Today we know that it was the end of bubble era. But, we were not able to understand what was going on in Japan at that time. It was our first experience in our life.
In 1991, Kazuo Arakawa, president and representative director of Sapporo Breweries Limited was faced with a tough decisin on what the right step was for the company.
An urban redevelopment project in Ebisu that the company had started for developing the second line business and for making people’s life more enjoyable in 1985 had arrived at the contract agreement with general contractors. The total costs had amounted to about 3 billion dollars, which was twice as much as the initial budgets.
However, the several signs of a sharp economic recession, together with the real estate market crash, had showed up. It would leave Sapporo owing massive costs that would hurt profitability of the project; moreover, the failure of the project would cause a significant loss to the company. The board directors would be meeting soon. Arakawa decided whether he would cross the Rubicon, now.