"Food availability has always been a major factor regarding humankind’s life quality, life expectancy, economic development, and technological advancement. This was true eight thousand years ago and it is still true today. That is why the Karaguchi Conglomerate works tirelessly to make nourishment accessible to everyone; because the more food we have to go around, the better everyone’s life will be."
— Masashi Karaguchi, CEO.
— Masashi Karaguchi, CEO.
The Karaguchi Conglomerate Headquarters - Art by Branislav Bogdanović
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The Karaguchi Conglomerate holds a monopoly on most of the world's food and drinking water supply. After the Solar Wreckage and global warming left large parts of the planet unavailable for exploitation and its resources out of reach, it became apparent that having access to food and drinking water would be more valuable than ever.
The KC was founded in Osaka by young chemist Masashi Karaguchi with the mission of making the most out of the limited natural resources that the island of Japan possessed. The combination of the outstanding technological advancements Karaguchi achieved, the growing global need for food and drinking water alternatives, and Karaguchi's ties to the Yakuza made the Conglomerate grow at a dizzying speed. The political pressure to maintain economic growth and the company's connection to the Yakuza forced the government to relax the legal requirements regarding food quality and the hygiene standards for laboratories and production sites, making the company even more profitable. |
The company engineered crops that required less water and nutrients to grow and made incursions into cultured meat in order to produce meat for human consumption without the need of devoting space to cattle.
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The wide availability of food in Japanese territory has made Japan's economic recovery faster than that of other countries. However, this dependency on cheap food only strengthened the KC's grip over the Japanese government. Eventually, the KC forced the government to legalize the cloning of non-humans, a process Karaguchi developed to simplify biological experimentation. Some also speculate that this extended into the exotic animal cloning business to service the demand of their ultra-rich clientele.
The cloning technology has not been made available to anyone else, and the United Nations Bioethics Council heavily opposes its use, though other companies have shown interest in it. The social controversy revolving around the use of this technology has been growing stronger and stronger. The company is currently expanding to territories outside of Japan and Eastern Asia, where its political influence is weaker and is facing some pushback from competitors. |
An alley somewhere in Osaka - Art by Branislav Bogdanović
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The KC Headquarters, night variation - Art by Branislav Bogdanović
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The KC is also responsible for developing cutting-edge water filtering technologies. These technologies mainly focus on recycling water contaminated by human activities, both industrial and non-industrial. There are rumors that the KC has developed a process capable of turning seawater into drinking water but has kept it secret to keep the price of their bottled water products high.
There are also claims that the KC sends potentially harmful products made in facilities with substandard hygiene conditions to regions of the world it intends to extort or hurt, causing diseases and malnourishment to its people. The KC denies these rumors and claims the studies that suggest their products cause cancer are inconclusive and biased. However, the fact remains: only countries that have stood up to the KC in any way have suffered these abnormal rates of diseases associated with malnutrition among their population, such as scurvy, cancer, infertility, parasites, and jaundice. Citizens of countries blacklisted by the KC can often be recognized by the scars and marks left by the Conglomerate's products: scorbutic gums, yellowish or greenish pigmentation of the skin, and carcinomas. |
The KC holds on to its roots and tradition. Its logo is a red cherry surrounded by cherry blossoms, similar to the Japanese flag. The roofs of its buildings resemble traditional Japanese temples. The inner walls of its offices are decorated with paintings of rice fields and rivers, all in stereotypical Japanese style.
Their main headquarters in Osaka are divided into two separate sections: the front building is the modern part of the HQ and serves as the commercial offices and main research facilities. Access to this building is for employees and contractors only. Behind this first building is the Karaguchi sacrosanctum, a five-story high pagoda in the middle of a zen garden. The garden is accessible only via a bridge that connects with a landing pad on the back of the commercial offices. This jewel of classical Japanese architecture is both the main personal dwelling of the Conglomerate's CEO and a place where private meetings are held with the upper management and the most important guests. The pagoda itself is built from a special polymer that resembles wood and carries nutrients from the rain and sun into the roots of the garden.
Although the pagoda is located in the middle of Osaka, it is virtually inaccessible. A swarm of weaponized drones oversees the movement around the building and ensures no unauthorized entities are in the area. If any threats are detected, the swarm organizes each member to neutralize them.
Although the pagoda is located in the middle of Osaka, it is virtually inaccessible. A swarm of weaponized drones oversees the movement around the building and ensures no unauthorized entities are in the area. If any threats are detected, the swarm organizes each member to neutralize them.
ABOUT THE CEO
Masashi Karaguchi full body concept by Joi Rudin
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Masashi Karaguchi was a 19-year-old chemistry student when he realized the power of controlling food and water. During the aftermath of the 2074 Kyotango Nuclear Plant Incident, which left most of the island without electricity for several weeks, Masashi returned to his father's house in rural Kansai. There, he learned that the neighbors would form a line in front of his father's house to ask him permission to use his water pump, the only one remaining in the area that did not require electrical power. Masashi quickly began operating the pump himself and charging people for his services. At first, his father opposed this practice, but Masahi insisted that they strictly control the water supply to ensure nobody was wasting precious resources.
Regarding payment, Masashi argued that every neighbor used to have a water pump like the one they had and that it had been their mistake not to hold on to tradition, so they should pay the Karaguchi household for their work and their water. Although his father felt guilty about not sharing their resources with their neighbors as magnanimously as he'd like, he thought his son made a good point and decided to accept these new terms and conditions. After a few days, the neighbors complained about Masashi's opportunism. Masashi then contacted local Yakuza members and offered them preferential access to the pump and a share of the profits if they ensured nobody interfered with his business scheme. After a few weeks, the electricity returned, but the small fortune and the criminal connections Masashi had made remained. He returned to Osaka to finish his chemistry major, specializing in water purification processes, and took another course on synthetic meats and meat cultivation. Then, he took the small fortune he had made and founded his company. |
Masashi had developed a cheap process for purifying water, which produced barely acceptable results. The low cost of his products allowed him to be highly profitable, disregarding their low quality, and he soon expanded his company to the rest of Japan and neighboring Asian countries. The Japanese economy depended so much on the KC's products that Masashi quickly had substantial input in Japan's domestic politics. This influence expanded to other Asian countries that started depending on KC products, and the company is currently working on extending its global reach.
Now, Masashi is a 57-year-old man, thin and bespectacled. Despite being one of the wealthiest humans in the world, he dresses austerely and does not appear to have much taste for luxury. He has graying hair and does not attempt to dye it. He wears business suits when he is in an official capacity and short-sleeved shirts whenever he gets time off. He has a profound love for his country, which has evolved into quite extreme nationalist views. His drive to produce viable food was for Japan to recover economically, and he is proud of the result his actions have had. He is also content with the fact that the food produced by his company is responsible for a big part of the population recovery of the world. In his opinion, the harmful side effects of his lesser-quality products are acceptable collateral damage, given his plans and previous merits. He also believes administering valuable resources is a task only a select group can perform efficiently. In his mind, people like him (male, Japanese, business people) are the only ones who should be making these decisions.
Although Mashashi is unpretentious regarding his looks and hasn't had any plastic surgery, he has dental implants. Once, while exiting KC Headquarters, a protestor threw a rock at him and fractured his jaw. Masashi decided to replace all his teeth with titanium implants to show he could not be broken. The protestor, however, went missing.
Masashi has a son in his early 20s, Ichiro, with whom he is deeply disappointed. After leaving for college, Ichiro began experimenting with pleasurable NFTs and recreational drugs. Ichiro is more interested in enjoying himself than learning to run his father's company. Some rumors indicate that Ichiro believes his father's business is responsible for much human suffering. This idea has made him depressed and caused him to antagonize his father to some extent. Masashi has been seen slapping his son publicly, although he doesn't allow anybody else to mistreat him. Ichiro's mother committed suicide when he was a child. The motives of the suicide remain unknown, although it is known that Masashi started being more demanding of his son after her death. Ichiro seems to have never fully recovered from his mother's suicide.
Masashi has strong reservations about using his company's technology and resources to advance human cloning. He has publicly stated that he sees cloning as an irresponsible activity contrary to what he believes is the greater good. Some sources have implied the latest decision by the UN about banning human cloning research has brought great relief to Japan's most important CEO.
Now, Masashi is a 57-year-old man, thin and bespectacled. Despite being one of the wealthiest humans in the world, he dresses austerely and does not appear to have much taste for luxury. He has graying hair and does not attempt to dye it. He wears business suits when he is in an official capacity and short-sleeved shirts whenever he gets time off. He has a profound love for his country, which has evolved into quite extreme nationalist views. His drive to produce viable food was for Japan to recover economically, and he is proud of the result his actions have had. He is also content with the fact that the food produced by his company is responsible for a big part of the population recovery of the world. In his opinion, the harmful side effects of his lesser-quality products are acceptable collateral damage, given his plans and previous merits. He also believes administering valuable resources is a task only a select group can perform efficiently. In his mind, people like him (male, Japanese, business people) are the only ones who should be making these decisions.
Although Mashashi is unpretentious regarding his looks and hasn't had any plastic surgery, he has dental implants. Once, while exiting KC Headquarters, a protestor threw a rock at him and fractured his jaw. Masashi decided to replace all his teeth with titanium implants to show he could not be broken. The protestor, however, went missing.
Masashi has a son in his early 20s, Ichiro, with whom he is deeply disappointed. After leaving for college, Ichiro began experimenting with pleasurable NFTs and recreational drugs. Ichiro is more interested in enjoying himself than learning to run his father's company. Some rumors indicate that Ichiro believes his father's business is responsible for much human suffering. This idea has made him depressed and caused him to antagonize his father to some extent. Masashi has been seen slapping his son publicly, although he doesn't allow anybody else to mistreat him. Ichiro's mother committed suicide when he was a child. The motives of the suicide remain unknown, although it is known that Masashi started being more demanding of his son after her death. Ichiro seems to have never fully recovered from his mother's suicide.
Masashi has strong reservations about using his company's technology and resources to advance human cloning. He has publicly stated that he sees cloning as an irresponsible activity contrary to what he believes is the greater good. Some sources have implied the latest decision by the UN about banning human cloning research has brought great relief to Japan's most important CEO.