How a Japanese Inn, A Favorite of Royalty, Fell to Foreigners
Bad Debts Forced the Sale,
But Buyer Goldman Sachs
Had to Use All Its Charm
YAMASHIRO ONSEN, Japan -- For nearly four centuries, Shunjiro Nagai's family jealously guarded the hot-spring water running through this remote spa resort in central Japan. The prized mineral water flowed into the cedar bathtubs in the village's traditional inns, or ryokan, delighting guests coming for a relaxing soak. As the head of the village's spring-water cooperative, the 61-year-old Mr. Nagai had an important mission: To keep the water exclusively in the hands of his family and 10 other families running the village's oldest inns, barring any outsiders.
Then last year, an indebted neighbor's inn called Shiroganeya, or White Silver Inn, was put on the block, giving a potential outsider access to the sacred water discovered by a high priest in the eighth century. The top bidder was "foreign capital" with a name Mr. Nagai barely recognized: Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
After plotting for months to drive out the foreigner and threatening to sue, Mr. Nagai did something he had never dreamed he would do: For the good of the village, he persuaded his neighbors to accept the outsider's bid for the inn and its mineral water.
"It was a very painful decision," says Mr. Nagai, who sports slicked-back hair and a wispy mustache. "In the end, what mattered was to keep the light burning at Shiroganeya, whether the buyer was an outsider or not." The 380-year-old inn, with its moss garden and teahouse, is a national treasure. A favorite of Japan's imperial family, the inn in recent times has had as a guest Crown Prince Naruhito.
Mr. Nagai's change of heart shows just how far Western-style capitalism has come in Japan. As the nation slowly emerges from more than a decade of economic slump, many of Japan's largest companies are shaping up by adopting unfamiliar business concepts such as takeovers and performance-based pay. Now, economic restructuring is working its way to remote villages, shaking up communities steeped in tradition.
The village of Yamashiro Onsen, population 13,000, was long isolated from such forces. Mr. Nagai ran the renowned Araya inn, which has been in his family for 18 generations. Across the village square was Shiroganeya, owned by Mr. Nagai's childhood friend Kanichi Masaki. Together, the two men attended the village's annual June festival, where villagers threw purple irises into the communal tubs to pray for health and prosperity.
Japan's painful economic downturn in the 1990s took its toll on Yamashiro. Mr. Nagai suffered from plunging sales and debts racked up during boom times in the 1980s. Mr. Masaki was doing even worse. In 2001, Shiroganeya was taken over by a government-backed bad-debt clearing house called Resolution & Collection Corp. Last year, RCC called for investors who could turn the inn around.
The first signs of change appeared last summer, when a dozen potential investors, including two Japanese bankers from Goldman, showed up at the local conference hall. Mr. Nagai, attending as the head of the water cooperative, was startled to read an RCC handout that stated that the buyer of the inn would also be purchasing rights to use the spring water.
Mr. Nagai stood up to argue that the water rights couldn't be sold to people outside the cooperative. "This is the rule generations of our families have stuck to to protect this precious resource," he said.
But RCC ignored his plea and pushed through the auction. Goldman was in the lead with a 300-million-yen ($2.7 million) bid. Mr. Masaki's son, trying to keep the inn in his family, submitted a bid, too, but it was lower. The Masakis couldn't be reached for comment on this article.
The gate and part of the main building of Shiroganeya, or White Silver Inn.
Shaken, Mr. Nagai and other innkeepers gathered nightly to plan strategy. They felt threatened that a foreigner could buy the prestigious inn for a relative pittance, at a time when everyone was struggling to repay debts. "Foreigners will run away the minute they pocket enough profit," says Tetsunobu Wada, the 65-year-old owner of an inn next door to Shiroganeya, recalling how he felt. The innkeepers hired a lawyer to see whether they could stop the sale of the rights by suing RCC.
Sensing trouble, Harutaka Kawai, the RCC official overseeing the auction, turned to Yoshiharu Hoshino. Goldman had hired the 45-year-old Mr. Hoshino, a resort-turnaround specialist, as part of its efforts to expand its real-estate business into the hot-spring industry. Mr. Hoshino, who graduated from Cornell and worked at Citibank, understood Western business principles. And since he had grown up in a family of hot-spring hotel owners, he knew how to communicate with the traditional innkeepers.
Mr. Kawai asked Goldman to drop its name from the paperwork and make Mr. Hoshino the point man in the deal. Mr. Kawai also told Goldman bankers to stop showing up in Yamashiro and handing out their business cards. Nearly every day, the fast-talking Mr. Kawai spent an hour driving out to Mr. Nagai's inn to talk about the future of the village and how Mr. Hoshino might help.
In October, Mr. Hoshino made an appearance in Yamashiro. He explained that as the son of an old hot-spring innkeeper himself, he passionately wanted to bring Shiroganeya back to its old glory. "We are just taking the stewardship of this precious property for a little bit so we can pass it on to the next generation in good shape," Mr. Hoshino recalls saying.
The villagers were charmed, but they were split on whether to give Mr. Hoshino access to the water. Mr. Nagai was torn. On the one hand, he felt he should support the Masaki family and push forward with the lawsuit. But he also felt he could trust Mr. Hoshino. After days of soul-searching, he decided that Yamashiro might actually be better off with a new investor. "In the end, it's all about what's best for the community," Mr. Nagai says.
Mr. Nagai then set out to persuade the others to accept Mr. Hoshino. He told the villagers that Goldman was simply a bank that provided financing to Mr. Hoshino, whom everybody already liked. In fact, Goldman was the sole provider of funds, and Mr. Hoshino's role was to manage the property. But "it was much easier to understand if it was explained this way," Mr. Nagai says.
A few months later, the innkeepers finally came around, on one condition. They still couldn't bear the thought of selling the water rights to outsiders. So they offered to "lend" the rights to Mr. Hoshino's company, allowing Shiroganeya to fill its bathtubs. Goldman and Mr. Hoshino finally signed the deal in March, eight months after they first looked at Shiroganeya. The price was ultimately reduced to $2.2 million because water rights were merely leased. The inn is scheduled to reopen under its new ownership next month.
Goldman bankers say they aren't discouraged by the challenges of acquiring Shiroganeya. "Breaking new ground in a traditional sector of Japan takes time and patience," says Shigeki Kiritani, managing director in Goldman's strategic investment group in Tokyo. Over the next few years, the bank hopes to acquire some 50 inns throughout Japan, which Mr. Hoshino's company will manage.
In Yamashiro, Mr. Nagai is watching quietly as Shiroganeya's renovation moves forward. Meanwhile, other signs of Western-style capitalism are cropping up. A new discount hotel offers a package of a room and two meals for $90 per person, about half the price of other inns. The largest inn in town, called Hyakumangoku, recently said it was negotiating a management tie-up with Ramada International, a unit of Cendant Hotel Group of Parsippany, N.J. The deal would make it the first global hotel chain in Yamashiro Onsen.
小计谋成就大生意
2005年07月19日14:58
近400年来世代居住在日本中部山代温泉(Yamashiro Onsen)地区的Shunjiro Nagai家族一直用心守护著流经这片偏远渡假胜地的温泉。备受村民珍视的泉水流进村中各家日式温泉旅馆的浴室里，让远道而来泡温泉的客人们非常享受。今年61岁的Nagai是村里温泉合作社的负责人。他有一个重要的职责，就是将温泉牢牢掌握在他的家族以及村里其他10户经营老式温泉旅馆的家庭手里，任何外人都不得染指。
但在去年，Nagai被无情地卷入了一场让他很是恐慌的与资本的较量。白银旅馆(Shiroganeya)的主人债台高筑，不得不将旅馆对外出售，这令日本高僧在公元八世纪时发现的这片圣水大有遭外人“染指”之虞。更糟糕的是，出价最高的居然还是一家叫Goldman Sachs Group Inc.（美国高盛公司）的外国企业，这个名字Nagai以前连听也没听说过。
Nagai为赶走觊觎温泉的外国人费了几个月的心思，然而令人意外的是，最后Nagai竟然作出了他自己从未想到过的举动：为了村子的利益，他劝说白银旅馆的店主接受外人的出价，卖掉他的旅馆和温泉。
“那真是一个痛苦的决定啊”，语调温和的Nagai回忆起当时的情景。他留著一簇胡子，脑后的头发梳得很光滑。“到最后，我们都同意最重要的是让白银旅馆的灯永远亮下去，不管接手的是自己人还是外人。”这家有380年历史、附带花园和茶室的旅店是日本的国宝。日本皇室很喜爱来此度假。最近它还接待过德仁(Naruhito)皇太子。
Nagai最终改变了想法，这也是西方资本主义在日本渗透过程中的一次胜利。在日本摆脱十多年来的经济衰退的缓慢过程中，许多大型企业也在逐渐接受他们以前所不熟悉的商业理念，比如收购和根据员工业绩付酬等。如今，重整经济的脚步甚至已经踏进遥远的乡村，让那些深深浸透著传统观念和行为方式的地区也受到了撼动。
以前，有13,000居民的山代温泉一直被隔绝在资本经济之外。Nagai经营的著名的“Araya滔滔庵”已经在他家族手中延续了18代。Araya隔著村中心广场对面的就是白银旅馆，主人是Nagai儿时的伙伴Kanichi Masaki。两人会一起参加村里每年的6月节。在6月节里，村民们向公共浴池里抛撒紫色鸢尾草，祈求健康富足。
但是，日本自九十年代以来发生的经济衰退也波及到山代。Nagai的旅馆因收入锐减而饱受打击，八十年代繁荣时期扩大业务时积累的债务也让他不堪重负。Masaki的情况更糟。2001年，白银旅馆被政府下设的坏帐清理机构Resolution & Collection Corp.接管了。去年，该机构开始物色能让白银旅馆起死回生的投资方。
最早的变化是从去年夏天开始的。有十多位对投资白银旅馆感兴趣的人出现在村公所的会议厅里参加竞买，其中包括高盛公司的两名日本雇员。身为温泉合作社负责人的Nagai也参加了会议。当Nagai读到RCC分发的新闻稿时，他简直要惊呆了。新闻稿说，买旅馆的人要同时买下温泉使用权。
Nagai一下子站起来，说温泉使用权不能卖给合作社以外的人。他说，为保护村里宝贵的温泉资源，他的家族世世代代都坚持这个原则。
但RCC并不理会他的主张，继续进行拍卖。高盛出价3亿日圆(合270万美元)，领先其他竞买方。Masaki的儿子为保住旅馆也提交了申请，但他的出价太低了。Masaki家的人现在已离开了山代。
大受震动的Nagai跟其他经营旅馆的人连夜开会商讨对策。在大家都在拼命设法偿还债务的时候，外国人只要比别人多付一点钱就能买下他们久负盛名的旅馆，这让他们感到了极大的威胁。65岁的Tetsunobu Wada回忆说，当时他认为，外国人只要挣到足够的钱就会马上离开的。Wada家的旅馆就在白银旅馆隔壁。店主们随后聘请了一名律师，准备起诉RCC以阻止拍卖温泉使用权。
RCC负责这次拍卖活动的Harutaka Kawai感到事情很麻烦，于是找来高盛方面的代表Yoshiharu Hoshino商议。45岁的Hoshino是高盛聘请的渡假地整顿专家，高盛当时正计划将其房地产投资业务扩大到温泉渡假地领域。毕业于康乃尔大学、在花旗银行(Citibank)就职的Hoshino了解西方的商业原则，同时，他自己就是在一个经营温泉旅馆的家庭里长大，因此他知道该如何跟Nagai他们打交道。
Kawai要求在有关文件中不要出现高盛公司的名字，而让Hoshino作为主要联系人出面。他还告诉高盛的投资专家不要再在山代出现、别再散发名片。语速很快的Kawai几乎每天都要驱车一小时赶到Nagai的旅馆里，跟他讨论村子的前途，还有Hoshino会给他们什么帮助。
10月份，Hoshino亲自来到了山代。带著一副样式古怪的眼镜的Hoshino跟山代的人说，他自己就是一家温泉旅店店主的儿子，因此从内心里他当然也很希望白银旅馆能恢复过去的兴旺。Hoshino回忆到，他当时说，买下白银旅馆只是想暂时管理这处宝贵资源，这样以后才能将它完好地交给下一代。
村民们被打动了，但对于是否让Hoshino使用温泉他们还是有分歧。这时的Nagai内心非常矛盾。一方面，他觉得应该支持Masaki家，继续打官司；另一方面，他又觉得可以信任Hoshino。在几番思想斗争之后，他得出结论认为，有了热心的新投资人，山代的经济状况应该会更好。他回忆说，归根结底，关键是什么才是对山代最好的做法。
于是，Nagai开始著手说服其他人接受Hoshino，而这时Hoshino已是村里人人都喜欢的家伙了。Nagai告诉村民，高盛只是一家向Hoshino提供资金的银行。实际上，高盛是唯一的出资人，Hoshino的工作只是管理地产。不过，Nagai说，那样说起来大家更容易理解。
几个月后，各家旅店的主人终于统一意见坐到了一起，不过他们还是不能接受将温泉使用权卖给外人的想法，因此他们提出将使用权“借给”Hoshino的公司，这样白银旅馆的浴池也可以用温泉水。今年3月，在第一次考察白银旅馆8个月之后，高盛和Hoshino终于签订了协议。高盛的出价降到了220万美元，因为温泉使用权只是租赁性质。换了新主人的白银旅馆将在8月份重新开业。
高盛的投资人士说，收购白银旅馆遇到的难题并没有让他们感到沮丧。高盛战略投资部门驻东京董事总经理Shigeki Kiritani说，在日本的传统经济领域开创新业务需要时间和耐心。高盛希望未来几年在日本收购50家左右的旅馆，Hoshino所在的公司将负责管理这些旅馆。
而在山代，Nagai正静静地看著白银旅馆正在进行的装修工程。在这同时，西方式资本主义也在附近到处显露头角。比如一家新开的折扣旅馆为客人提供房间和两顿饭，每人的房费是90美元，只有其他旅馆的一半。
而当地最大的旅馆Hyakumangoku最近透露，它正在与Ramada International商谈合作经营事宜。Ramada是美国Cendant Hotel Group旗下的子公司。如果这笔交易谈成，Hyakumangoku将成为山代温泉第一家全球性连锁酒店。
