"Self-imposed isolation," Hanae corrected. "We don't force anyone to participate. We just make participation so obviously beneficial that refusing it would be stupid."
A sharp laugh from one of the South American executives. "I like her," he said to his colleague in Portuguese, apparently forgetting—or not caring—that Hanae spoke the language.
She didn't correct him. Let him think she didn't understand. Information was currency. Every misunderstanding was a deposit.
The next forty minutes were negotiation.
Real negotiation. The kind that happened in boardrooms and back rooms across Tokyo every day. Questions about specifics. Challenges to numbers. Counter-proposals that Hanae deflected or incorporated based on whether they strengthened or weakened the overall structure.
