February 25, 1989, Tokyo.
The sky was a murky leaden gray, with low-hanging clouds pressing down on the tops of Shinjuku's skyscrapers as if they might collapse at any moment.
Shibuya, Seibu Department Store Headquarters.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi stood before a massive floor-to-ceiling window, clutching an internal notice just faxed over from the Ministry of Finance. The paper groaned fragilely in his grip, its edges already crumpled into a mess.
"Four hundred million coins," he said, turning around and tossing the crumpled paper onto the mahogany desk. "Are those people at the Mint Bureau joking? There's only one month left until April 1st, and they're telling me the national coin shortage is still four hundred million?"
Several managing directors standing before the desk bowed their heads. None dared to look the emperor of Seibu in the eye.
"Chairman, it's not just the coins," the managing director in charge of operations took a step forward, his voice somewhat dry. "NEC has sent a new quote. To handle the 3% consumption tax, two thousand cash registers across the entire group need their calculation chips replaced. They say production capacity is insufficient, and chip prices will rise by 30%."
"Give it to them," Yoshiaki Tsutsumi answered without hesitation, even with a hint of impatience. "Money is not the issue. But Seibu Department Store is the face of Japanese retail. I cannot tolerate long lines at our checkout counters on the first day the new tax law is implemented because we can't calculate the bills."
He walked behind the desk and sat heavily into the leather swivel chair.
"The key right now is the coins," Yoshiaki Tsutsumi said as he extended a finger and tapped the desk forcefully, his knuckles making a sharp thud-thud sound. "Consumers have to pay tax, so we have to provide change. If a customer uses 1,000 yen to buy something worth 900 yen, plus 27 yen in tax, we need to give them 73 yen back."
"That requires one 50-yen coin, two 10-yen coins, and three of those damn 1-yen coins."
He looked up, his gaze sharp.
"Go talk to the banks. Use whatever means necessary — even if it's an exchange at a premium — to seize the coins the Seibu Group needs," he ordered. "Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, all the city banks. Don't let a single one go."
"Tell them this is the will of Seibu."
In Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's logic, this 3% tax was set by the government, and consumers should naturally pay it. His task was to ensure the process of collecting money was smooth and unobstructed. To that end, he did not hesitate to use his vast capital to hoard those cheap aluminum discs.
He firmly believed this was the correct business logic.
Meanwhile.
Koto Ward, Daiei Group Headquarters.
This was the command post of the Price Butcher, where the air was perpetually thick with the smell of cheap tobacco and instant coffee. But today, the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder.
"Seize them! Go seize them for me!" President Isao Nakauchi's roar nearly blew off the low suspended ceiling of the meeting room.
This man, who had crawled out from the piles of corpses on the Philippine battlefields of World War II, was now like a hungry lion trapped in a cage. He had pulled his tie down to his chest, rolled his sleeves to his elbows, and was waving his thick arms as he paced back and forth in the narrow aisle of the meeting room, his leather shoes thumping against the floor.
"If those useless fools at the Mint Bureau can't produce them, then go collect them from the market!" he shouted, stopping abruptly in front of a sweating procurement manager and spraying saliva all over the man's face. "Go to the shrines! Go buy their offertory boxes! There must be tons of 1-yen coins in there!"
"Go to the street-side arcades! To the vending machine operating companies! Even if you have to crawl on the ground and trade with beggars, get those coins back for me!"
"But President..." the manager raised his hand tremblingly. "Cleaning those coins will take time and incur costs..."
"Then give them to the customers with the dirt still on them!" Isao Nakauchi bellowed, his eyes bloodshot. "Daiei was built on being cheap! Our customers are aunties and housewives! What they care about is whether they can get that one yen back, not whether that one yen is covered in dust!"
He walked to the window, leaning his hands on the sill, looking down at the busy logistics center below.
"If a customer has to wait even one extra second at the checkout because we can't make change, that's murdering our efficiency! That's pushing our guests toward Seibu Department Store!"
"Contact Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank! Tell them if they can't guarantee Daiei's coin supply for next month, I'll have to talk to another bank about the interest on those hundreds of billions in loans for next year!"
The meeting room fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of the executives.
"Um... President," the head of the Lawson division, who had been shrinking into a corner, cautiously held up a report. "Regarding Lawson... should we coordinate things there as well? After all, there are thousands of stores, and if the coins aren't enough..."
"Lawson?" Isao Nakauchi paused at the mention of the word.
He turned around, the murderous ferocity on his face suddenly vanishing, replaced by an extreme coldness, even a hint of schadenfreude.
"Why bother with them?" Isao Nakauchi said as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag. "Have you forgotten? Half a year ago, we already signed the papers. Lawson's supply chain, logistics, and even the store operation systems — who has them now?"
He blew out a smoke ring, his eyes dark and sinister.
"They're in the hands of that little girl from the Saionji Family."
"Since she wants control, and since she boasted about being able to double Lawson's efficiency, then the dirty work of finding coins is naturally her business too."
Isao Nakauchi waved his hand as if shooing away an annoying fly.
"Don't allocate a single coin to Lawson. That's the Saionji Family's problem, not Daiei's."
"If Lawson ends up paralyzed because they lack change..." a cruel smile curled at the corners of Isao Nakauchi's mouth. "Then that's perfect. We can take the breach of contract clauses and demand compensation from that arrogant young lady, maybe even take back control."
"Save our bullets for Daiei supermarkets. As for Lawson, let it fend for itself."
The entire Japanese retail industry was falling into a frenzy over this tiny aluminum coin with a face value of just 1 yen.
Chiyoda Ward, Otemachi.
Mitsui Bank Head Office Building.
The vault doors on the second basement level stood wide open.
The air was filled with a peculiar scent of lubricant mixed with old banknotes. The electric motors of forklifts hummed as they shuttled through the narrow passages.
Crates of heavy coins were being transported from the depths and stacked in the shipping area.
Those canvas bags were stamped with the cherry blossom emblem of the Mint Bureau, filled with brand-new 1-yen coins shimmering with a silver-white luster.
The President's Office.
President Yoshino — father of Satsuki's classmate Yoshino Ayako — was sitting on the sofa, personally attending to an expensive tea set.
Boiling water was poured into the teapot, sending up plumes of white steam.
"Shuichi-kun, please," President Yoshino said as he pushed a cup of bright green sencha across to the other side.
Saionji Shuichi sat there, dressed in a well-tailored dark gray suit, his expression calm.
"President Yoshino looks very tired," Shuichi said as he picked up the teacup but didn't drink, just feeling the warmth radiating from the porcelain.
"Can't be helped, I'm being hounded by those retailers," President Yoshino shook his head with a bitter smile and pointed out the window. Through the thick bulletproof glass, rows of armored trucks could be seen waiting to be loaded below. "You see it too. Every trading company in Tokyo is frantically scrambling for coins. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi called me personally yesterday, asking for a quota of fifty million coins right off the bat. Isao Nakauchi's side was even more extreme, directly threatening to move his deposits elsewhere."
President Yoshino sighed and took a sip of his tea.
"The machines at the Mint Bureau are already smoking from overuse, but it's still just a drop in the bucket. Right now, 1-yen coins are more sought after than gold."
At this point, President Yoshino leaned forward slightly, his tone becoming solemn.
"Shuichi-kun, actually, the reason I invited you here today is also regarding this matter."
He took a document from the cabinet behind him and placed it on the coffee table.
"S.A. Group now has Uniqlo under its umbrella, and also controls the supply chains for FamilyMart and Lawson, and you're even about to open that large supermarket called S-Mart. Your demand for coins is likely astronomical."
Yoshino's finger pressed down on the document.
"For the sake of Ayako and Miss Satsuki being classmates, and considering our families' long-standing relationship, I've specifically carved out a piece of the cake for the Saionji Family from the head office's strategic reserves."
"Thirty million 1-yen coins. And five million 5-yen coins."
"As soon as you sign, this shipment can be delivered to the S.A. Logistics warehouse tonight."
This was a massive favor.
In this time of coin shortages, this batch would be enough to ensure a smooth transition for the thousands of stores in the Saionji system on April 1st, and could even serve as a strategic reserve to strike at competitors.
The room was very quiet.
Only the sound of the tea swirling slightly in the cup could be heard.
Shuichi looked at the document, then at President Yoshino's face, which was full of sincerity yet tinged with fatigue.
He set down his teacup.
He did not reach for the document.
"I appreciate President Yoshino's kindness," Shuichi said, his voice gentle, but his refusal was crisp and clear. "However, we don't need these coins."
"Don't need them?" President Yoshino was stunned, doubting if he had heard correctly. "Shuichi-kun, you're not joking, are you? April 1st is almost here. If you don't have change for your customers, your stores will be paralyzed! For high-volume stores like Uniqlo, once the checkouts get clogged, the consequences will be unthinkable!"
"I know," Shuichi said calmly.
He pulled a 1-yen aluminum coin from his suit pocket and placed it gently on the table.
It was what Satsuki had slipped to him before he left this morning.
"President Yoshino, what do you think this is?"
"It's currency, a tool for making change," Yoshino replied, puzzled.
"No," Shuichi shook his head. "For a retailer, it is friction. Making change takes time, counting it incurs costs, and exchanging it at the bank requires fees."
Shuichi stood up and walked to the window, looking down at the busy armored trucks below.
"Of course we need coins. If customers want to pay with coins, we'd be more than happy to accept them," he said as he turned around and looked at President Yoshino with a meaningful smile. "However, we don't need to give change to customers."
"No change?" President Yoshino was completely bewildered. "Then... what about the odd amounts? What about that 3% tax?"
"We will pay it for the customers," Shuichi said, his voice calm, but it sounded like a thunderclap in the office. "Uniqlo, S-Mart, FamilyMart, Lawson. All terminals controlled by the Saionji system will implement rounded-down pricing."
"An item priced at 100 yen becomes 103 yen after tax. We will only charge 100 yen."
"An item priced at 980 yen becomes 1009 yen after tax. We will simply charge 1000 yen."
"I want our cash registers, now and in the future, to never see a single 1-yen coin."
"Th-this is impossible!" President Yoshino almost screamed. As a banker, his professional instincts made him feel suffocated by this wasteful behavior. "Young lady... I mean Shuichi-kun! Do you know how much money this is? S-Food's annual turnover is hundreds of billions! The S-Mart supermarket's projected turnover is also in the tens of billions! 3% means billions in pure profit! For Uniqlo, the losses would be even greater!"
"And it's not just about the money. This is breaking industry rules! What will the Retail Association think of us? What will the MITI think of us? They'll say we're engaging in unfair competition!"
"Because we are faster than everyone else," Shuichi said as he walked back to the table, picked up the aluminum coin, and spun it lightly between his fingertips. "While Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's customers are still waiting in line and complaining about those three coins in change, and while Daiei's clerks are sweating as they count out coins..."
"Our customers will just drop a thousand-yen note and walk out with their goods."
"We don't need to take a single coin from the bank. On the contrary, we will become the largest coin collection point in all of Tokyo."
Shuichi flicked the coin up, caught it, and put it back in his pocket.
"Keep those coins, President Yoshino. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and Isao Nakauchi will need them very much. Let them scramble for them," he said. "The Saionji Family isn't playing that game."