Rising Sun

Greiman turned to us. Co

Greiman exploded in rage. “Oh, for Christ’s sake. Not again. This is goddamned harassment.”

“Harassment?”

“What would you call it? I’ve had senatorial staffers here, I’ve had the F.B.I. here. Now I have the L.A. police? We’re not criminals. We own a company and we have the right to sell it. Where is Louis?”

The receptionist said, “Mr. Enders is coming.”

Co

Greiman glowered. “What’s your question?”

“How many bidders were there for MicroCon?”

“That’s none of your business,” he said. “Anyway, our agreement with Akai stipulates that we can’t discuss the sale publicly in any way.”

Co

“Look, you have questions, you talk to Enders. I’m busy.” He turned to the woman with blueprints. “Beverly? What have you got for me?”

“I have a revised layout for the boardroom, Mr. Greiman, and tile samples for the washroom. A very nice gray I think you’ll like.”

“Good, good.” He led her down the hallway away from us.

Co

11

“Why does it matter if there were other bidders?” I said, when we were back in the car.

“It goes back to the original question we had,” Co

“In Japan?”

“Exactly.”

“Who will know that?”

“Akai.”

The Japanese receptionist tittered when she saw Co

“One moment, please.” She got up and hurried away, almost ru

Akai Ceramics was located on the fifth floor of a bland office-block in El Segundo. The decor was spare and industrial-looking. From the reception area, we could see into a large space, which was not partitioned: lots of metal desks and people at the phones. The soft click of word processors.

I looked at the office. “Pretty bare.”

“All business,” Co

As we waited, I looked at the people working at the desks. A handful were Japanese. Most were Caucasian. Everyone wore blue suits. There were almost no women.

“In Japan,” Co

The woman came back, and sat at her desk without speaking. Almost immediately, a Japanese man wearing a blue suit came toward us. He had gray hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and a solemn ma

Co

Yoshida led us to his office. It had windows looking toward the airport. The furnishings were austere.

“Would you like coffee, or tea?”

“No, thank you,” Co

“I understand.” He gestured for us to sit down.

“We would like to talk to you about the purchase of MicroCon.”

“Ah, yes. A troubling matter. But I am not aware that it should involve the police.”

“Perhaps it doesn’t,” Co

Mr. Yoshida looked surprised. “Sealed? Not at all. It is all very open, and has been from the begi

Co

“Yes. Certainly.”

“Why is that?”

Mr. Yoshida spread his hands on his desk and spoke slowly. “We understood that MicroCon was a government-owned company. It had been financed in part by funds from the American government. Thirteen percent of capitalization, if I remember. In Japan, that would make it a government-owned company. So naturally we were cautious to enter into negotiations. We do not want to offend. But we received assurance from our representatives in Washington there would be no objection to the purchase.”

“I see.”

“But now there are difficulties, as we feared. I think now we make a cause for Americans. In Washington, some people are upset. We do not wish this.”

“You didn’t expect Washington would make objections?”

Mr. Yoshida gave a diffident shrug. “The two countries are different. In Japan we know what to expect. Here, there is always an individual who may have another opinion, and speak it. But Akai Ceramics does not wish a high profile. It is awkward now.”

Co

“Many in the home office criticize me, for not knowing what would happen. But I tell them, it is impossible to know. Washington has no firm policy. It changes every day, according to the politics.” He smiled and added. “Or, I would say, that is how it seems to us.”

“But you expect the sale to go forward?”

“This I ca

“Discreet,” Co

“Careful. Yes. Wary.” He looked at Co

“A little.”

Yoshida nodded. For a moment he seemed to consider switching to Japanese, but did not. “We wish to have friendly relations,” he said. “These criticisms of us, we feel they are not fair. The Darley-Higgins company has many financial difficulties. Perhaps bad management, perhaps some other reason. I ca

Outside, a big jet took off from the airport. The windows rattled.

Co

Mr. Yoshida frowned. “There were no other bidders. The company was privately offered. Darley-Higgins did not wish to make known their financial difficulties. So we cooperated with them. But now… the press makes many distortions about us. We feel very… kizu tsuita. Wounded?”

“Yes.”

He shrugged. “That is how we feel. I hope you understand my poor English.”

There was a pause. In fact, for the next minute or so, nobody said anything. Co