Kurabokko Metahuman Technologies
Written by: Ursa-Minor
If you have ever been to a warehouse in Raleigh, you might notice that almost everything inside has a cartoon picture of a long-haired child in a kimono. The palettes, the shelves, the forklifts, even some of the cyberlimbs used by the burly workers will have the adorable kid plastered on it. This is an artistic interpretation of a Kura-Bokko, a sort of Yokai that likes to make noises and cause mischief in warehouses. In this case, it is also the mascot of the aptly named Kurabokko Metahuman Technologies, an Iwate Prefecture-founded corporation specialising in equipment and ergonomic solutions for warehouses and distribution centers.They also have dozens of different variations of their cute little Yokai mascot to denote different classifications of equipment. Office chairs have the Kura-Bokko holding a big fountain pen, for example, and on forklifts they're wearing little hardhats!Under usual circumstances a company specialising in warehouse gear would not warrant an article, but Kurabokko have three characteristics of special consideration: The first is a strong monopoly on contracts for supplying and operating warehouses in the Raleigh area, spurred by a PR campaign that was surprisingly far-reaching for an industry-centered target demographic. The second is that Kurabokko's product-line is far more diverse than what you would expect of a warehouse-supplies company, extending all the way into biotech and cyberware, which would no doubt be of interest to anybody in the market for more robust cybernetics. Third, and most importantly: Despite their flawless PR record, Kurabokko have very few qualms in hiring 'outsourced contractors' to perform unscruptulous activity on their behalf, and is therefore of considerable interest to Shadowrunners. As an employer, they place a near-obsessive emphasis on discretion and remaining on-schedule, down to the second, but it cannot be argued that their rewards - primarily cyberware and clandestine transportation of goods - are appropriately bountiful. Keep your eye on this corporation, shadowrunner.
I really, really don't like negotiating with Kurabokko Mr. Johnsons. Why? They like to talk through proxy of a "hacked" Hisho-2078 drone, as if those things aren't creepy enough when they're not talking about how they want you to flatline a guy for money...
Structure
The standard affair for a Japanese-based manufacturer, with superficial changes made to the management-structure to accomodate western attitudes in its CAS-side businesses.
Public Agenda
Kurabokko's public agenda is in providing fully comprehensive and user-friendly shipping and handling equipment for use in warehouses, focussing on the metahuman end of ergonomics and ease-of-use.
Assets
Kurabokko currently holds a large manufacturing facility and distribution-center in Raleigh's industrial districts, managed by a corporate office in the downtown area and more than sufficient financial power secure all of it. Security is provided primarily by way of an ongoing contract with Dragoon Tactical Investments Ltd. but most workers in the manufacturing and shipping departments of the Raleigh branch have been reputed of putting their industrial-grade cyberware to use in personally deterring intruders.
History
Kurabokko was founded in 2051 by Akamatsu Juichi, a salaryman born into old money in the city of Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. Allegedly, Mr Akamatsu began laying the foundations of the company a few years earlier following the tragic death of his son, Taka Akamatsu, in an industrial accident allegedly caused by faulty equipment provided by Tsuchigumo Heavy Manufacturing, a corporation that would go out of business within the decade of Akamatsu's tragedy causing a fatal blow to its public relations.
If conspiracies are to be believed however, not only was Tsuchigumo already on the decline but the man named Taka Akamatsu never existed, and the whole thing was a carefully acted-out farce to salvage what they could from the dying Tsuchigumo into a new corporation and launder some money while they were there.Akamatsu made a long and passionate public statement declaring his intent to start a new corporation, one that would produce new lines of warehouse equipment and supplies that lacked the cut corners and unsafe designs that he claims were responsible for his son's death. Kurabokko officially started that year, utilising most of the properties and buildings previously owned by Tuchigumo prior to its liquidation, a move Akamatsu claimed was "an act of rebirth and forgiveness" to the former employees of Tuchigumo, who soon found themselves working their old jobs under a new brand. Kurabokko initially focussed on continuing its predecessor's work of designing shipping and handling equipment for warehouses, but an aggressive hiring-campaign for talent in the Iwate prefecture soon led to the corporation branching out into metahuman-ergonomics research, and eventually into limited forms of biotechnology from there. Kurabokko was for the most part an exclusively Japanese company, focussing on filling contracts from local megacorporations and securing its foundations while only exporting in limited qualities for fixed contracts. All of that changed in 2063 when headlines across the CAS talked about a catastrophic chemical-leak in the industrial area of Raleigh North Carolina, that claimed six lives and left dozens more with lifelong medical conditions, caused by a faulty piece of warehouse equipment (a vehicle for moving sealed chemical-containers that suffered an unfortunate controller-malfunction, for those curious). Akamatsu was back on television within a week, wiping back tears with an embroidered handkerchief and talking about how so many lives might have carried on as normal if the owners of the cold-storage unit in question simply invested more in the safety of their employees. Within six months, Kurabokko was hoovering up contracts in the Raleigh area to provide newer, safer lines of warehouse equipment along with supplementary contracts for industrial-spec cyberware, and now, their unsettling mascot seems to stare at you in some corner of almost every warehouse in Raleigh.
Expect contracts from Kurabokko Johnsons to do their part in aiding this trend of grieving after 'unfortunate' tragedies.
"Always watching over our workers!"
Founding Date
2051
Type
Corporation, Manufacturing
Manufactured Items
Related Items
Ongoing Contract
As part of their deal, Barghest gave a 5.1% discount on its products to employees of Kurabokko and workers in warehouses operating on Kurabokko infrastructure, intended as a means of endearing themselves to the workers but rumors from further inbside Kurabokko suggest that Akamatsu didn't care for Barghest intruding on Kurabokko's own cyberware customer-base, and only continues to tolerate it as long as Barghest's payments continue to outweigh their supposed theft of profit.
Ongoing contract
Kurabokko's monopolising of local shipping and storage systems was universally agreed upon by the higher-ups in Quva, but the workers in Quva's old warehouses were left disgruntled after being dealt a far worse hand: Some of them were restructured into acting as liasons between the two corporations or pitrogjt made reduntant.
Those that lost their careers hold an arguably justified grudge, which occasionally spilled over into incidents of vandalism and physical altercations towards Kurabokko-related property and employees. Even in 2080, a lot of petty criminals looking to get into the mercenary/shadowrunner game will find an abundance of jobs to inconvenience one or both of the corps, paid via the pooled money of the disgruntled former employees.
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