December 18-JAPAN: Tadamako Shibanokuji regains control of Yamatetsu from Hideo Yoshida!

So, omae, remember Yamatetsu? The megacorp that started out with the idea that maybe Japanese and Filipino business interests could work together without Mitsuhama, Renraku, and the rest of the Japanacorps breathing down everybody's neck?

Yeah. Things got complicated.

Hideo Yoshida spent the better part of eight years consolidating control, buying out Filipino shareholders, purging directors who supported founder Tadamako Shibanokuji, and turning Yamatetsu into exactly the sort of traditional Japanese corporate machine it was originally supposed to challenge.

Well, Shibanokuji is back in the chairman's seat in 2050, and he's bringing the company back toward its original vision.

And here's the part that's got the suits choking on their expensive sake: Yamatetsu is opening its doors to metahumans—not just as customers, but as employees and managers.

That's right. Orks, trolls, dwarfs, and elves aren't just getting products designed for them. They're being allowed into positions where they can actually make corporate decisions.

Now, before anybody starts handing out medals for corporate altruism, let's remember that Yamatetsu has always had a commercial interest in serving metahuman customers. Being more welcoming to metahumans is good business when your competitors would rather pretend they don't exist.

Still, there's a difference between selling an ork a better ergonomic chair and letting that ork decide who gets promoted.

The Japanese government is reportedly none too pleased. Traditionalists inside the corporation aren't exactly thrilled either. Shibanokuji's reforms face serious resistance, and the company has reportedly tried to limit the number of metahumans in management to avoid provoking the government too badly.

So, yes, this is progress. But it's progress with a corporate lawyer standing behind it holding a calculator.

My take: Yoshida tried to turn Yamatetsu into another Japanacorp. Shibanokuji seems determined to prove that a megacorp can make money without treating metahumanity as a design flaw.

Whether he can survive the boardroom politics long enough to make that stick is another question entirely.

And somewhere in Kyoto, a Renraku executive is probably drafting a memo explaining why this is somehow a threat to shareholder value.