One of these men was Tadashi Watanabe, a mid level bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance. He believed he was not being recognized for his contributions and that his superiors passed him over for promotions because they were threatened by his abilities.

Watanabe also tended to live beyond his means, taking expensive vacations and needing the latest status symbol. That his fiancée had recently broken off their engagement because of his extravagance just added to his sense of ill use.

Tadashi was happy to pass on to Koji any interesting information he could gather, either from a memo he would spy lying on someone's desk or from gossip he would overhear, although always at a price, of course.

Because Tadashi believed Koji was a trader at an aggressive American securities firm and used the intelligence he received to play the market, Koji dealt with him directly.