Merger foretold a year ago in salaryman manga

Written by changthai11 on Sunday, November 9th, 2008

Merger foretold a year ago in salaryman manga

The planned business tie-up between Panasonic Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. was first dreamed up about a year ago, but not in the boardrooms of either company.

Many people read about the alliance before it reached the newspapers in a long-running manga strip depicting the rise of fictional businessman Kosaku Shima through the ranks of a large corporation.

“Senmu Shima Kosaku” (Managing Director Kosaku Shima) ran a storyline in which Hatsushiba Electric, a major electric firm based on Panasonic, acquired a stake in Goyo Electric, a competitor modeled on Sanyo, to form the conglomerate, Hatsushiba Goyo Holdings.

The writer and illustrator of the manga, Kenshi Hirokane, used to be a Panasonic employee.

“I didn’t think it would be good for Sanyo, a firm with world-class battery and other technologies, to be broken up with the input of foreign funds and other investment,” Hirokane said. “So, about a year ago, I came up with the storyline of Hatsushiba coming to Goyo’s aid.”

In the manga, Shima successfully integrates the firms and is promoted from managing director to president. This prompted a change in the strip’s title to “Shacho Shima Kosaku” (President Kosaku Shima).

The strip runs in the weekly comic magazine Morning, published by Kodansha Ltd.

“Shima didn’t lay people off and managed to keep the Goyo brand after the tie-up,” Hirokane said. “In the alliance between Panasonic and Sanyo, I hope [the companies] move forward with integration while preserving jobs.” (Nov. 9, 2008)