All the gifts bestowed by fate have already been secretly marked with a price.
This is from "The Queen of Death" by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.
Tokyo, Japan.
Electrical appliance manufacturers are working at full capacity to develop new and better home appliances.
In the factory, the roar of machines running is the sound of wealth.
Hitachi took the lead in firing the first shot, and its newly developed "fast rice cooker" has begun to be promoted extensively in newspapers and on television and radio.
"Quick Rice Cooker" is a very concise product name, and its main promotional slogan is that you can prepare a delicious meal of rice in fifteen minutes.
Wow!
This really alarmed the Japanese ladies in Tokyo.
"You can cook a meal of rice in fifteen minutes? That's absolutely impossible. Even if you soak the rice in advance and add hot water, it's impossible to cook rice in such a short time."
"Mrs. Tanaka is right. My family still uses an electric rice cooker imported from the United States. It takes at least 23 minutes to cook a meal of rice, and the rice is not soft and tasty enough.
I think Hitachi’s publicity is most likely just a gimmick.
Cooking a meal of rice in 15 minutes, let alone whether the rice tastes good or not, can it be cooked and eaten? "
"I also think that the rice cooked in such a hurry will be half-cooked.
If I hand my husband a bowl of half-cooked rice like this when he comes home.
People will definitely question whether you are a competent housewife. "
"Alas! But Hitachi has definitely grasped a pain point for us housewives.
Several times a month, I forget to cook rice.
As a result, every time my family came back, they had to wait nearly half an hour before they could eat rice. "
“Also, the rice cooked in today’s electric rice cookers is really not as delicious as the one we cooked with firewood in the past.
It would be great if there was a rice cooker that could cook rice quickly and softly as Hitachi claims.”
…
A group of housewives gathered in the largest electronics department store in Tokyo, Japan, looking at the huge promotional billboard of Hitachi and began to talk.
However, for them, the number of rice cookers they have used can be said to be quite a lot.
Many of them are exaggerated when promoted, especially some TV commercials, which show the cooked rice with each grain distinct and the aroma surrounding it, which makes people feel very appetizing.
But in reality, the rice cooked by most rice cookers is either too hard or too soft.
This is because most electric rice cookers at that time lack a stable temperature control system, and their performance when cooking rice is very unstable, with both time and results being unsatisfactory.
Experienced housewives can also make the cooked rice relatively delicious and soft by strictly controlling the proportion of water used in cooking rice.
However, ordinary housewives do not have this ability. They can only add water to an approximate level and then rely on the rice cooker to perform its job.
Cooking rice with an electric rice cooker, which is simple in later generations, is really a headache for these Japanese housewives.
…
"Oda-kun, did you see that? As soon as our ad came out, the response was very strong.
It caused a huge sensation among these housewives in Tokyo.
However, they hardly believe that there is such a perfect rice cooker in the world."
Hitachi's advertising and publicity director, Genda Kamitsu, introduced this to Jiro Oda with great pride.
Jiro Oda said excitedly: "Based on this popularity, once our instant rice cooker is launched on the market, it will immediately sweep the kitchens of wives."
"Yes! By then, Mr. Oda, you will be able to become a multi-millionaire, or even a billionaire.
I really envy you! You went to China and found a real treasure! "
Kamitsu Genda said with great envy.
As one of Jiro Oda's few close friends in Hitachi, he was very clear about the technical source of Jiro Oda's "instant rice cooker".
However, after returning to Japan, Jiro Oda immediately established a new company as an individual and used the new company to apply for patents in Japan and internationally, including the United States.
Subsequently, Guangsu resigned from Hitachi and, as the president of his new company, negotiated patent licensing matters with Hitachi.
There is no doubt that the senior executives of Hitachi were also deeply shocked after seeing the prototype of the instant rice cooker.
They immediately saw the huge business opportunity behind this and offered a high price to purchase the exclusive rights to the instant rice cooker from Jiro Oda.
How could Jiro Oda, who had already made plans in his mind, be moved by the high price of several million US dollars?
The price he offered Hitachi was three million U.S. dollars for exclusive use rights for six months, plus two dollars in patent royalties for each instant rice cooker sold.
And as long as half a year later, Jiro Oda can authorize this patent to other electrical companies for use.
Wow!
The top management of Hitachi obviously would not agree to such harsh conditions.
However, when Jiro Oda turned around and began to contact companies such as Panasonic, Hitachi immediately softened and quickly found Jiro Oda again to discuss in-depth cooperation matters.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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