Shiawase
The first megacorp, and they want you to know about it. They put their name on EVERYTHING they sell, unlike more discrete corps like, say, Saeder-Krupp or Aztechnology. Their lawyers were responsible for extraterritoriality becoming law in the first place with The Shiawase Decision, and they maintain a stable of the top legal minds on the planet.
While Shiawase hires an average number of shadowrunners for the usual work, I should point out that they don’t kill those who run against them if they can help it. Instead, they aim to capture, interrogate, then release. Those who have been guests in Hotel Shiawase are later contacted for future work and given a chance to clean their record (but will be charged a small portion of their pay as a “processing fee”). Catch and release gives them an above-average knowledge of runner circles, and they’re experts at using a compromised runner to expose a larger network. If anyone you know is going against them, you might not want to meet with them for a few weeks, just in case.
Structure
The current CEO is Tadashi Shiawase, a man who is the very definition of Japanese Corporate Executive, as any good Shiawase should be. Tadashi’s cousin Reiko sits as the Chairman of the Board and, for now, seems willing to let Tadashi take the public lead while she maneuvers behind the scenes. Tadashi’s only daughter, Hitomi, was married to the young Emperor of Japan and is now the mother of both royal heirs. Her second pregnancy was troubled, so she resigned her position on the board to tend to her daughter and to “better serve as empress,” but her word still carries great weight within the corporate towers even if she isn’t physically present. Tadashi’s son is rarely seen, rumored to be an autistic genius due to genetic experimentation, and at present any plans for his future in the family business are unclear. Oh, did you think that because the corporation is majority-owned by a single family that everything would be harmonious? The Shiawase family (which numbers over a hundred aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc., and ten times that with those honorable executives rewarded with the Shiawase family name after truly impressive service) is Machiavellian from top to bottom, as engaged in one-upmanship, backstabbing, and leveraging as the worst soap opera. They unite well enough against external threats to the Shiawase legacy, but the moment the crisis is past, they are once again engaged in a lifelong tug-of-war over influence and strength.
Culture
Were I to sum up Shiawase in one word it would be this: power. Power generated from fusion reactors. Power to determine the paths of genetic engineering and research. Power to create from whole cloth the very concept of the corporation-nation. Unlike Aztechnology or Renraku, who hide their name behind endless subsidiaries, Shiawase puts their name first and dares you to face their power. Unlike Horizon, who opens arms wide to all, or Evo, who adjusts their culture to embrace all views, Shiawase only accepts those in who have already shaped themselves to fit the Shiawase mold. The power of Shiawase is to set the standard, and all others are measured by how much they deviate from the Shiawase norm.
Assets
You might be wondering what the corporation actually does. That answer is simple: everything. Shiawase Energy watches over Shiawase Atomics, Shiawase Fuzion, and Shiawase Amaterasu Solar, branches that control power generation from fission, fusion, and solar respectively (the last of which includes solar-gathering satellites that beam power down to Earth via microwaves), which remain the corporation’s ongoing revenue stream and their highest-profile, if not the most profitable, area of business. Note that Shiawase Energy’s HQ is in Washington DC, a constant reminder to the UCAS government about who’s really in charge. Shiawase Biotech commands Shiawase Biodrones, Shiawase Cybernetics, Shiawase Laboratories, and Shiawase Nanotech, with Shiawase Laboratories being the gold standard of genetic research and biotechnological advances. Discoveries made here are filtered to several other corporate arms, while older science is eventually sold to other corporations. The cybernetic and nanotech lines have lost luster over the past decade and serve as areas to shuffle executives who aren’t expected to do well. Longstanding rumor is that the Shiawase family dips into genetic upgrades for themselves or serve as experiments for the blackest of research. Shiawase Biofood has long been a stable source of constant income, but the collapse of Aztechnology’s NatVat moved this powerhouse division even higher in stature. Unlike most Shiawase divisions, the subsidiaries here lack the family name: Sensei Snacks, Yamato Restaurants, Seven Seas Oceanic Farming, and Opulent Sushi are the best-known of the many branches here. Thanks to beyond-bleeding-edge genetic techniques, Shiawase Biofood has been the single most dominant player in the rice market for decades and is always in the top three of aquaculture as well. Opulent Sushi has been the defining eatery for corporate executives in Japan for forty years and shows no sign of slowing. Beyond these three key areas, Shiawase Manufacturing is probably the strongest division, maintaining healthy profits year after year, and while not having the cultural cachet of the three primary fields, the raw nuyen it generates marks it as the largest division. It oversees Shiawase Advanced Robotics, Shiawase Electronics (now, arguably, the number-two computer corporation in the world after NeoNET’s collapse), Shiawase Fashion, Shiawase Industries, Shiawase Toys, and Shiawase Motors, which has recently come into ownership of the well-known (but faded) Toyota Corporation during a long negotiation with Chrysler-Nissan. From playing cards and dice to mainframes to the defining Dark Salaryman Suit to housecleaning drones to long black limos, Shiawase makes it and makes it stately, leaving others to deal with edgy angles and chasing fads. Shiawase creates the standard and everyone else has to either stay in their shadow or try to shine in contrast to them. By making others react, not act, Shiawase Manufacturing is just another example of the corporation’s power position.
History
The first megacorp, Shiawase literally defined the concept of corporate extraterritoriality with the Shiawase Decisions, rulings by the US Supreme Court in 2000 and 2001 that allowed for them to use lethal force to defend corporate property (a nuclear reactor in this case), which has since been expanded and grown into the megas of today. The nuyen is based on the value of Shiawase’s corporate scrip, and the astounding growth of Japan into the world’s largest economic force followed Shiawase’s march to greatness. Founded well over a hundred years ago (in the wake of Japan’s defeat in World War II), Shiawase grew to prominence under the control of Emori Shiawase, the definitive Japanese CEO who all others have since aspired to embody. He masterfully led the corporation through the turn of the century, the invention of corporate extraterritoriality, and into the future of a powerful Japan as the United States began to crumble. He died in 2019, and the corporation nearly followed him as a number of lesser lights of the Shiawase name tried—and failed—to live up to his legacy. Fortunately, the path he blazed, including such things as patented fusion reactor technology, kept them intact, even if they ceded the title of most powerful corporation to newer corps. They remained influential enough to be a part of the founding of the Corporate Court and have remained a core member ever since.
Comments