The Blue-Eyed Salaryman: From World Traveller to Lifer at Mitsubishi [Paperback]

Niall Murtagh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2009

Why on earth would anyone give up a life on the open road for the regimen of a vast Japanese conglomerate? And is it really so different in Japan from everywhere else? Niall Murtagh spent years as a world traveller - hitchhiking to Istanbul, bussing to Kathmandu and crossing the Atlantic in a home-built yacht. In 1986 he closed the door on his adventurous life and settled down in Japan, eventually joining Mitsubishi as a Salaryman - a man in a shiny suit with a shiny attache case in a conglomerate with 100,000 employees. And what happens when you give up the Salaryman life? The book follows life after the corporation, giving fresh perspectives on the nature of Japanese business culture and the problems faced by outsiders in Japan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating and engaging book ... a rare inside look at corporate life in Japan, one that's worth more than a dozen business-school studies." - Bloomberg

"Full of wonderful vignettes and details. "- Spectator

"Murtagh gives a fascinating account of a system that is misunderstood, even satirised, in the West."- Culture Vulture Books

About the Author

Niall Murtagh has lived in Japan since 1986, initially as a Japanese government-sponsored student, later as an ordinary employee of Mitsubishi. He has written for various publications on travel, technology and corporate culture. He has diplomas in Japanese and French and a doctorate in artificial intelligence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Profile Books (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861977891
• ISBN-13: 978-1861977892
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #495,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blue-eyed or Any-eyed Salaryman, September 1, 2006

By 

Ronald L. Sayles "Ron Sayles" (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Blue-Eyed Salaryman: From World Traveller to Lifer at Mitsubishi (Paperback)

Niall Murtagh is an Irishman who came to Japan to study the language. He ended up working for the Mitsubishi corporation for 14 years. Murtagh was a world traveler who did not stay in any one place for to long. So how is it he stayed with one company, a japanese company at that, for 14 years? This book attempts to answer that perplexing question. Though Murtagh has led a varied life, he devotes most of his book to his 14 years with the Mitsubishi Company as a Japanese kaishain, or salaryman.

Murtagh rose to a middle-manager position, almost unheard of for any gaijin (foreigner) in a Japanese corporation. He was always the only gaijin in the room. Because his Japanese was flawless he was always looked at askance. The Japanese feel that their language is to difficult for gaijin to learn let alone speak fluently. He tells of his daily commute to work on a bicycle, his unpaid overtime, company uniforms and he even the company song.

He says little of his personal life. His courtship and marriage to Miyuki is a good example of this. He sums up this chapter of his life by saying Miyuki's parents approved of their marriage because of his Mitsubishi credentials.

Murtagh keeps the story moving in a conversational style. He has an eye for the irony of the cultural differences between the west and the east.

I have a friend in Tokyo who is also a salaryman. I got this book for that reason. I wanted to see some of the things that he had to go through. He said that many of the experiences that Murtagh went through are quite common for a gaijin salaryman.

It is an entertaining book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has friends or family working in Japan. And for those of you who don't, it is still an interesting read to compare the cultures.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for anybody working in a Japanese corporation in Japan (or thinking about it), October 26, 2005

By 

naniwa "naniwa" (Osaka, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue-Eyed Salaryman (Hardcover)

"The Blue-eyed Salaryman" is a book written by Niall Murtagh, an Irishman, and is based on his real life experience as a salaryman at Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan.

The story starts when he joins the R&D department at Mitsubishi in the early 1990. At the beginning he was a contract worker, but eventually he became a normal lifetime salaryman. He was also the first foreigner to be promoted to management level in Mitsubishi in Japan.

His book is very interesting, because it is based on his experience over a period of more than 10 years. So he really got to understand deeply about Mitsubishi's culture and way of working. He also experienced the end of the bubble area, and the following crisis years.

Later on, Murtagh-san was transferred to Osaka, which allowed him to compare between Osaka and Tokyo working culture. His finding was that people in Tokyo cared about big visionary research projects, whereas in Osaka all research needs to have a practical application to get accepted. He did enjoy living in the Osaka area, and eventually enjoyed working here.

The final conclusion of his book is that for foreigners, as change agents, it is not meaningful to join traditional Japanese companies from the bottom; because the only way to drive fundamental change in large Japanese traditional corporations is top down. According to Niall, Carlos Ghosn would never have been able to impact to Nissan if he had joined them from the bottom...

Working as a foreigner in a large Japanese corporation in Japan, I really identified strongly with Niall's writing. It gave me a sense of comfort, making me believe that I still haven't lost my common sense....

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best of its kind---worth your time!, September 17, 2006

By 

NoBooksNoLife (Tokyo, Japan and Nevada USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Blue-Eyed Salaryman: From World Traveller to Lifer at Mitsubishi (Paperback)

Content is accurate, well-observed, and recounted with sensitivity and balance; happily, it's very well-written and flows beautifully. Certainly worthwhile reading for foreigners working with (or for) the Japanese. Hopefully, this work will appear in a Japanese edition as well, and I'll bet it would be a best-seller in Japan. Like the author, I have worked in a large Japanese company, married a Japanese national, and make my home in Japan.