Chapter 31: Rental Stores and “Contract Machines”

There are two rather “counter-intuitive” things in Japan: first, Japanese law prohibits prostitution, and second, Japanese law also prohibits gang members from killing each other.

Both of these are areas that the Japanese police don’t really want to manage, and the public doesn’t particularly condemn.

But just as the prerequisite for the Japanese police not cracking down on prostitution is “this establishment provides insertive services,” the prerequisite for the Japanese police not cracking down on Yakuza conflicts is—you can’t let it become a public incident.

The fire at the pachinko parlor in the southeast district of Urawa had clearly crossed the red line.

The Japanese police couldn’t ignore it even if they wanted to.

Media reports stated that the fire had caused five deaths (gunshot victims were recorded by the police as fire deaths), three serious injuries, and more than twenty minor injuries.
Although the local Urawa police tried their best to conceal it, some gamblers who were in the pachinko parlor at the time still revealed to reporters that they had heard dense gunfire before the fire.

Coupled with the media capturing photos of the police arresting a young man suspected of being the Takada-gumi’s heir, Takada Toru, at the scene, many people began to connect the fire with the recent conflict between the Takada-gumi and the Yamagami-gumi.

The conflict between the two Yakuza organizations had been going on for over a month, and now it had even escalated to arson.
Are you police going to do anything about it or not!

Under the manipulation of some invisible hand, public opinion began to condemn the inaction of the Urawa police.
It was of no use even when the spokesperson for the Urawa police came forward to apologize.

Urawa, Urawa Station, Oshin-ya.

Oshin-ya was the first audio-visual product rental store opened by the Yamagami-gumi.
The name was clearly riding on the popularity of the hit NHK drama “Oshin.”

That drama was said to be adapted from the entrepreneurial story of the founder of Yaohan, Wada Katsu.
It could be considered a highly successful version of “Dumplings Queen.”
In any case, the Japanese of this era loved to watch it.

In this era where Oshin was a huge hit, seeing the name “Oshin,” the Japanese would naturally think of the drama it represented, and it also made it easy to understand the main business of Oshin-ya.

Oshin-ya not only rented out television and movie video cassettes, but also music cassettes and game cartridges, and sold newspapers and magazines on the side.
This was the traditional business model for audio-visual rental stores at the time.

Although this store was funded by Yamagami Nobuo, he had Seiko preside over the opening ceremony.
The intention was naturally to consolidate Seiko’s position as Wakagashira.

“Pick some underlings who look more presentable and are serious about their work to work in the store,” Seiko said as she casually toured the shop.
“Not the kind who like to harass female customers or have sticky fingers and want to steal things.”

“Don’t you worry, Miss Seiko,” the boss of the Ishiwatari-gumi, Ishiwatari Takashi, happily assured Seiko.
“If they dare to not be serious about their work or have sticky fingers, I’ll personally chop off their fingers.”

Besides Murakami Eishi, Ishiwatari Takashi was the first high-ranking member of the Yamagami-gumi to actively align himself with Seiko.
As a return of favor, Seiko entrusted the management of the first audio-visual product rental store to the Ishiwatari-gumi.

Other high-ranking members of the Yamagami-gumi might look down on audio-visual rental stores for not making money fast enough, but Ishiwatari Takashi wouldn’t.
His Ishiwatari-gumi’s main business used to be collecting protection money and taking a commission on debt collection, which was the type of small group in the Yamagami-gumi that did a lot of work for little income.
Even if Oshin-ya could only make a little money, Ishiwatari Takashi was quite satisfied.

Of course, it was unlikely to lose money.
If nothing else, Oshin-ya was located right at the exit of Urawa Station.
With such a good location advantage, unless they opened a pay toilet to compete with the public toilets in the station, they would definitely not lose money.

Seiko walked to the staircase and was about to go up to the second floor to have a look when Ishiwatari Takashi quickly stopped her.

“Miss Seiko, the second floor isn’t finished with renovations yet,” Ishiwatari Takashi explained with an embarrassed smile.

‘No wonder it opened so quickly,’ Seiko nodded.

The second floor of the rental store was the “viewing area.”
The so-called “viewing area” was a series of small cubicles, each three to four square meters in size.
Inside each cubicle was a television and a video recorder, where customers could watch the tapes they had rented, and of course—stay overnight.
This was an innovative business idea proposed by Seiko, based on the “CD viewing stores” that would become common in Japan in the future.

For one thousand yen, you could find a private place to stay for the night.
In Japan, during a period of economic growth, there might not be much demand for this, but once the bubble burst, this demand would rise sharply.

Thinking of business innovation, Seiko suddenly asked again, “Do you have any promotions for the new opening?”

“Promotions?” Ishiwatari Takashi was stunned for a moment before saying, “We’ve arranged for cute female staff to hand out flyers at the station exit.”

“Is being cute enough?”

Seiko rolled her eyes speechlessly.

“That’s not attractive at all.
Haven’t you thought of any new ideas?”

“What new ideas?” Ishiwatari Takashi was a little confused.

Seiko pondered for a moment, then suddenly raised a finger and said, “What do you think of a promotion like ‘rent a video cassette, get a free video recorder’?”

“Th-this…”

Ishiwatari Takashi’s expression was strange.

What’s the price of a video recorder?
What’s the price of a video cassette?
He’d only ever heard of buying a video recorder and getting a free video cassette, where had he ever heard of renting a video cassette and getting a free video recorder?

Ishiwatari Takashi’s expression clearly showed that he suspected Seiko had lost her mind.
After a long moment, he said:

“That’s… not a good idea, is it?”

“How much is the cheapest home video recorder right now?” Seiko asked.

“About… one hundred and fifty thousand yen?” Ishiwatari Takashi recalled the memory of buying his own video recorder.

“How much do we earn from renting out one video cassette?” Seiko asked again.

“If it’s returned the next day, about three hundred to eight hundred yen,” Ishiwatari Takashi said. “Next-day return” was the most common practice for video rental stores.

“Which means, if we calculate it at five hundred yen, the customer only needs to rent three hundred video cassettes, and we can basically break even,” Seiko said.

“That’s true…” Ishiwatari Takashi nodded hesitantly.

“So, you can advertise it like this: as long as a customer rents fifteen video cassettes at once, they can get a free one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-yen video recorder.”

Seiko explained to Ishiwatari Takashi.

“But in reality, it requires the customer to sign a twenty-month agreement, renting at least fifteen video cassettes each month.
If they break the contract during this period, the customer will have to pay to buy out the video recorder.
Fifteen video cassettes for a video recorder, would you make that trade?”

This was actually the same tactic used by telecommunication operators in later generations to sell contract phones, shifting most of the cost to the monthly plan, making the phone look extremely cheap or even completely free.

Fifteen video cassettes for a video recorder?

Ishiwatari Takashi put himself in that position and thought about it.
He was indeed a little tempted!

“But…” Ishiwatari Takashi was still a little worried and asked, “What if those people take the video recorder and then just disappear?”

“Are you stupid?” Seiko pursed her lips.
“You don’t have to give them the video recorder on the spot.
You can have them leave their home address and then deliver the video recorder to their door.
If they can’t provide a fixed address, you don’t sign a contract with them.
For those with a fixed address… you already know where they live, are you still afraid you can’t collect the debt?
Isn’t that the specialty of your Ishiwatari-gumi?”

“That’s right!” Ishiwatari Takashi slapped his palm.
A sense of admiration for Seiko welled up in his heart.
To be able to use the traditional skills of the Ishiwatari-gumi even when opening a rental store, this was what you called knowing how to use people’s talents.

Seiko continued, “You can also compile a ‘film list’ every month and send it to the homes of these customers whose addresses you know.
They can pre-order the video cassettes they want to watch at home, and then you provide a home delivery service.
Anyway, your Ishiwatari-gumi has a lot of idle people, it’s a waste not to use them…”

Ishiwatari Takashi carefully noted down Seiko’s ideas, planning to try them out immediately after the official opening.

As Seiko was talking, she suddenly saw a familiar beautiful girl with long, straight black hair enter the store from outside.

“Saori, what are you doing here?” Seiko asked.

“Uncle Ishiwatari,” Saori first smiled and greeted Ishiwatari Takashi, then said to Seiko, “Grandpa Yamagami and my father said there are two things they need to tell you as soon as possible, so I came to pass on the message.”

“What is it?” Seiko asked.

“The first thing is, the chief of the Urawa City Police Department has been dismissed, and a new chief will be appointed soon.
The second thing…” Saori leaned in close to Seiko’s ear and whispered, “The Yamaguchi-gumi and the Inagawa-kai might have had a falling out in their negotiations.”