Boss Huang truly hadn't expected that after only a few days back from America, he would have to rush off to Japan again.
However, for the sake of his company's development and its lithography machines, Huang He still had to make the trip to Japan.
Contrary to the common perception that ASML of the Netherlands dominates the lithography machine industry, in the early 2000s, Japanese companies like Nikon and Canon actually held the leading positions worldwide in this sector.
In fact, Nikon and Canon were among the very first companies globally to venture into lithography machine manufacturing. Initially, lithography machines bore little difference from cameras, and with minor modifications, even an old camera could be converted into a lithography machine, meaning Nikon and Canon faced no entry barriers into the industry.
It wasn't until before the 1980s that the lithography machine industry was a very niche market. No one anticipated that lithography machines would eventually become crucial for global science and even a nation's future.
At that time, the global annual orders for lithography machines were only a few dozen units. The volume was too small to sustain the businesses, and Nikon and Canon's primary markets were still their cameras and camcorders, which had much broader sales. Thus, during this period, American lithography machine companies still held the dominant position.
However, following the 1980s and the widespread adoption of the personal computer concept, along with the emergence of companies like Apple and Microsoft, personal computers rapidly entered households, creating immense demand for chips. The lithography machine market, as a natural consequence, experienced a period of explosive growth.
This surge continued until 2002. With the introduction of more types of electronic products almost every year, and each high-end electronic product requiring chip support, the market's demand for chips grew increasingly larger.
Not to mention the advent of mobile phones, where high-performance chips could dictate the entire mobile phone market. Consequently, by 2002, a market that once saw fewer than 50 units annually had expanded to around 2,000 units, with each unit priced at a minimum of 10 million US dollars.
Nikon and Canon's aggressive push into the American market in the late 1980s led to a surge in their market share, with Canon and Nikon eventually each capturing 30% of the lithography machine industry's orders.
Yet, it's hard to imagine, but this market had also reached a plateau because lithography machine technology had not seen a breakthrough for over a decade. Consequently, even the most advanced lithography machines were no longer astronomically priced at over one hundred million US dollars per set.
The most advanced 120-nanometer lithography machines now cost only around 40 million US dollars, while the 218-nanometer machines, the kind Huang He wished to purchase, were generally priced at around 15 million US dollars in the market.
These were the prices quoted by Nikon and Canon. A price of 10 million US dollars was something only companies like ASML could offer. Due to their technological backwardness and inferior product quality compared to Japanese firms, they could only win by engaging in price wars.
Considering his company's chip demand was not for product-level applications, purchasing cheaper ASML lithography machines would naturally be the most suitable choice. However, he hadn't anticipated that ASML would cancel Jiangnan's order, forcing Huang He to come to Japan to buy lithography machines.
Logically, Huang He shouldn't have needed to come personally. He could have sent a procurement manager to make the purchase directly. After all, Japanese lithography machines were merely more expensive, not unobtainable.
An additional 30 million US dollars for ten lithography machines was a price difference that the ostentatious Boss Huang might have been able to accept.
But the problem was, Huang He genuinely could not accept it. He could tolerate others fleecing him, but he absolutely could not allow the Japanese to fleece him.
Moreover, Boss Huang not only refused to let the Japanese fleece him but intended to turn the tables and fleece them instead.
Thus, Boss Huang personally traveled to Japan and immediately extended a meeting invitation to Nikon, the current leader in Japan's lithography machine industry.
"Jiangnan Group? Huang He, what kind of company is this?" Upon seeing the news, Kimura Makoto, the president of Nikon (Kimura Makoto assumed the presidency of Nikon in 2010, but the author couldn't find the name of his predecessor, so he simply advanced his tenure. It's just a name, so readers shouldn't mind.), asked his head of intelligence.
"Yes! Jiangnan Group is a company from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. They started with leather goods in the 1980s and became the number one leather product manufacturer in Wenzhou in the late 1990s. However, due to the unfortunate demise of the previous president and the rapid expansion under the new president, Huang He, they suffered a major setback in the leather industry."
"But this new president, Huang He, is actually a very formidable figure. He innovatively introduced blind boxes, sparking a blind box craze in China, which led to the company expanding more than tenfold within a year. Coupled with his highly effective personal marketing, Huang He himself has become one of the most well-known private entrepreneurs in China. Simultaneously, Jiangnan Group ranks among the top 50 companies in China by capital."
"Their main business currently includes blind boxes, some online products, and game agency operations!"
The head of intelligence recited the information they had gathered about Huang He with great fluency. It wasn't that the intelligence chief was so exceptional as to have the data on all famous entrepreneurs worldwide stored in his mind.
Instead, it was because Huang He's letter was transmitted to President Kimura Makoto through the intelligence department. He could guess with certainty that Kimura Makoto would inquire about Huang He, so he had spent two hours beforehand collecting and memorizing all the data, then skillfully recited it before his boss.
"Yoshi!" Kimura Makoto's face displayed a look of puzzlement. "A manufacturer of leather goods, blind boxes, and computer games. He should be talking to Bandai about cooperation, why is he coming to us at Nikon?"
"I apologize, I am not clear. However, according to Miss Hu Jing, the secretary who accompanied Mr. Huang He, Mr. Huang He possesses critical information and cooperation opportunities that will affect Nikon's future for the next 20 years. He earnestly hopes to meet with you."
"Miss Hu Jing also stated that if you refuse Mr. Huang He, you would be refusing Nikon's future, and they would immediately turn to Canon!"
"Canon!" Upon hearing this name, Kimura Makoto's temple involuntarily twitched. He originally had no interest in meeting this Huang He. After all, their businesses were in entirely different sectors, and the pride of being Nikon's president made him uninterested in meeting Huang He at all!
In Kimura Makoto's view, any one of his company's standing directors or even department heads would suffice to receive Huang He. His personal appearance would be akin to a head of state meeting a mayor of another country, a gross disparity.
However, when Huang He mentioned Canon, Kimura Makoto couldn't help but feel some discomfort.
Kimura Makoto did not believe Huang He's claim of possessing intelligence that would change Nikon's future for 20 years. How could a developing country possibly hold information that would impact a top company in an advanced nation?
But what if? What if this person genuinely possessed important intelligence? Even if it couldn't influence the future for 20 years, what about intelligence that could cause Nikon trouble for one or two years?
And what if that intelligence fell into Canon's hands?
Therefore, no matter how uncomfortable Kimura Makoto felt, he had to consider meeting Huang He.
"Schedule him to meet me at my office tomorrow!" Kimura Makoto pondered for a moment and then said, "No, not at the company. Go book a private room at a nearby Ginza bar. I will meet him there tomorrow evening."
"Remember, do not use the company's name, but use my personal name!" Kimura Makoto instructed his secretary.
"Yes!" the secretary replied respectfully. Kimura Makoto using his personal name instead of the company's name indicated that he still felt Boss Huang was not worthy of meeting him as an equal at the company's official level, thus necessitating a private meeting.
This way, their conversation would be a private one, unable to escalate to a corporate level. This represented a small piece of Kimura Makoto's personal pride.
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The next evening, Kimura Makoto met Huang He at the Ginza bar as arranged. Despite his inner pride, Kimura Makoto did not delay by even a second. He adhered to this principle, which was also one of his sources of pride.
"Mr. Huang, what important intelligence do you have to discuss with me?" Kimura Makoto sat cross-legged on the tatami mat, his back perfectly straight. Although shorter than Huang He, he managed to project an air of looking down on Huang He.
But the problem was, this demeanor seemed completely ineffective in front of Huang He. Huang He sat languidly on the tatami, leaning casually against a nearby wall in a manner decidedly un-Japanese. Though he wore a smile, it made Kimura Makoto frown deeply, and even a nearby server knitted his brows.
This Ginza bar was a frequent choice for many corporate executives in the vicinity. Over time, the servers here had developed discerning tastes, so Huang He's relaxed posture, appearing like a playboy, was something neither a magnate like Kimura Makoto nor an ordinary server could appreciate.
However, this server also had something that made him uncomfortable: the secretary, Hu Jing, who knelt behind Huang He. Her beauty made the server so envious he gnashed his teeth. Even Kimura Makoto couldn't help but steal glances from time to time. It was impossible not to, as this woman was simply too beautiful.
"If he utters even a single word of nonsense, I'll turn around and leave immediately!" Kimura Makoto thought to himself, stealing another glance at Hu Jing.
"Five days ago, ASML of the Netherlands rejected our company's procurement plan!" Huang He slowly began to speak.
Note that Huang He spoke himself, not through any translator, meaning Huang He himself possessed fluent Japanese.
Ahem, this was primarily due to Huang He's three years of work at Bandai. As it was a Japanese company, he inevitably had frequent contact with the Japanese language. Moreover, in his most idealistic phase, Huang He genuinely had plans to study abroad in Japan, giving him a foundation in Japanese. Therefore, Huang He's Japanese was perfectly adequate for everyday communication.
As for whether this would arouse suspicion, even those closest to Huang He could not claim to understand him completely, nor did they know he hadn't understood Japanese before. After all, Huang He's parents and wife were no longer alive. Leng Zhiruo had limited contact with her brother-in-law before this, and Huang He had spoken Japanese in front of her several times, leading her to believe that Huang He had always known Japanese.
As for outsiders, it was not a significant issue for Huang He to know a foreign language.