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Afterward, it was a series of prime ministers from the LDP.
    As for the Yakuza, they were the intermediaries who greased the wheels. For the proper remuneration, they ensured that the LDP remained in power by brokering each prime minister’s constituency. For the proper remuneration, they saw to it that the ‘political contributions’ the keiretsu made influenced the politicians to enact legislation favorable to business. And so it went for decades, an endless wheel of staggeringly swift progress and deeply entrenched corruption.
    Until the great recession of 1991 brought everything Japan, Inc. had worked toward to a screeching halt.
    Nicholas was about to go down to R&D when his Kami buzzed him. This time, he saw Mikio Okami’s face in the screen. Even with the fine lines at the corners of his eyes, accentuated now by the exhaustion evident on his face, he looked at least ten years younger than his ninety years.
    ‘Nicholas,’ he said without the usual ritual of formality, ‘I have momentous news.’ Without anybody else knowing about it, Nicholas had given him a prototype Kami so the two could keep in touch at all hours. CyberNet Communications were far more secure than most cellular phone conversations. ‘Tomorrow morning the prime minister will announce his resignation.’
    Nicholas, feeling suddenly deflated, sat down on the edge of his burlwood desk. ‘That makes six in just over three years.’
    Okami nodded. ‘Yes. As I predicted, without a strong LDP, the coalition of lesser parties cannot hold the center. There are too many different and mutually exclusive agendas for a true consensus to form. The Socialists, especially, have proven difficult, and this has weakened every new prime minister because he has been, in one form or another, something of a compromise.’
    ‘What are we to do now?’
    ‘That’s why I’ve called. This latest resignation will come as a complete shock to all parties. There is no one waiting in the wings, no strong foreign minister or trade representative ready to step up as has been the case before. There will be a power vacuum. This means political chaos and we cannot allow that.’
    ‘I think we should meet.’
    Okami was nodding. ‘My thoughts precisely. The Karasumori Jinja the day after tomorrow at seven P.M. I will be tied up in urgent meetings until then.’
    ‘Agreed.’
    ‘Good.’ Okami looked visibly relieved. ‘How is the reception going?’
    ‘I’m about to find out.’
    ‘Good luck.’
    Nicholas thanked him, then disconnected from the Net. He left his office, heading through the reception area, toward the private chairman’s elevator that would whisk him at high speed down to mezzanine level. He glanced at his watch. No time now to stop at R&D on the way down. Maybe he could break away during dinner so he could check on the CyberNet data transfer. As he fitted his key into the slot in the scrolled-bronze elevator door, he again heard Okami’s voice as the Kaisho had told him the real reason he had called in Nicholas’s debt of honor:
    When you came to me last year and I saw how full of hate you were for the Yakuza, I could find no way to tell you the truth about your father. That he and I – the Kaisho, the head of all the Yakuza clans – were partners from 1946 until his death in 1963 in the creation of the new Japan. Then I was obliged to carry on his vision virtually alone.
    Your father was the most remarkable visionary, and because you are his son, I finally summoned you to my side. Not to protect me as I told you – you have now seen that I am well capable of doing that with my own resources. It was merely the trigger to begin your healing, first, your rage at Koei’s mistake, and because of it, your unreasoning hatred of the Yakuza. So you could begin to understand the truth that lies behind your father’s carefully composed mask. And for you to accept that truth. It is time for you to continue the work Colonel Linnear and I planned