PZR009 has been designed and developed in Japan. Thanks to the Green Pass, a lot of the development work has been done on the Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train between Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka. The remaining work happened in Roppongi, Shimbashi, and Ginza. It took two months in Japan to complete PZR009 from conception to reality.

With that said, major events are developing on the horizon. We are preparing to have PZR009 as our first brand line based in Japan.

I want the brothas and sistas to understand something business-related, especially the Dream and Hustle Early Adopters – the United States and Japan have had a Digital Trade Agreement in place since 2000. The trade agreement is the following definition from the Trade.gov website:

“The U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement includes high-standard provisions that ensure data can be transferred across borders without restrictions, guarantee consumer privacy protections, promote adherence to common principles for addressing cyber security challenges, support effective use of encryption technologies, and boost digital trade.”

This is why many Bitcoin and crypto firms rushed to Japan to create exchanges because that is data-driven operations not subjected to customs or restrictions. Another advantage is to use Japan as a digital data hub and offer data services without customs and restrictions like other countries that demand access to your data and restrict what data you store on your servers.

There is a story behind the development of PZR009 in Japan – the number of Minato ladies I encountered daily who made every day in Japan awesome. I’m sorry, but most of you brothas need to be of a certain caliber even to experience what I experienced.

Minato Vibes

The best and most perfect way to describe Minato is how Black America was in the 1990s and 1980s with a hint of 1970s.  Back then, the sistas had a nice vibe about them and were approachable, and you could actually have a conversation and hang out in the open streets. On Sundays, I have a clutch bag I would never carry in the United States. I meet a group of grown Japanese women, and they smile and talk, reminding me of how it was back in the day.

Let me explain clearly – I have on a dark blazer with a dress shirt, holding my clutch bag, walking up to Ginza Six and Japanese women enjoying their Sunday all dressed up, waving, talking to me, getting numbers, and some we just hang out for coffee and chat at a table. You guys are not the caliber so don’t even try this at home, this is grown folks who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s who lived that vibe.   

If you are a brotha over 50s and hung out near the Blue Cross Blue Sheild building like we used to do in Chicago at Randolph and Michigan during the summer, or you were in DC hanging out the spot where all the government workers go out for lunch back in the 1980s and 1990s, then you know that vibe I’m talking that is still alive in Tokyo in the Minato area.

Minato Girls

Minato-ku Joshi (港区女子) are stereotyped in Japan as women who travel to the Minato ward to be around wealthy and professional men, hoping to snag a good man. The portrayal of Minato women is they doll up and hang out in this area hoping to be the catch. Some would say this happens in places such as Hong Kong and China, but my on-the-ground feeling is Japan is operating more like the good old days that we African Americans experienced in the 1980s and 1990s.

My experience with these women in the Minato Ward is not interacting with a bunch of Japanese gold diggers. What I have experienced are professional-class women who are grown and sexy and have goals and ambition.

I meet women at the Minato shopping area like I used to meet women back in Chicago back in the 1980s, meet them in the bookstore, and even meet them in the Itoya stationery store – it was some fine women, including European women at Itoya buying stationery and fountain pens, some of them were writing on sample paper next to me and that was a conversation starter – no, you not doing this back in the United States, this is 1980s.

Azabudai Hills

 I have spent time in Azabudai Hills, and that changed everything. I started meeting grown Japanese women who were working professionally and had side hustles – I started realizing I was meeting the kind of women I tried to find in America for the longest time. Then, when they started finding out what I was doing, they were so impressed and encouraged me with kind words, something I never got from sistas in the United States.

PZR009 is not just a content platform, it will be a mixed-media platform that push articles, podcasts, videos, e-books and Yonkoma manga – anime comic strips. On the subway in Tokyo or Osaka, you will see Japanese people of all ages reading comic strips on their phones. They are reading content in Japan, just like the 1980s and 1990s. You folks in America are not reading anything or even riding on the subways – just watching short videos, giggling to yourself.

Based on my conversations with these ladies in Minato, where I met them at Tsutaya Books – the old school B. Dalton and Borders books in the 1990s.  I go to Tsutaya to learn Japanese publishing and what it covers. they have the same kind of magazines as we used to have, Jive and Right On! back in the 1980s, and books with independent authors; most of them are Minato girls.

It started coming together – the best place for PZR009 is where it was created – in Japan. There is no way I can capture the essence of the Japanese publishing industry and the consumers of published information here in the United States. The only other place I can think of is London or Seoul, but I believe the Digital Trade Agreement makes Japan the sweet spot.  

PZR009 is a global operation – it will not be like Dream and Hustle, which we will be fully transitioned out of by the end of the year with the help of AI. The search engine and advertising engine integrated into the platform will be a major global revenue maker. There is no option but to go big and go to the market and source where the real market is at.

This is why when you visit PZR009 and social media, you will see the branding of a lady in line art – that is the tribute to the Minato ladies who were part of my experience developing this platform in Japan.