Emergency Ministerial Meeting Convened
Ministers from each department rushed to the Prime Minister's official residence in a flurry. Among them was Namiki Koji, the head of investment for the Public Pension Fund.
Prime Minister Okazaki shouted, "What in the world happened? What's the damage amount?"
"Based on the current closing price, it's 2.1 trillion yen."
Silence descended upon the room.
The Prime Minister and the ministers of each department controlled Japan's astronomical budget. Even for them, 2 trillion yen was a staggering sum.
This wasn't hacking or terrorism, but an accident caused by an order error?
Finance Minister Matsukata Ryutaro asked, "Wasn't there an abnormal order detection system in place?"
"W-well, we had temporarily disabled it due to concerns about errors during the server maintenance…"
"Server maintenance was last month!"
"They say they forgot to turn it back on."
"Th-then what about the approval process? Even if an employee made a mistake, surely it would have been checked and filtered out from above."
"Th-that is…"
The system was designed so that when a trade was registered, it had to go through several stages of approval before the transaction could be executed.
Originally, there were five stages, but it had been reduced to three to respond quickly to market changes. Yet, even that hadn't functioned properly.
This was an accident that should never have happened if even one person had checked properly.
"Where exactly did they buy the stocks from?"
"We've confirmed that Golden Gate made the purchase, and we're currently investigating further."
In an instant, everyone had the same thought.
If the transaction had been made domestically within Japan, there might be a way to cancel or recover the shares. But what if foreign speculative capital had bought them? Then the situation would become uncontrollably tangled.
Beep beep!
Namiki's phone rang. Foreign Minister Okamoto roared, "What are you doing on your phone during a meeting!?"
"Ah! It's a call from Nishida Securities."
Finance Minister Matsukata said, "Answer it quickly."
"Y-yes, sir."
Namiki took out his phone and pressed the call button.
"What? Th-that's really true?"
His face drained of color in an instant.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi urgently asked, "What are they saying?"
"The order came from Golden Gate's Korean branch, and it seems OTK Company bought them."
"What? OTK Company took 14.97 million shares?"
"Y-yes, sir."
Everyone's faces turned pale.
Prime Minister Okazaki felt a shock as if he had been hit hard in the head.
'OTK Company? That Kang Jinhoo?'
Prime Minister Okazaki recalled the conversation he had just had with Vice Minister Li Xuewei. You won't end up well if you get involved with Kang Jinhoo, he had said.
Recently, Japan had been making an issue of Yoshizawa Masaru's death, with even political circles criticizing CarOS and Kang Jinhoo.
And suddenly, this incident had erupted.
'Why did it have to be OTK Company of all places!'
Companies that had business operations in Japan or traded extensively with Japanese companies would have no choice but to follow the Japanese government's wishes.
However, OTK Company had little connection to Japan. The only connection one could point to was that Faceit was officially providing services there.
Moreover, considering Kang Jinhoo's assets and his influence in Washington's political circles, he was not someone the Japanese government could easily control.
This was truly the worst-case scenario.
"Have you contacted Golden Gate's Korean branch?"
"They say they cannot disclose customer information, and regarding a transaction that was properly executed, they have no authority to intervene."
"What about OTK Company?"
"We can't reach them."
Were they deliberately avoiding contact? What would Kang Jinhoo do with those shares?
They had to prevent the shares from being moved elsewhere at all costs.
Finance Minister Matsukata asked, "Is there a way to temporarily halt stock trading?"
"There is no legal basis for that."
Emerging countries have higher growth potential than developed countries, and stock returns are also higher.
Looking at it this way, it seems capital should all flow to emerging countries, but in reality, more than 80 percent of global investment funds are in developed country stock markets.
This is because capital values stability more than profitability. Taking temporary measures without any grounds would lead to a decline in the credibility of the entire Japanese financial system.
"Golden Gate is a US securities firm, not a Korean one. The US might protest if we do that."
Golden Gate was the world's largest IB and a US securities firm. It wielded enormous influence in international finance and US political circles.
Furthermore, even if they imposed a trading halt, if the ownership of the account itself was transferred to another entity through a process similar to wash trading, there would be no way to respond.
Namiki cautiously said, "These are volumes the market can't absorb anyway. If Kang Jinhoo is thinking rationally, he won't be able to dispose of them recklessly."
Everyone felt the gravity of the situation. Mishandling this could cost them their heads.
They had to recover those shares by any means!
Prime Minister Okazaki muttered as if to himself, "Even if it was an order error, how did they buy it at such perfect timing?"
'It's almost as if they knew this was going to happen in advance.'
Finance Minister Matsukata said, "First, we will investigate the transaction history. We also need to request cooperation from the Korean government."
Prime Minister Okazaki nodded and issued instructions. "Immediately send the ambassador to Korea to the Blue House."
"The ambassador is not currently in Korea."
Foreign Minister Okamoto's answer made Prime Minister Okazaki roar, "If the ambassador to Korea isn't in Korea, where on earth is he!?"
He then stammered, "He's in Tokyo. Didn't you order him to return home as a sign of protest, Prime Minister?"
"...."
***
Once all the shares from the order error were executed, Toyota stock traded again around 145,000 yen, and the closing price was 141,000 yen.
The Nikkei index closed down 1.24 percent. The market had closed, but the chaos was just beginning. European stock markets immediately fluctuated.
Breaking news alerts flashed across the internet and TV.
[Nikkei Index Plummets! What's the Cause?]
[Order Error Accident Occurs at Nishida Securities!]
[(Breaking News) Approximately 15 Million Toyota Shares Traded at 1 Yen]
[Public Pension Fund Accidentally Sells Entire Holdings of Toyota Stock!]
[Estimated Losses of 2.3 Trillion Yen]
[Worst Financial Accident Due to Fat Finger!]
[Public Pension Fund and Nishida Securities Both Yet to Issue Statements]
[Whose Responsibility Is It?]
Japan was engulfed in shock.
What was the Public Pension Fund? It was a public institution managing the money that workers all across Japan had paid into for decades. And an accident had occurred there.
The amount was a staggering 2.3 trillion yen!
And it wasn't even taxpayer money, but the retirement funds of the people! That astronomical sum had vanished in an instant!
Korea was equally shocked.
– Wow, crazy!
– 2.3 trillion yen order error? Is that even possible?
– Why not? Seosung Securities issued 110 trillion won worth of nonexistent shares.
– That's phantom stock though. This is real stock that was traded.
– First, the Japanese Public Pension Fund will probably file a claim for damages. Demanding 2.3 trillion yen.
– Does Nishida Securities even have that much money?
– If they can't pay, they're going bankrupt.
-ㅋㅋㅋ What are they going to do?
– So who bought them anyway?
– Can they get them back?
– Legally, it's not easy. Usually, in cases like this, they negotiate with the buyer to get them back.
– If a vulture fund like Albert Management or a hedge fund bought them, then there's no hope.
– This is hilarious.
***
A few hours after the Japanese market closed.
We were summoned to the Golden Gate Korean branch's branch manager's office.
Employees were moving around frantically, not even thinking about going home. Hyun-joo noona looked exhausted and was frowning deeply.
She had a cigarette in her mouth and a lighter in her hand. Thankfully, she hadn't lit it yet.
A tense atmosphere hung in the air. Taekgyu cautiously said, "Secondhand smoke is bad for our Gun-i, noona."
"Shut up."
"Yes, ma'am."
Ellie carefully offered her nicotine gum.
Hyun-joo noona spat out the cigarette and put the gum in her mouth. It was a relief that her New Year's resolution to quit smoking hadn't crumbled.
"Explain this in a way I can understand."
"So, what happened was…"
Taekgyu explained the situation as if making excuses.
After he finished speaking, Hyun-joo noona pressed her forehead with her fingers, looking troubled.
"So, while Jinhoo went to the bathroom, you were looking at Toyota stock to buy, and you clicked as soon as it popped up, and that situation unfolded?"
"Yeah. Exactly. You understand so quickly, noona."
Hyun-joo noona burst out, "Does that even make sense!?"
Taekgyu grumbled, wearing his signature wronged expression, "Well, whether it makes sense or not, the transaction happened, what do you want me to do? They made the order error, why are you yelling at me?"
Ellie said, sounding confused, "That's strange. There should have been several safety measures to prevent order errors."
"They didn't work properly. If regulations and principles were followed, why would an accident happen?"
He had a point.
Suddenly, a quote I had read in a book came to mind.
"Trouble arises when people are not ignorant, but when they are certain they know something that they don't."
Who said that again?
Ellie's face lit up. "Ah! Mark Twain, right? I like that author."
I remembered reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I was young. By the way, he invested in gold mines, lost all his wealth, and incurred huge debts. He started writing to repay those debts.
Money is an important driving force for creativity.
Hyun-joo noona shook her head. "How could such a coincidence happen?"
I patted Taekgyu's shoulder and said, "He's just strangely lucky."
It was because I saw the premonition, but it was also true that he was lucky.
No one would refuse to buy if it was being sold cheap. When Toyota stock appeared at 1 yen, institutions rushed to place orders.
Some were too slow because they pressed too many zeros, and some managed to get 100 or 200 shares.
Orders are processed in the order they are received, even if the difference is 0.0001 seconds. If orders come in at the same time, priority is given to the one with a larger volume.
There must have been many places that placed orders at the same time as us, but our volume was the largest, and luckily, we were able to sweep them all up.
"Anyway, we made money, isn't that a good thing? Think about it. Noona's equity value has increased that much too."
Hyun-joo noona muttered, dumbfounded, "2.3 trillion yen…"
To earn this much money in industry, you have to develop technology, attract investment, build factories, hire people, manufacture goods, and sell products.
You'd have to invest at least 100 trillion won over several years just to have a chance of making this kind of profit.
But we made it in less than a second with a capital of just 14.97 million yen. This must be the terrifying power of finance.
"What are you going to do with these shares?"
"I'm thinking about it."
Hyun-joo noona pushed up her glasses and said, "It's obvious, but Japan will definitely not stay still. Right now, we're constantly being pressured to cancel the orders and return the shares."
Securities firms can't arbitrarily dispose of client assets. Not only would we be sued, but who would trade with Golden Gate if that happened?
"I know."
It wasn't just any company, but stock held by the Japanese Public Pension Fund. The Japanese political establishment would try to recover these shares by any means.
"If we don't return them, we'll become enemies with Japan, right?"
Taekgyu said.
"We're already enemies."
"…Right, I guess."
Whether this incident happened or not, we were already destined to have a bad relationship with Japan.
What's important now is that 10 percent of Toyota's stock is in my hands. What to do with it is entirely up to me.
I asked Hyun-joo noona, "What will happen if Japan can't get these shares back?"
Noona reached for a cigarette again but stopped. "What are you thinking?"
I smiled. "There's a Japanese saying, 'If you drink poison, drink it to the dish.' If we're going to become enemies anyway, isn't it better to do it properly?"
***
Tanokura Matsuhiro, the Japanese Ambassador to Korea, immediately entered Korea. When he left, he made a big deal about protesting and expressing regret, but he returned quietly.
He immediately met with Prime Minister Ryu Jeong-hoon and strongly protested.
"The shares acquired by OTK Company are the result of an accident caused by an order error. And those shares are the assets of the Japanese people. As it was a clear error, the order should be canceled immediately, and the Toyota shares should be returned. We request the Korean government to take appropriate measures for the swift normalization of Korea-Japan relations."
He threatened that they would not stand idly by if this was not done.
Prime Minister Ryu Jeong-hoon, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth after a long pause.
"I understand your point, and I fully understand Japan's position."
Ambassador Tanokura wore a relieved expression. "I'm glad to hear that. Then the Korean government will…"
Prime Minister Ryu Jeong-hoon cut him off and said, "However, OTK Company is a US company with its corporate headquarters in the United States. You should go to the US government and argue with them, why are you here doing this?"
"...."