Asahi Heavy Industrial Co. (旭日重工株式会社 Asahi jūkō kabushiki gaisha), also called Asahi Industries (旭日重工 Asahi jūkō), is a technology company based in Shinjuku City,[1] Tokyo, Japan. It is the company that Rock used to work for before he joined the Lagoon Company.
Business[]
The company is led by the unnamed director, and below him are the Vice President and several men who are the heads of various departments, such as Kageyama being the chief of the materials procurement department. Besides having deals with several countries concerning technology and minerals like rare earths, the company also had blueprints for the illicit manufacturing of nuclear weapons. In Southeast Asia, the company is allied with Sun Yee On as their trading partner for smuggling and illicit trade. In total, there are 50,000 employees who work for Asahi Industries,[2] and the company also has various branches throughout the world besides its main building in Tokyo, including a branch on Borneo Island,[1] a South American division,[3] and a European branch.[4] The company also does business with U.S. companies like the O'Sullivan Corporation.[5]
Black Lagoon history[]
In 1970, the Japanese communist Masahiro Takenaka was involved in the bombing of Asahi Heavy Industrial Co.'s head office.[6]
Black Lagoon[]
In the 1990s, Rock, then known by his legal name Rokurō Okajima, worked in the materials procurement department with Fujiwara as his supervisor. He worked as a salaryman and managed deals, using his versatile language skills and expertise on the various materials which the company dealt with, as well as being bossed around and looked down upon by Fujiwara and Kageyama. On one occasion around the beginning of 1995, when Okajima went on a delivery near Borneo Island with a disk he had no idea contained blueprints for nuclear weapons, the Lagoon Company raided the Melanesia to get the disk and captured him. Initially, Dutch and Revy were going to leave him behind, but Revy took him as a hostage to Dutch's dismay.[1]
Because the disk was stolen, the board of directors set up a meeting to discuss the matter. Addressing fellow board members, Kageyama relayed to them that the Bougainvillea Trade Company contacted Asahi Industries around 4 p.m. concerning the stolen disk. He elaborated that the company was a front for the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow, who commissioned the pirates to steal the disk. The head director wanted more answers, so Kageyama explained that the Russian Mafia had pushed out Chinese gangs from Southeast Asia and planned on taking control of Asahi Industries' trading partner's smuggling route. Hearing that Hotel Moscow would leak the contents of the disk if they did not meet their demands to take over the route, the Vice President stated that such an action would be the biggest scandal in Asahi Industries' history. At that point, Kageyama received a message from a local Chinese expatriate in Jakarta claiming that the disk was still in the pirates' possession, not Hotel Moscow's ownership. He then proposed stopping the pirates from delivering the disk by any means necessary, so the board permitted him to solve the matter himself.
That night, Kageyama and Fujiwara learned that Rokurō Okajima was being held as a hostage by the pirates. In his office, the director heard this fact from them, scaring him. Fujiwara clarified that Okajima was one of the few employees who could be trusted with the transaction. Nonetheless, the director sat down and asked Kageyama his thoughts on the matter. Repeating what he said earlier in the board meeting, he answered that he would do anything to salvage their corporation from scandal, revealing that he subcontracted the Extra Order mercenary company via an intermediary to find the Lagoon Company and kill them. After the mercenaries' first attempt to kill Rock and the crew in Roanapur failed, Kageyama called Rock and informed him that he was officially dead. He explained that Asahi Industries' bankruptcy prompted them to make a deal to give nuclear weapon blueprints on a disk to a war-torn nation, coldly adding that the company would pay for his funeral and give compensation to his family.[2]
When the E.O. Captain was killed by a plan that Rock devised, Kageyama had no choice but to visit Southeast Asia to retrieve the disk. At the port of Belawan (or Palawan Island in the manga), Kageyama got the disk from Balalaika, and she told him that payment details would be discussed with him by her company. Immediately, Kageyama then ordered Rock to come back with him and commended him for taking his initial fall. Tired of his old life, Rock walked to the car window and asserted that he was quitting his job at Asahi Industries, taking on a new name and new life, which did not bother Kageyama. Fujiwara and Kageyama were subsequently taken to an airport, and they flew back to Japan. Back at Asahi Heavy Industrial Co. headquarters, the board members congratulated Kageyama for retrieving the disk. Remarking that the amount of information leaked was inevitable, the VP added that they were prepared for such a turn, praising Kageyama for a job well done.[7]
Other history[]
Ballad of the Sinful Wizard[]
In the second light novel Ballad of the Sinful Wizard, Rock confessed to Tricia O'Sullivan that he thought he recognized her as the daughter of Philip O'Sullivan, whose San Francisco-based O'Sullivan corporation made business deals with Asahi Industries.[5]
Gore Gore Girl[]
In Volume 8 of Dismemberment Galore! The Gore Gore Girl, when Rock was prodded by Revy to tell her and others a scary story, he recalled one night as a former Asahi Industries employee when he was losing his sanity. At the time, he decided to get coffee and accordingly went into the hallway, where he saw a long line, continuously mentioning the length. Later on was that the line progressed up the stairs and eventually onto the workplace roof, where the salarymen in line began climbing the roof fence to jump off the building. When Rock began hypnotically climbing the wall and was close to jumping off, he suddenly heard a voice shout, "Okajima, what are you doing!". Having woken up, Rock realized that he was asleep but alone, thus not knowing who woke him up. Upon finishing the story, Revy scoffed at the story since to her it was moreso a boring daydream than a scary story.[8]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 00: Black Lagoon
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode 01: The Black Lagoon
- ↑ Episode 08: Rasta Blasta
- ↑ Episode 13: The Vampire Twins Comen
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Black Lagoon 2: Ballad of the Sinful Wizard (Tricia O'Sullivan)
- ↑ Episode 11: Lock'n Load Revolution
- ↑ Episode 02: Mangrove Heaven
- ↑ Gore Gore Girl Chapter 54: The Twilight Zone