The sun is setting, and the twilight is dusk.

Nobunaga Hato, a part-time plumber dredging man, sweats profusely and prepares to leave Mrs. Sakai Nariha's house.

At the time of parting, Mrs. Sakai Naruha, with wet hair and a flushed face, helped Nobunaga Hatoto straighten the belt of her sweatpants.

"Nobunaga-kun, why don't you pursue a stable relationship?"

Nobunaga took the towel handed over by Mrs. Sakai Naruha, wiped her sweat, and said, "...... Locking a shared bike is unethical, ma'am. ”

"Bike sharing?"

Mrs. Sakai Nariwa did not understand Nobunaga Hato's vocabulary.

…………………………

Bidding farewell to Mrs. Sakai Naruha, Nobunaga Hatoshi went to the Yubari Naganuma Town Welfare House again.

Every time he received a good reception from a diner, Nobunaga would go to a welfare home.

The welfare home helped me return home, and it was already dark at night.

Kifu Taro is cleaning up the mess in the restaurant on the first floor, with a large number of empty wine bottles stacked in the house, and it seems that business is good tonight.

"What happened to the miners today?"

Nobunaga looked at the ledger and asked suspiciously. Alcohol is the main source of income for the restaurant, and it is twice as expensive as the supermarket outside. The main diners of Yangquan Restaurant are coal miners, who will have a drink after their work, and rarely drink in large quantities.

"There's another mine to be closed." Kifutaro washes the dishes and chopsticks in the sink.

"Didn't you just close a mine last year? The remaining few mines will not be a problem for another 20 years. ”

"According to Mr. Goro Kamado, the cost of mining is too high. Yubari Shintan Mining cannot compete with cheap coal from overseas. Kifutaro replied.

…………

The Yubari Coal Mine, and indeed the entire Ishikari Coal Mining Area, are facing cost problems.

In recent years, RB's main coal importers were Australia and Indonesia.

The main feature of these coal-producing countries is that open-pit mining is the main feature, which is much lower than the underground mining in Yubari City, the cost per ton of coal is much lower, and the production is also relatively safe, and there are fewer accidents.

There is also the issue of coal type, and Yubari City produces mainly thermal coal.

Australia and Indonesia have large quantities of coking coal with high calorific value.

In particular, coking coal can be described as a scarce type of coal, and the coke used in iron smelting is mainly coking coal.

In the 70s, RB, along with the United States and the Soviet Union, were the only three countries in the world with an annual output of more than 100 million tons of steel, and there was a huge demand for coking coal.

…………

After the 70s, oil became the main energy source, and RB's domestic thermal coal market became more and more declining.

The deeper the mine goes, the more expensive it gets......

The ending of resource-based cities like Yubari is basically like this.

After mining, it goes into decay......

…………

Nobunaga remembered a TV Tokyo news report three years ago.

Coal miners in Yubari protest against low welfare benefits.

At that time, Yubari New Carbon Mining was applying for the issuance of a 500 million yen corporate bond to purchase new equipment.

Yoshida Takuda, president of Yubari New Coal Mine, talked about the company's development plan.

He promised to double the wages of coal miners in the next three years, and said that the major mines in Yubari (Ishikari Coal Mining Area) are of excellent quality, and that through the purchase of new equipment and the introduction of new technologies, they can be mined for another 50 years.

Yoshida Trodat's three-year plan to double his salary was a fatal lure for the miners.

…………

RB is in a period of high growth.

As long as the husband worked alone, he could support the family (it was common to have two children at that time), not only could the family travel abroad every year, but even had a good amount of money.

Becoming a "corporate warrior" (referring to those who call the company home and want to work in the company) is usually regarded as a model worker, and their income is far higher than that of the average person

In this case, losing one's job can be devastating for the family, and the man will be seen as useless.

…………

The doubling of wages in three years hit the pain points of coal workers and successfully calmed their anger.

As a result, Yubari Shintan Mining's additional 500 million yen of corporate bonds issued on the Tokyo Stock Exchange successfully passed regulatory approval.

…………

"Three years have passed, Uncle Goro's income has doubled?" Nobunaga poured a cup of barley tea and drank it all.

Because of Gifutaro's background, coal workers such as Goro Kamado took good care of Gifutaro, and the relationship between the two sides was good.

Nobunaga was worried about triggering the "catch", so during business hours, in addition to cooking, he watched TV, manga, and novels to distract himself from chattering......

The task of chatting with the diners is mainly the responsibility of Gifu Taro.

"Yoshida Zhuoda is a big liar. I heard that he took a large kickback for the new equipment purchased by issuing corporate bonds. ”

"Those new equipment simply don't have the benefits he boasted about at all."

"Now the mines are closed one after another, the mining industry is laying off workers, people are panicking, and no one is raising wages." Kifu Taro is wiping the water stains on the dishes with a dishcloth.

"Well, but Meti did. She mainly goes to the financial report of Xizhang Xintan Mining, and has been paying large dividends, equity incentives, option awards and so on in the past three years. ”

Gifutaro gritted his teeth and said it hatefully.

Their family and Yoshida Takata, president of Yubari Shintan Mining, can be said to be incompatible.

…………

Once, Kifutaro and Nobunaga Hato, when the two were drunk.

Kifutaro mentioned that he wanted to kill Yoshida Todda.

It's just that my sister Mei, with such good grades, can't stop at the broken place of Hokkaido.

Estimating the great future of his sister Mei, Kifutaro temporarily gave up revenge.

…………………………

Kifutaro's younger sister Mei.

At a young age, he has a beauty comparable to that of an adult, and both adult men and women will stop to take a look. She is so beautiful that at the summer festival, just smile and her hands will be stuffed with gifts.

The scout of "Birth of a Star" once found Mei and hoped that she would participate in the selection of the show.

…………

In the 12 years that this show has been broadcast, the female idols who have come out of it have occupied almost half of the idol industry in the entire Showa era.

As the name suggests, this show has indeed given birth to many RB national-level idol stars.

In addition to the original Hanano trio, there are also "singing and dancing" groups like Candies and Pink Lady girl duo, which were dominant in the 70s, as well as Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori, and Kyoko Koizumi.

The original name of RB of "Star Birth" was "スター誕生! 》。

The "スター" here is RB's transliteration of the word "star" in English.

In the 70s, the word "スター" was still widely used in the context of RB pop culture.

Its meaning is almost identical to what Ryukoku currently calls "star".

This program is a "audience participation singer selection program" produced and broadcast by RB Television (NTV), one of RB's four major civil broadcasts.

Different from "seasonal" talent shows such as Dragon Country Super Girl, this show is more similar to CCTV's "Avenue of Stars", which is a weekly, long-term broadcast program.

"Birth of a Star" premiered on October 3, 1971, and ended on September 25, 1983, with a total of 619 broadcasts, which is a very long-lived TV show.

…………

Mei doesn't know anything about singing, and she was invited by the scout of the program team of "Birth of a Star" because of her national-level appearance.

Whenever Nobunaga Hato's watch the show "Birth of a Star".

Gifu Taro will proudly mention repeatedly that the scout's praise at the time:

"Your sister is really a beautiful girl who met once in 2000."

…………

The main reason for Mei's rejection of the "Birth of a Star" program group is ......