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Our professional relationship went well from the beginning. We had quite a few rough patches as the entire company reached a number of milestones. It was understandable that citizens loved to hate our bank that went under after accumulated whopping 340 billion JP yen of bad debt. How many times had we seen our bank in the headline of a tabloid paper or two in a week? Until all of us got so used to the way the headlines were laid out. When the paper was folded, undoubted buyers would not see the question mark strategically placed at the end.

There were number of memorable technical glitches as if to validate the skepticism of the general public. One time, the corporate banking system was down for 3 long days and many transactions were not transmitted. The entire infrastructure group was tensed. So was the sales department. It was almost the end of a month. It was the worst time for any system glitch for any business.

Blue chip companies here are old and traditional businesses of ZAIBATSU kind. Generally speaking, bond banks were dealing with that sort of customers for many decades. Of course, banks in general hire university graduates from prestigious schools to have them deal with blue chip companies. I had never seen that many legions of Tokyo University graduates and Gakushuin graduates before I joined the bank. I understood why. They were not anywhere but here! They appeared very much incapable in dealing with adversities, though. What is the use of highly educated workforce in any usual business? There is a saying “what is the use of soldiers in a peace time?” Having said that, I understood their outburst, partially. Why sticking to the sinking ship, if they could go anywhere they would like at any instant. They have, after all, impeccable CV.