(Tokyo)"For I am a sinful man, O Lord"
SECTION I: "All-Night Nippon"
This morning around Tokyo, an NHK radio program presented an interesting guest.
The former president of Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc., who was once a very popular DJ in Japan.
Indeed, until 36 years ago or so, he was called "Kame-chan" as he was a midnight radio show host. The program was called "All-Night Nippon" or something like that. From late 1960's to early 1970's, Kame-chan made his great way into the stardom of the midnight radio show aimed at young people, mostly those who were studying hard midnight for university entrance examinations.
After leaving the radio personality position, he was consistently promoted in the company management to be president of Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. Then he stood in the spotlight again in 2005, as Livedoor, a kind of IT-related company, tried to buy out the radio company. The target of Livedoor was however stocks of a great amount of Fuji Television Network, Inc. which the radio company held. Fuji TV had its subsidiary company, namely Nippon Broadcasting System, buy and hold its stocks as a management strategy.
It was a very controversial deal. The whole Japanese society hotly debated this M&A transaction, sine Livedoor purchased those stocks in a very doubtful manner and in an illegal way of book keeping.
And, it is said that Lehman Brothers financially helped Livedoor pursue their ambitious scheme of buying up the shares of Nippon Broadcasting System and Fuji TV.
it is said that Lehman Brothers offered 800 million dollars (80 billion yen) to Livedoor as funds to take the management right of the mainstream media company.
However, this scheme ended in the air with so much social objection and doubts rising on the Livedoor's business.
Yet, Livedoor could sell those stocks at higher prices to Fuji TV; Lehman Brothers also got big returns.
Moreover, many young people in Japan started to regard those involved in this incident as a kind of hero, since they got big profits through financial transactions. Young women also wanted to personally access foreign financial businesses, such as Lehman Brothers.
(Even a female TV newscaster looked excited on visiting the office of such a company in a new skyscraper in Tokyo.)
This was the situation around 2005 in Japan, especially in Tokyo.
Nonetheless, a year or so later, the president of Livedoor was arrested and prosecuted for illegal money handling.
And, last year, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt on Wall Street, and its subsidiary in Tokyo was virtually absorbed by Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
And, Kame-chan, having pulled through the challenge in 2005, vacated the presidency, returning to his old workplace, a radio studio. So, NHK interviewed him in the early morning program, but not as a hero of 2005 but of around 1970.
I also once listened to Kame-chan in "All-Night Nippon." He was sophisticated. As I was not in Tokyo in those days, I thought that a Tokyo announcer was critically different from local radio announcers. "Kame-chan" was truly specifically sophisticated. So, I memorized him.
This morning, I found why. Kame-chan said that he had travelled to California to study media business for one year. It was when three years had passed since his entrance to the radio broadcasting company.
So, he came back to Japan to perform a radio program host in the midnight, targeting mainly high-school students or so studying hard at home late at midnight.
Finally, 36 years after leave from the table with a microphone above it, he came back still with an atmosphere of the California media business of late 1960's.
Through the radio this morning, he really sounded almost preciously as I had memorized decades ago. It was the voice of "All-Night Nippon," though its sophistication has no meaning any more for me, personally, since the show is still going on though without Lehman Brothers on Wall Street and its subsidiary in Tokyo.
SECTION II: The Lehmans
A little information on the Lehmans.
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The Lehmans? They’ve Moved On. Sad? A Little.
Troubled Bank Is No Longer the Family’s Business
By Marissa Brostoff
Published September 18, 2008, issue of September 26, 2008.
...
The descendants of Mayer and Emanuel Lehman, two of the German Jewish brothers who lent the firm its name in the 1850s, remain a tightly knit clan ensconced in New York’s upper crust. But they have not been actively involved in the company since 1969, and family members say that they and their relatives are not even shareholders.
In a decision that shook Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, once a major investment bank, filed for bankruptcy on September 15.
“It’s not happy to see one’s family’s name in a situation like this, but I don’t think it’s going to in any way change their lifestyles,” said John Loeb, a great-grandson of Mayer Lehman.
Loeb’s lifestyle has not changed much in his 78 years: He still lives in his father’s mansion in Purchase, New York. A philanthropist and investment banker who served as a United States ambassador to Denmark, Loeb celebrated a recent birthday with a walk down a red carpet at Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill’s ancestral home.
...
http://www.forward.com/articles/14237/
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Now, how can we connect modern American Judaists, like the Lehmans, to the glory of Judaism and Israel?
Or, to what do they belong? To their material success in New York rather than to the glory of their ancestors of more than 2000 years ago?
If so, who in the world is more "Judaist-like" than American Judaists, I have to consider?
*** *** *** ***
(To be continued...)
(Love will keep us forgather, meaning notre amour, nous resterons ensemble, ma chère.
http://www.just-oldies.com/1975/love_will_keep_us_together.htm)
Luk 5:3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Luk 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
Luk 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
Luk 5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
Luk 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
Luk 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.