Story of OWNDAYS: The Revival — Ep 31: A Desperate Christmas (Part Two)
After receiving word from our main banks that they would like to “forget the past” and have “constructive talks” regarding future transactions, we started plans in early October for a syndicated loan totaling 1.2 billion yen and aimed to set our financial standings with the banks back to normal in one big leap.
Nearly a month had passed and it was now the end of October. On a cold autumn evening, with the winds carrying the scent of winter, I sat by the office window watching the glass slowly fog as Okuno-san approached me with a smile on his face.
“Mr. President, good news, it seems Hokuriku Bank will agree to a new loan, albeit short-term. The branch manager will pay us a visit. Could you please meet with him? We’re moving things along under the conditions that they lend us 70 million as funds to put towards our payment on November 5th, and that we will return that when the developers wire us our profits on the 15th.”
Since he seemed a bit too lighthearted, I felt the need to put my foot down and ask him without reserve.
“Are you positive they’re going to lend us money? They’re not going to pull out at the last second again because of our ‘excessive debt’, are they? Even after all our presentations?”
“Well, they’re adamant that that won’t be the case this time,” he said uncomfortably, forcing a smile. “The representatives have really taken to our success overseas and have considered it a major factor in their consideration.”
“Don’t you think ten days is rather short for a loan…? Do banks usually give out such super short loans?”
“It’s not unheard-of for banks to do that with pre-existing partners, but seeing as how we’ve never dealt with them before, it’s a pretty rare case. This is probably the best they can do for a new partner that has as much debt as we do. Considering the fact that banks wouldn’t even give us the time of day up until now, if this pulls through, I think we can expect some huge developments!”
“What brought you together with this Hokuriku Bank anyways?”
“Ohara-san, from the old management, he had told them about us and we were approached by them. I had asked them to take part in the syndicated loan but they have a company rule that keeps them from joining syndicated loans with first-time partners, so we’ve gone with the solo route. Their representative was really passionate about the prospects. He told me around mid-October that they would like to help fund us on a one-year term, but that it would have to be after we nullify our debt with the syndicated loan.”
“So basically they’ll lend us funds separately once the syndicated loan is set in stone, is that right?”
“Yes. Exactly. The condition is that we hand in the paperwork stating that it has commenced.”
“And what kind of paperwork do we need to prove that?”
“To be exact, a term sheet (a paper describing the details and terms of the syndicated loan) that the arranging bank provides us with. Mitsui Sumitomo was supposed to hold a hearing with each of the participating banks…”
“What do you mean ‘supposed to’?”
“Under normal circumstances Mitsui Sumitomo would have presented us the term sheet by now, but they don’t have things ready yet because of a delay on their side. But Hokuriku knows that the date of our payment might not happen on November 5th, so they’ve agreed to give us a super short-term loan for the ten days that we’ll have the most trouble with finances. They said that their branch manager wanted to meet with you tomorrow so I think this will be, in all practicality, the last ‘interview’ before the final go.”
“I see. So there’s a lot riding on this one, huh?” I replied, laughing. “Perhaps I’ll put on a suit and tie.”
“No need to worry about that. Just be you. I’m sure they’ve done plenty of research on you already and dressing up would only give them the wrong impression, so I advise not to.”
Relieved that it really was good news, I gave a smile.
The next day
As I was waiting for the branch manager of Bank Hokuriku to show up, Okuno-san came to tell me something and he didn’t look too happy about it.
“Mr. President, there’s something I have to tell you before you meet with Hokuriku…”
“What’s with the long face? Something’s come up again?” I asked.
“The reply has come back from the four banks about our syndicated loan,” he said, pulling me into the reception room looking as gloomy as ever.
“Oh yeah! That’s great, isn’t it?”
“No…actually… the thing is, they’re only prepared to lend us a total of 600 million yen…”
“Huh? 600 million…? That’s only half of what we had talked about? Isn’t that a little too low?”
“Yes, it is. In the end, the three banks other than Mitsui Sumitomo were only able to offer enough to cover the rest of our balance. In other words, they’re unable to add on any ‘new money.’ In reality, it’s no different than their refusals up until now. Even Mitsui Sumitomo, the ones who came up with the idea in the first place, said they’d only be able to offer 200 million.”
“What the hell…” I replied disappointedly. I was so fed up with everything I couldn’t even get angry. “It was just a few months ago that the branch managers said they wanted to work together constructively. We even shook on it. What did they come all the way to our office for then?”
“In the end, it seems that the branch managers had come without any concrete direction in how they wanted to move forward. Without any real consensus either. I guess they just took a quick look at us and thought it would be alright to sound promising. We’ve been misled. Most small-to-mid-sized businesses like us would get their hopes up with claims like that. It happens all the time. And I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on it. I am so sorry…” said Okuno-san, biting his lip out of vexation. “I really thought the banks would be cooperative, had they really understood what kind of position we were in right now… Unfortunately, this is reality. By the way, you remember what that representative from Hozumi Bank had the nerve to say about our expansion overseas, don’t you?”
“Of course… that he didn’t ‘want to hear about it.’ Because ‘writing the report would be a hassle,’ right?”
“Yes. Well their reason for not being able to increase funds this time was especially unbelievable. They said, ‘OWNDAYS doesn’t release any information so our examination board concluded that we weren’t transparent enough.’ We’ve explained ourselves so much on so many occasions. They’ve even refused to listen. And now this? That bank representative must have buried all our information somewhere along the line…”
“What… the… I’m so at a loss for words, I’m not even angry… So what do we do next?”
“I’m going to see if there aren’t any other banks that would be willing to join the syndicated loan. Either way, it’s not going to work out with just the four banks we have now. We’ll have to start approaching other financial institutes with the help of Mitsui Sumitomo. Also see if they can’t increase their share as well. I think there’s still hope.”
“Mitsui Sumitomo is sincere about their stance too, right?”
“Do you remember when Imai-san was in charge of rescheduling our payment plan, back in 2008…? At first he was unsure, but he soon came around and was very understanding.”
“Yeah… I remember. He handled our payments for a pretty long time, didn’t he?”
“Apparently when the examination board for Mitsui Sumitomo consulted Imai-san when considering this syndicated loan and asked him if we were trustworthy or not, and he said ‘I knew this day (OWNDAYS would apply for a syndicated loan) would come. Their president is real resourceful and their financial chief is very capable. You can count on them!’”
“I get the picture, loud and clear. Either way, the plans for our new stores are already moving along, so we need to dig in and look for other possible solutions. Worst case scenario, we’ll have to ask a manufacturer to extend payments again, or we might even have to let go of one of our non-franchise stores. Let’s hang on until the end and try everything we can.”
“Alright. Anyway, there’s no way we can pull out now, so we might as well cut open a new path. For the time being, you’re just going to have to do your best at your meeting with Hokuriku now!”
“Okay! Leave it to me,” I replied.
Shortly after, the branch manager and the representative from Hokuriku arrived at the office. Representative Yoshida was in his late twenties with average height and mid-build. He didn’t look very strong and what he lacked in presence, he made up with his sincere demeanor. He was young and anything but intimidating — he could’ve been cupid for all we knew.
Yoshida introduced us to his branch manager. He was thin and lanky, and slicked back his hair which was starting to go gray. He presented himself as a real gentleman. He acted and spoke in a soft manner but had an intense glare in his eyes. He was the epitome of a veteran branch manager who had seen and heard it all.
After greeting them at our lobby, Okuno-san and I nervously motioned them into our reception room.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tanaka, president of OWNDAYS.”
“I am the branch manager, Kitayama. The pleasure is mine. Thank you for taking time to meet me today.”
We exchanged formalities and I quickly went on to explain our current direction and situation and passionately spoke of our plans and hopes for the future. I had talked for around an hour. Kitayama was either looking down at the material we had provided, or giving me his undivided attention, looking and listening carefully to all I had to say.
After I was done talking, he tilted his head back and silently stared at the ceiling as if thinking deeply about something. A stale silence commanded the room. It couldn’t have lasted for more than ten seconds, but yet it was so suffocating I was having trouble breathing.
No luck with this bank either… I thought to myself.
I explained to them our potential as concretely and as sincerely as possible. To which they say something like “Wow,” or “Amazing” that was quickly followed by “Sorry, but we can’t help you with that amount of debt.” It was always like this. I couldn’t even begin to think of how many times I had been through the same scenario.
Today’s not gonna be any different… why would it? Who cares about these banks anymore…
In the back of my mind, I had developed this stubborn and bitter resisting spirit, the kind that didn’t suit truly brave men.
And then, to my surprise, Kitayama showed a slight smile, gave us both a glance and said,
“Alright! How about 70 million yen. It’s not much, but you’ll have it by the 5th!”
“Huh?”
“Balance sheets are indeed important too. But they never show the true essence of a company. You know what I always tell my younger staff? The most important thing in lending is whether you get a return on your investment or not. After listening to you just now, I believe we have no problem there. And time is of the essence. I’ll head straight back to our office and start the paperwork.”
“Thank… thank you so much! We’ll do our best!”
I was so happy I could have jumped out of my seat. Okuno-san clenched his fist in the air next to me.
We walked the two men to the door and saw them off. As soon as their elevator door completely closed, we both screamed for joy and gave each other high-fives.
“We did it! We did it!”
“Yes, we did. We did!”
Our high-fives turned into a firm handshake as we started to dance around in the hallway.
“After seven long years, we’ve finally been granted a loan…” I said. “Who would’ve guessed it would be so exhilarating to go into debt. It feels so strange, hahaha.”
“It sure does! But, man, we sure did it! It may be an irregular loan for a short period of time, but this is without a doubt, a huge step in our favor! All we need now is for our syndicated loan to come together. We ought to speed things up. I’ll appoint Mitsui Sumitomo our sole arranging bank and get them to approach our other banks and financial institutions.”
“I’m counting on it! Just a little bit more to go before we’re on safe grounds! We’ve come this far, we’re gonna get through this!”
“Yes sir!”
Early December
As it turned out, Mitsui Sumitomo finally presented us with the term sheet in early December, and not late November as promised. Okuno-san quickly used this to officially invite seven more regional banks we had history with to join the syndicated loan along with the other four original ones.
However, at this point, it was already passed the date we had planned to initiate the syndicated loan. The end of the year was approaching fast and we still had nothing. And ‘nothing’ was not going to solve our impending shortage of funds. Unable to cancel the opening of our new stores, we had no choice but to keep moving forward.
Around the same time, we were in the middle of opening a new store in Taiwan that was proving to be troublesome and our finances were taking a beating. The biggest trouble turned out to be the amount of time it took for the developers to wire our store profits into our bank accounts.
Our sales were doing great, much better than we had expected, but we didn’t see any of those profits for thirty days after the end of each month, a whole month longer than Japanese standards. Taking nearly two months for mall tenants to receive their sales was a common thing in Taiwan. Plus, our shop in Ximending, our only street-level shop, was giving us a daily cash income, but it was barely enough and costs were outweighing our profit. We still had to pay our initial construction costs, import taxes and salaries of our growing staff.
Since OWNDAYS Taiwan was unable to keep itself financially afloat, we had to use our profits in Singapore to cover. Operations in Taiwan were going at such a fast pace, it was sucking up almost all of the cash in our entire company. It was chewing away our funds like a starving dog coming upon an unexpected meal.
We had our usual morning meeting with the executive team members on Mondays. This time Umiyama and Hamachi were joining us over Skype from Singapore and Taiwan and their faces were on large monitors on the wall.
“Hamachi, what’s going on with your accounting?” asked a very unpleasant Okuno-san. “There was another mistake in that invoice you gave me the other day! At the speed we’re opening stores over there now, if we don’t have firm grip over our finances it could mean the end of OWNDAYS, not just Taiwan!”
Since expanding to Taiwan, we had left the task of managing the finances to Hamachi as much as possible, but since she only had experience as a store manager, she obviously had no knowledge when it came to business accounting. Plus, she couldn’t understand Chinese. She was starting to make small mistakes and affecting the control our finances.
“Yes, I understand…,” replied Hamachi, looking suffocated, baring the mental pressure. “I’m sorry… But we have to translate every little thing on the paperwork and it forces me to put some things off until later…”
“That doesn’t matter when any mistake regarding money could spell disaster, right? There’s no getting around it. Do it! By any means necessary. We’re all up to our ears in work. No more careless mistakes, got it!?”
“Yes. I understand. But we really don’t have enough money here in Taiwan either… I’ve been contacting business partners to see if we can extend our payments on things like our machines and construction bills, but they’ve all said that they can’t. They’re at their limits too.”
Our executive meetings around this time were strangely tense — a real emotional rollercoaster ride. We were showing record breaking sales, but at the same time we were always just a step away from danger. If we made the wrong move, OWNDAYS would stop running like an engine missing a gear.
It was also around this time that we gained another strong team mate in Taiwan. Her name was Susan. Susan was an experienced woman, a financial accounting professional who had worked for a Japanese company and was fluent in Japanese. She was well versed in accounting and taxes in Taiwan and took over from Hamachi as accountant, working diligently.
However, even Susan was taken back when she saw how tight finances were in OWNDAYS Taiwan. “Méiyǒu qián” (We have no money) became her new go-to phrase. And then one day in early December, she was staring suspiciously at our online banking site, checking our balance, when all of a sudden she screamed.“Hamachi-san! We have a problem! Méiyǒu qián! Méiyǒu qián! We haven’t received our deposits from the developers yet. We won’t be able to pay our staff’s salaries. We usually get deposits in the morning, but it’s 1:00 p.m. and still no deposit… If it doesn’t come by 3:00 p.m., when the banks close, we won’t be able to pay our employees!”
“What? Why are they late with their deposit? Call them up and ask them when they’ll be able to so! They need to uphold their end of the deal,” said a worried Hamachi who was now blue in the face. “Oh no, what do we do if they don’t deposit the money…”
“When this happens we’ll just have to ask our staff to wait one more day for their pay,” replied a cheery Susan. “It’ll be alright. It happens often in Taiwan. If we just explain and say sorry, they’ll understand.”
“No, we can’t do that! That’s not how we do it!”
“But why? I mean, it’s the developers that haven’t paid us yet. What else can we do?”
“No, I mean, we can’t! It’s a rule here at OWNDAYS that we never keep our employees waiting for their salaries, no matter what. That’s just not how we do it. If we did, I’d be fired! We need to call them up and get them to make the deposit today!”
“Alright! We can’t have you fired! I’ll try my best!” replied Susan.
Hamachi pressed Susan several times to ring up the developers. She was anxiously watching the computer screen the whole time Susan was on the phone. Time was of the essence and it continued to tick by, indifferent to our dire situation. Just around 2:00 p.m., right before we had run out of time, Susan suddenly jumped out of her chair.
“Hamachi-san!! The money was deposited!” she screamed while clapping. “We have ten minutes left to make our payments! I’ll do it now!”
“Oh, thank god! That was a close call…”
“Yes. Ah… I was so nervous. I’ve never had an accounting job that was so bad for my heart!” she said laughing.
“Well, it’s a relief. At least we’ve gotten through today. But OWNDAYS is having a tough time in every country. We’re just scraping by. Things will probably continue like this for a bit longer. We’re going to have to do our best to make as many sales as possible. Let’s keep at it!”
Days went by like this. We were faced with complications from every direction.
December 24th
The office was quiet. Okuno-san and I sat alone, sulking in the dimly lit meeting room. On the giant screen on the wall was Umiyama, feeling just as depressed in his office in Singapore.
“So the syndicated loan didn’t work out after all, huh…”
“Unfortunately…yes. I’m sorry. There is a smidgen of hope, but it doesn’t seem like we’ll make it in time for our new year’s payments…”
Despite Okuno-san running around for the past two months, working like crazy to get the banks to commit and get on the same page, time just went on by and before we knew it, it was the end of the year. Time was up, and we had no syndicated loan. Naturally, we were unable to provide the majority of the funds needed to support our rush of new stores in Taiwan and Singapore. We had basically confirmed that we would be facing yet another mass shortage of funds at the beginning of the new year.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it,” I said, trying to act unfazed to lighten the atmosphere in the room. “It’s alright. I was actually kind of prepared for this to happen, hahaha. It sure is hard to believe how many times this has happened though, huh? It’s almost like a movie. But our company is still steadily growing. We just don’t have the funds to keep up with our growth at the moment, that’s all. It’ll be fine!”
Okuno-san slapped his cheeks to rid his mind of the worries that consumed him. He sat up straight and began to speak.
“Well, in that case, let’s get in contact with all of our business partners and ask for their cooperation in extending our payments. I’ll let each department chief know and give them specific instructions of what to do.”
“Alright. We’ll try selling one of our company stores to a franchise member too. We’ll have to rake together all the cash we have in each country. It’ll take every means necessary to get through this one.”
“Yes. And we’ll have to contact Mr. Fujita and tell him about our situation before we go any further…”
“Yeah, we’ll have to postpone our payments to his company as well,” I replied. “I’ll contact him right away and explain to him the situation we’re in. We’ll have to get his understanding about our plans to secure funds before anything.”
“Alright, thank you.”
“I wonder what he’s gonna say… I’m sure he’s tight on money at this time of the year as well. Yeah, this won’t be fun…”
We were so close to reaching our goal of normalizing our relationship with the banks I could almost touch it. I wanted to hurry up and grab the finish line tape. I wanted to outrun this thing as soon as possible. The bitter truth was that the finish line was in fact running away from us. Not only that but it was laughing in our faces at the same time.
The next Monday
The sun had just gone down in Roppongi. Crowds were flowing chaotically through the frozen city streets as the year was coming to an end.
I was walking along a side alley just one block in from Gaienhigashi Avenue, heading for the yakiniku restaurant where I was to meet with Mr. Fujita. It was the same place we had met three years ago when he agreed to help us increase our capital and just last year when I had informed him of our plans to expand overseas. Heading to this restaurant, I could feel my feet grow heavy, as if wrapped in chains.
What is he gonna say when I ask him to wait on our entire end of the year payment… Maybe we were a little too reckless this time. He’ll probably explode… And I really only have myself to blame. He’ll probably doubt my abilities to run the business. He’ll probably reprimand me. I’ll just have to take it. It’s not like making excuses would solve anything anyways…
Before I knew it I had arrived at the restaurant. There was still some time left before Mr. Fujita was to arrive. I entered the restaurant first and was taken to a private room where I waited for Mr. Fujita. I sat there sipping water, head held low, as if I were a defendant, waiting for the judge’s ruling.
I heard the restaurant staff welcome Mr. Fujita and a few moments later he entered the room pulling a large suitcase, with Nakai-san next to him speaking cheerfully.
“Evening! It’s getting cold out, isn’t it?” he said coming into the room, taking off his heavy coat and handing it to Nakai-san. He had a smile on and looked as happy as ever. “How are you feeling? Good and healthy? You don’t wanna catch a cold now. Not at an important time like this.”
“Ahaha, thank you. My body is better than ever, it’s just…”
“Oh, excuse me, could I have a beer please, I’m really parched,” said Mr. Fujita, cutting me off to order a beer.
It arrived in no time, in a well-chilled glass. He picked up the beer, took a chug and sounded his satisfaction deep in his throat. He drank about half in one go and wiped the foam from his lips.
“So! What’s it this time? What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Eh?”
“Ahahaha. Whenever you invite me to this place you always have something bothering you. What’s eating at you this time? You look scared. As a business owner, it’s when the going gets tough that you gotta act your happiest!”
“Ah, sorry, that’s not what I…, no, you’re right, I apologize. As you’ve guessed, we’re in a pinch…”
“Aha! I was right, hahaha. Shall we eat first? Or would you like to talk about your troublesome pinch first?”
“Allow me to explain first. I don’t think I’d be able to enjoy the meal with how I’m feeling at the moment…”
“Very well. What’s the matter?” he said, fixing his collar and sitting back in his chair, waiting for me to speak with a stern face on.
I took a deep breath and started talking right away. It was not the kind of conversation one ought to seem pretentious about.
“The truth is, well… it’s the syndicated loan that we’ve been working towards these past couple months. It turns out we won’t be able to settle it in time. That means we’re going to be short over 200 million yen in early January… That brings me to ask you whether we would be able to extend our payments to you as long as possible…”
I explained to Mr. Fujita our financial position, how incompetent we had been with our project planning and asked for an extension on our payments. I felt like a scared cat, waiting to be punished by its owner.
After he had heard everything I had to say, and took a look at the paper work I had handed to him, he spoke almost indifferently, with hardly any change in expression.
“Okay, okay. Understood. It’s alright.”
“Huh? But, you must have a lot of expenses at this time of year yourself. It’s a rather large amount too…”
“Yes. I understand. But more importantly, this is the time you need to take the offensive. We can’t lose this timing. We need to buckle down and charge forward! Don’t forget, I’m a shareholder as well. Of course I’ll do as much as possible to help. You hold in there now.”
“Wait…what?”
“Your rush overseas right now is the real deal. Bank Hokuriku has agreed to a new loan, albeit short-term, and other banks will surely follow suit once they see your next balance sheet. If you can hold out until then, I don’t see any problem here. We’ve come this far. We’re joined at the hip so your fate is mine. My mind is made up.”
“You mean… it’s alright to postpone our entire payment to your company?”
“Yes. Of course we’re not in the best of positions ourselves, to be honest, but we’ll have to make it work. We’ll figure something out. It’s alright!” he added with a strong look in his face, hitting his chest with his fist as if to say, “Leave it to me.”
“Thank… thank you so much!”
“But that won’t be enough, will it? What are you going to do about your payments with other business partners? You guys have become quite the project for some of your small-to-mid-sized manufacturers. There’s got to be some who won’t be able to handle an extension of payments. Plus, if you ask around for extensions too much, people may just lose their trust in OWNDAYS. The eyeglass industry is a small world. One wrong step and people might just start rumors that you’re going to collapse. They may even cancel deals with you, or even ask you to pay upfront, which would worsen your financial situation even further.”
“Yes… I plan on asking for a few extensions on a reasonable level and to sell off some of our company stores. If it’s a store that is doing great in sales, there’s bound to be members in our franchise that would gladly buy it off from us…”
“Hmm… That’s not exactly the wisest of ideas though, huh? Of course you can get a large sum of cash for selling off one of your stores, but your monthly profit will decrease and it will really upset your footwork. There is also the possibility, like when you tried starting your no additional fee campaign, that certain franchise owners won’t agree with your instructions and you’ll lose your ability to direct with speed and execute large changes. If possible, you should hold on to your company stores and try increasing your franchise. And if you do, you’ll want to be very careful when dealing with your new members to make sure they’re on the same page as OWNDAYS.”
“Yes. You’re right about that…”
“I’ll see what I can do on my end. For the time being, try every possibility you have now. Let’s get through this together. Because the direction you’re headed in now, it’s without a doubt the right way!”
“Sure! Thank you so much. I’ll do my best!!”
“Okay then! Enough of the serious talk, hahaha. Let’s eat some meat! I have to fly to China after this so I don’t have much time. This trip will be a long one, so I want to make sure I get enough of this cow tongue as I can now. That’s why I’m here today. No hard feelings or anything, but I came here for the meat, not to hear about your problems!” he finished with a dry joke and called over Nakai-san to quickly order our food.
Feeling relieved to have such reliable support, I dug into the delicious food before us. If Umiyama was here too, he would have cleaned the restaurant of all their best meat.
Mr. Fujita quickly ate his thick sliced cow tongue and paid for the meal. “Go get ‘em!” he said cheerfully as he left the restaurant and headed to Haneda Airport.
I stood there in the alley until his taxi disappeared around the corner. The wind was freezing cold that night as I walked towards Roppongi Station, but I was so happy to have unloaded one of the major baggage weighing me down that the cold sharp wind felt like a refreshing breeze.
The next day
I arrived at HQ and hurried through the mountain of end-of-the-year paperwork that was on my desk. Just then, Okuno-san came running up to me with a bewildered look on his face.
“Mr. President! Um… the uh….”
“What’s wrong?”
“I received a call from Mr. Fujita’s Senior Manager Yamaguchi!”
“Ah, that must be about the payment extension. I asked Mr. Fujita yesterday. Don’t tell me Yamaguchi-san is trying to stop it, is he?”
“No, he’s not. The extension is no problem. It’s something else…”
“What else…?”
“Mr. Fujita said that the Fujikon Corporation would cover our remaining funds. All of it. He said to use it as we please…”
“Huh!”
“Apparently he had contacted Yamaguchi-san… and… told him that we were having trouble with funds and to do his best to help us out. He asked me how much more money we needed…”
“What?”
After Mr. Fujita left me for the airport the night before, he called Yamaguchi-san late at night and instructed him to lend us as much as they could.
“Is it really alright for us to accept this loan…?” asked Okuno-san.
“What’ya mean ‘alright’? There will be no ‘us’ if we don’t. Tell them that we gratefully accept.”
“Alright. But if we accept this and still aren’t able to make it through, we’ll completely lose face, won’t we?”
“Yup. We gotta make it through no matter what. We’ll repay the favor with results. No other choice,” I replied. “Okay! Time to dig down deep! Let’s make it happen!”
“Yes sir!”
Okuno-san must have been so happy to be released from his fear and anxiety of running out of funds again. He wiped sweat, that wasn’t really there, from his forehead and rubbed his eyes to cover up his tears.
We had been saved by Mr. Fujita yet again. Not for the second time, but for the third. It was like we had been floating in the dark cold ocean and dozens of ships had sailed by, noticing that we were stranded, but doing nothing. We were heartlessly ignored and falling into despair, that was, until, we were saved by a good friend who had rushed to the rescue. Thanks to the Fujikon Corporation and their emergency loan, we were able to get through the new year and survive yet another shortage at the last moment.
There is something else that I would like to touch on regarding Chief Manager Yamaguchi, so I will write about it here.
After we had managed to borrow the 200 million yen in funds, Yamaguchi-san had called upon Mr. Fujita and had a one on one talk in their company reception room.
He wanted Mr. Fujita to keep the term of his loan to us down to within one year. Usually, Yamaguchi-san was a very emotionally stable person, but this time he began to tear up as he spoke. He said that he agreed to the lending of funds from the Fujikon Corporation to us, but that he wanted to see his company’s finances back to normal while he was still alive.
When Mr. Fujita asked him why, Yamaguchi-san came out and confessed that he didn’t have much more time to live. It turned out that Yamaguchi-san was suffering from terminal cancer. Not only that, he had known that he only had roughly one year left to live.
Nevertheless, Yamaguchi-san hadn’t told anyone in the company about his illness, even Mr. Fujita. He had kept it a complete secret and was planning on dedicating the rest of his life to his career at Fujikon. That was when OWNDAYS came along and he had to consider our request for a loan.
“As long as I am still alive, I won’t allow Fujikon to fall into a financial crisis,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to die in peace unless I knew that no matter who took over as my successor, they would be able to do so in peace.”
Yamaguchi-san had made up his mind that he would carry out his mission. Fortunately, we were able to fully repay our debt, as promised, to Mr. Fujita within a year’s time, allowing Yamaguchi-san to carry out his mission until the end.
When Mr. Fujita visited Yamaguchi-san’s bedside at the hospital, he shared his appreciation for all his hard work over the years and told him that thanks to him, OWNDAYS had made a steady recovery. He promised Yamaguchi-san that they would visit OWNDAYS in Taiwan once he recovered, and shook on it.
Yamaguchi-san was unable to speak at the time, but he was apparently smiling “as bright as the sun” and nodding in acknowledgement. Just a few months later, however, Mr. Fujita’s prayers had gone unheard, and Shoji Yamaguchi passed away at the age of fifty-seven.
Yet another invaluable soul, a fellow soldier who had believed in the revival of OWNDAYS with all his heart, had left this world.
Truly great individuals bring light and life to those around them, just by being there. The thing is, more often than not, we are unable to take notice of that light — or at least its importance. And when that light goes out, we are wrapped in absolute darkness and are finally able to realize how much we have depended on it.
Yamaguchi-san is now resting in peace high above the coast of the Sea of Japan, a place dear to his heart while he was still alive and well, looking and watching over Fujikon and OWNDAYS.
To be continued in the Final Episode

