Chapter 72: The whirlwind of love, opening up the whole territory
At first, the formation of the two major paper-making groups, Zhongyuan and Donghai, made Japanese paper-making enterprises nervous for a while. However, Ai Paper Company, the predecessor of the Northern Paper Group, suddenly emerged and single-handedly fought against the two major paper-making groups in the Beijing-Tianjin market.
(The three companies were exhausted, but they squeezed out a large number of small civilian paper brands). Japanese paper companies once gloated about their misfortune. Unexpectedly, before they could fight to the death, the three parties suddenly stopped, and there was a tacit understanding that they would no longer initiate actions against each other.
The offensive was to attack rapidly and violently back to back.
Japan has been most influenced by Britain in modern times. They are all outlying island countries, and they all yearn for the mainland balance of power policy. Britain has always stirred up trouble on the European continent, so it can have both sides. When Napoleon was strong, he united with Germany to kill France, and when Hitler was strong, he united with France to kill Germany. And in the
In the eyes of Japanese political and economic circles, the most ideal state of China should be to split into seven or eight pieces, thus giving Japan the opportunity to mediate from both sides, and then take over the Central Plains.
Therefore, what Japan likes to see the most is the infighting among Chinese companies, and what they fear the most is the unity of Chinese companies.
At the critical moment when China's three major paper-making groups reached a tacit understanding and launched a rapid attack, in October 1999, Japan's new Minister of Trade and Industry Takashi Fukaya visited China and led the cadres of the Living Industry Bureau to visit the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry. During the visit
Not only did they ask questions about Japanese paper companies entering the Chinese market, they also shamelessly linked it to China's WTO accession negotiations, threatening that China must open its civilian paper market, otherwise the WTO accession negotiations would not be guaranteed to go smoothly, etc.
Director Zeng, who has an in-depth understanding of the strength of China's three major paper-making groups, especially the ambitions of the Northern Paper Group, replied calmly: China, like Japan, is a market economy country. We will gradually open up the domestic civilian paper market and eventually become a civilian paper market like Japan.
A free-flowing market welcomes paper companies, including Japanese companies, to invest in China.
After getting a satisfactory answer, Ryuji Fukaya made a special trip to the civilian paper market before returning to Japan. As a result, his face was dark until he returned to Japan. Chinese civilian paper, with the same weight and thickness, is only as expensive as similar products in Japan.
one third!
What difference does it make if the market is open or not? It can’t defeat Chinese companies!
It doesn’t matter if you can’t defeat Chinese companies. What worries Takashi Fukaya most is that Director Zeng said: China is a market economy country like Japan. China will open its market and eventually become a market for free circulation of civilian paper like Japan. This is
This means that while Japan is asking China to open its market, China is also asking Japan to open its market. If Japan breaks the contract and blocks Chinese civilian paper from entering Japan, it will have to make concessions to China in the WTO accession negotiations. And if Japan does not want to make concessions in other areas,
Then the Japanese market will face the fierce impact of massive amounts of ordinary Chinese civilian paper.
The then Prime Minister of Japan, Keizo Obuchi, specifically listened to Takashi Fukaya's report. Facing Chinese companies with a large professional and cheap labor force, Japanese companies were at a very obvious disadvantage in the low-end labor-intensive industry of civilian paper. No matter Oji Paper
, how big are Dawang Paper and other companies? The profit margins in the civilian paper field are far smaller than those in China.
Moreover, now that Japanese paper companies have entered the Chinese market to invest and build factories, the opportunity to take advantage of China's cheap labor has been lost. The speed of investment and production of civilian paper is very fast. It only takes one month from equipment installation to finished product. Among China's three major paper-making groups,
When they start to conquer the country and build branch production bases, no matter how quickly Japanese companies move, they still need to go through negotiations between the two countries, negotiate with the investing local government, etc. before they can actually invest in and build factories, which will be later than Chinese companies at the earliest.
About half a year, and no matter which region or city in China, Japanese civilian paper companies will face fierce price wars as soon as their products come off the production line. Especially when there is an invisible cooperative relationship between China's three major paper-making groups,
Any Japanese paper company that wants to develop in China will have to face a joint attack from the above three. This is a life-or-death outcome!
Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo was very worried and was in a dilemma. In the end, because he had to coordinate many matters in the complicated China's WTO accession negotiations, he had to temporarily stick to the current policy and observe carefully. China has promised to open the civilian paper market, and Japan certainly has no way to close it in turn.
market.
In March 2000, after Northern Paper Group made careful preparations, the first ship carrying Chinese toilet paper docked at Tokyo Port!
This kind of toilet paper with the logo "爱の" is not only a cute light pink color, but also added with natural plant herbs, and is also printed with a complex cherry blossom pattern, especially the price is only half of similar products in Japan! Japanese people
At first I thought it was discounted toilet paper, so Ai no toilet paper was sold out in major supermarkets in Tokyo within two days! After the successful launch of the Northern Paper Group, subsequent civilian paper transport ships formed a line in the East China Sea, one after another.
Continuously, it has landed in major ports in Japan, setting off a craze for "love" civilian paper throughout March. This whirlwind of love is quickly sold through ministop, 7-11, FamilyMart, Lawson and other convenience stores dotted across the island.
Spreading nationwide!
The products of Japan's three major paper-making companies have no advantages, and the entire Japanese paper-making industry has no power to fight back. Wherever the whirlwind of love goes, it is occupied. The economic data of Japan's three major paper-making companies throughout March have shrunk to a despairing rate.
.
The three major companies that wanted to jump off the building had no choice but to put pressure on the Japanese government through various channels every day.
Japanese Minister of Trade and Industry Ryuji Fukaya, who made the wrong decision, was forced to take all the responsibility. One month after the whirlwind of love, he submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister on April 1. The next day, Keizo Obuchi, who was also involved in this decision,
The Prime Minister suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was admitted to Juntendo Hospital in Tokyo for treatment.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki, who acted as prime minister, lacked prestige. Within the ruling party, opposition parties took the opportunity to launch a battle for the prime minister, and the Japanese government was in chaos. Japan's three major paper companies were in a hurry but could not do anything. Throughout April, Japan
Government decision-makers are in a state of shutdown.
And using this month, the Northern Paper Group adjusted its production capacity in an environment where everything went smoothly, compressed the supply from other markets, and tried its best to conquer the Japanese market. It even secretly mobilized part of the productivity of the Zhongyuan Paper Group and the Donghai Paper Group.
When the month passed, Northern Paper Group had opened up the entire territory of Japan!
Although there are still some die-hard fans of the product brands of the three major Japanese paper companies, Chinese civilian paper with the same quality, better image, and half the price has almost firmly established its foothold, and is only a few steps away from defeating the Japanese paper companies.
A matter of time.
By May, the chaos at the decision-making level of the Japanese government had finally stabilized for the time being, and when it was ready to resume operation, the civilian departments of Japanese paper companies were on the verge of tears, and had to use their last efforts to force Japanese high-level officials to negotiate with China and exchange the terms of the WTO accession agreement.
Related provisions to drive Chinese civil paper out of the Japanese market!
The Prime Minister of Japan, who is in internal and external difficulties, frequently meets with officials from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry and representatives of Japanese paper companies even when he is hospitalized. However, this involves very complicated negotiations with China on WTO accession, as well as steel, chemical industry, complete equipment, etc.
The diverse negotiation content cannot be solved with a simple sentence.
At a tense moment when Japan's three major paper companies were on the verge of rage, at 6 p.m. on May 14, 1999, the Japanese Prime Minister's official residence in Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, announced to the world: "Prime Minister Obuchi has announced at 4:7 p.m.
