The sun sets in the west and the twilight becomes dusk.

Nobunaga Hato, who works part-time as a plumber, was sweating profusely and preparing to leave Mrs. Sakai Naruba's house.

Before leaving, Mrs. Sakai Nariwa, with wet hair and a red face, helped Nobunaga tie up the belt string of his sports pants.

"Nobunaga-kun, why don't you pursue a stable relationship?"

Nobunaga took the towel handed over by Mrs. Sakai Nariwa, wiped his sweat, and said: "...it is immoral to lock a shared bicycle, madam."

“Bike sharing?”

Mrs. Sakai Nariwa did not understand Nobunaga Hato's vocabulary.

……………………

After bidding farewell to Mrs. Sakai Nariwa, Nobunaga went to the Yubari Naganuma Welfare Home again.

Every time it gets good reviews from diners, Nobunaga will go to the welfare home.

When I returned home from the welfare home, it was already dark.

Taro Kifu is cleaning up the mess in the restaurant on the first floor. A large number of empty wine bottles are stacked in the room. It seems that business is good tonight.

"What happened to the miners today?"

Nobunaga looked at the account book and asked doubtfully. Drinks are the restaurant's main source of income, and the drinks here are twice as expensive as those in supermarkets outside. The main diners of Yangquan Restaurant are coal miners, who have a drink after work.

Rarely does such a large amount of booze take place.

"Another mine needs to be closed." Taro Kifu was washing the dishes in the sink.

"Didn't one mine just close last year? There will be no problem in exploiting the remaining mines for another twenty years."

"I heard from Mr. Kamado Goro that the mining cost is too high. Yubari Shintan Mining cannot compete with cheap overseas coal," Taro Kifu replied.

…………

Yubari Coal Mine, and even the entire Ishikari coal mining area, are facing cost problems.

In recent years, rb's main coal importing countries have been Australia and Indonesia.

The main feature of these coal-producing countries is that they mainly use open-pit mining. Compared with underground mining in Yubari City, the cost per ton of coal is much lower, and the production is safer and there are fewer accidents.

There is also the issue of coal type. Yubari City mainly produces thermal coal.

Australia and Indonesia have large amounts of coking coal with higher calorific value.

In particular, coking coal is a scarce coal type, and the coke used in iron smelting is mainly coking coal.

In the 1970s, Japan, the United States, and the Soviet Union were the only three countries in the world with an annual steel production of more than 100 million tons, and they had a huge demand for coking coal.

…………

After the 1970s, oil became the main energy source, and the domestic thermal coal market in rb became increasingly declining.

The mines are dug deeper and deeper, and the cost of mining is getting higher and higher...

Resource-based cities like Yubari basically end up like this.

After mining is completed, it will decline...

…………

Nobunaga remembered the news report from TV Tokyo three years ago.

Yubari City coal miners protested against low welfare benefits.

At that time, Yubari Shintan Mining was applying for the issuance of a 500 million yen corporate bond to purchase new equipment.

Yubari New Coal Mine President Yoshida Takutatsu, when talking about the company's development plan.

He promised to double the wages of coal miners in the next three years, and also stated that the major mines in Yubari (Ishikari Coal Mining District) are of excellent quality. Through the purchase of new equipment and the introduction of new technologies, mining can continue for another fifty years.

Yoshida Tsuda's plan to double his salary in three years has a fatal temptation for miners.

…………

rb is in a period of rapid growth.

As long as the husband works alone, he can support the whole family (it was common to have two children at that time). Not only can the family travel abroad every year, but there is even a good balance.

And those who become "corporate warriors" (referring to those who make the company their home and want to live on the floor of the company) are usually regarded as model workers, and their income is far higher than that of ordinary people.

In this case, losing a job is a devastating blow to the family, and he will be regarded as a useless man.

…………

The doubling of wages in three years hit the pain points of coal workers and successfully calmed their anger.

As a result, Yubari Shintan Mining successfully passed regulatory approval for its additional 500 million yen corporate bond issuance on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

…………

"Three years have passed. Uncle Goro and his friends' income has doubled?" Nobunaga poured a cup of barley tea and drank it in one gulp.

Because of Kifutaro's life experience, Kamado Goro and other coal workers took good care of Kifutaro, and the relationship between the two parties was good.

Because Nobunaga Hato is worried about triggering "capture", usually during business hours, in addition to cooking, he also watches TV, comics, and novels to distract himself and prevent himself from chattering...

Kifu Taro is mainly responsible for chatting with the diners.

"Takutatsu Yoshida is a big liar. I heard that he got a huge kickback when he issued corporate bonds to buy new equipment."

"Those new equipment simply don't have the benefits he originally boasted about."

"Now the mines are closed one after another, the mining industry is laying off workers, people are panicking, and no one is raising wages." Taro Kifu was wiping the water stains on the tableware with a dishcloth.

"Yeah, but Mei mentioned it. She mainly paid attention to the financial report of Yubari Shintan Mining. In the past three years, it has been paying out large amounts of dividends, equity incentives, option awards, etc."

Kifutaro gritted his teeth and talked about this matter bitterly.

Their family and Yoshida Takutatsu, the president of Yubari Shintan Mining, are at odds with each other.

…………

Once upon a time, Kifutaro and Nobunagajiba were drunk.

Kifu Taro mentioned that he wanted to kill Yoshida Takutatsu.

It's just that my younger sister, Mei, has such good grades that she can't stop in a poor place like Hokkaido.

Considering his sister Mei's great future, Kifu Taro gave up revenge for the time being.

……………………

Kifutaro's sister Mei.

She has a beauty comparable to that of an adult at a young age, and both adults and men will stop and take a look. She is so beautiful, as long as she smiles during the summer festival, her hands will be filled with gifts.

A star scout for "A Star Is Born" once found Mei and hoped that she would participate in the selection of the show.

…………

During the 12 years this program was broadcast, the female idols who emerged from it accounted for almost half of the idol world in the Showa era.

As its name suggests, this program has indeed produced many RB national-level idol stars.

In addition to the initial trio of Flowers, there are also groups such as Candies and Pink Lady, the dominant "singing and dancing" groups in the 1970s, as well as Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori, and Kyoko Koizumi.

The original name of "A Star Is Born" is "Star is Born!".

The "スター" here is rb's transliteration of the word "star" in English.

In the 1970s, "スター" was still widely used in the context of rb pop culture.

Its meaning is almost the same as what the Dragon Kingdom currently refers to as "star".

This program is an "audience participation-based singer selection program" produced and broadcast by RB Television (ntv), one of RB's four major private broadcasters.

Different from "seasonal" talent shows such as Dragon Kingdom's Super Girl, this program is more similar to CCTV's "Avenue of Stars" and is a weekly, long-term program.

"A Star Is Born" first aired on October 3, 1971, and aired a total of 619 times until its last episode on September 25, 1983. This is a very long-lived TV show.

…………

Mei knew nothing about singing, but she was invited by the talent scout of "A Star Is Born" solely because of her national-level appearance.

Whenever Nobunaga watches the program "A Star Is Born".

Taro Kifu would proudly mention again and again the scout's praise at that time:

"Your sister is truly a beautiful girl that we only met once in 2000."

…………

The main reason why Mei rejected the program "A Star Is Born" was...


Chapter completed!