel around Tokyo was no longer an issue.
"Mr. Lin, welcome!"
Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi greeted Lin Haoran warmly upon his arrival.
"It's my honor to attend, Mr. Yamauchi," Lin Haoran responded politely.
Led by Yamauchi, Lin Haoran entered the restaurant — clearly an upscale establishment where only the wealthy and powerful dined.
He was escorted to a private room spanning over a hundred square meters.
Inside, more than a dozen people had already gathered — presumably Nintendo's top Tokyo-area distributors.
However, the atmosphere was cold.
Most of the other attendees showed little enthusiasm toward Lin Haoran, chatting among themselves and barely acknowledging his arrival.
Lin Haoran didn't mind.
Unlike in Hong Kong where his reputation commanded automatic deference, here he was relatively unknown.
At the government-hosted banquet a few days ago, businessmen had only shown him respect out of courtesy to the government.
Now, surrounded by ordinary businessmen, their attitudes were far less diplomatic.
Suddenly, a mocking comment drifted over in deliberately accented English:
"Look at that big shot who traveled all the way from Hong Kong.
Instead of staying where he belongs, he has to meddle in the great Empire of Japan.
He only runs a few insignificant little supermarkets, yet President Yamauchi actually honored him with an invitation.
Truly ridiculous."
The speaker's companions burst into laughter.
Some even threw disdainful glances toward Lin Haoran's table.
Though they had previously been chatting in Japanese, they had switched to English specifically so Lin Haoran would understand the insult.
Kenneth Ho and Sato both frowned, preparing to respond, but Lin Haoran gently waved them off.
His expression remained calm, smiling faintly, as if the taunt hadn't affected him in the slightest.
Still, he wondered —
had he offended someone here without realizing it?
Clearly, the insult hadn't been orchestrated by Yamauchi himself —
the president was still outside welcoming guests.
Turning slightly, Lin Haoran whispered to Sato:
"Mr. Sato, do you know who that man is?"
"Boss, that's Mr. Ito — owner of Ito-Yokado Department Stores," Sato replied softly.
"We compete with them in Koto Ward and Shinjuku — two of our Wellcome stores clashed with theirs two years ago during a price war.
We lost that battle."
Ah, that explained it.
Lin Haoran wasn't very familiar with Ito-Yokado, assuming at first it was just an ordinary Japanese retail company.
But Sato's next words made him think twice.
"Ito-Yokado is one of Japan's top retail chains," Sato added.
"They own department stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets, specialty shops, and discount stores.
Most importantly — they own 7-Eleven.
Two months ago, their 7-Eleven network surpassed a thousand stores, making them Japan's largest convenience store operator."
7-Eleven?
Suddenly, Lin Haoran's eyes sharpened.
The 7-Eleven chain —
a future global retail giant with more than 80,000 stores worldwide by the time Lin Haoran had crossed over into this timeline.
A terrifyingly dominant brand.
From what Lin remembered, 7-Eleven had originated in the U.S., but was acquired in the 1990s by a Japanese company.
Now it seemed clear —
the force behind that acquisition would be Ito-Yokado.
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