Funny Business: An Outsider's Year in Japan [Hardcover]

Gary J. Katzenstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1989

Katzenstein was chosen from among thousands of young applicants to spend a year working at Sony and experiencing Japanese culture firsthand. Armed with degrees in business and computer science, he set out for Tokyo. The results proved fascinating and painfully hilarious.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Gary-san, if you want to get to understand us, you have to remember that we Japanese are all the same," a co-worker advised the author soon after the newly graduated American MBA-holder arrived in Tokyo on a grant to spend 12 months working for Sony. Katzenstein learned that in a culture where solitary travelers are considered strange ("normal people . . . travel in groups") and conformity is prized above all else, a foreigner will always be gaijin , an outsider. He lamented midway through his sojourn: "I was a craggy black rock in their smoothly raked white pebble garden." Though enterprising, ambitious, loaded with chutzpah and eager to view legendary Japanese management strategies in action, the rugged individualist failed to fit in, was fired from Sony after several difficult months, but remained in Japan for the rest of his allotted year pondering his experiences. While a dry prose style at times mars his account, readers will appreciate the author's candor and insights into a significant foreign power. Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Like Michael Shapiro's Japan: In the Land of the Broken-hearted ( LJ 6/1/89), this depicts the frustrations of foreigners living in Japan. Katzenstein went to Japan as a Luce Foundation Scholar to study Japanese management at Sony a few years ago. Related with considerable humor, but also with growing criticism (Katzenstein eventually loses his position at Sony because he attempts to meet with the company's top executive and founder to discuss the meaningless nature of the work he has been assigned), this serves as an excellent introduction to the problems Japan can present for the outsider. A series of concluding remarks offer a challenge to many of the commonly held assumptions regarding Japanese management techniques and the nature of the "economic miracle." Overall, an entertaining if sometimes embittered discussion. Reader's Digest condensed book selection.
- Scott Wright, Coll. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press; 1st edition (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939149184
• ISBN-13: 978-0939149186
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,654,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious! Insightful!, October 13, 1999

By 

Kathryn H Ramirez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funny Business: An Outsider's Year in Japan (Hardcover)

I read this book several years ago, and could hardly put it down. Everyone I've shared it with felt the same way.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate, insightful and humerous., December 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Funny Business: An Outsider's Year in Japan (Hardcover)

Having lived and worked in Japan, for a Japanese company, I can attest to the accuracy of this book. The author's observations regarding business and social life are as current today as when the book was written. I highly recommend this book as a humerous, yet essential guide to living in Tokyo.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Penetrating perspectives on a bizarre world, February 16, 2003

By 

John Counsel (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funny Business: An Outsider's Year in Japan (Paperback)

I read Gary's book when it first came out and LOVED it.

For me, the most telling insights were these:
In America, the prevailing axiom is "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". In Japan, it's "The nail that sticks out gets hammered".

Both are forms of emotional blackmail, but one is more intimidating than the other. The truth is, both societies are extremely conformist, but diametrically opposed in the way they achieve conformity.

I also found the incident after his arrival quite telling -- the one where the cab driver requests a map for his destination, despite Gary insisting that the address should be enough until, finally, the Japanese cabbie explains, wearily, that Gary doesn't understand... "Number one house in street is first house built."

So tradition triumphs over logic in a society that seems to defy logic at every turn.

If it does nothing else, it should prepare visitors to Japan to expect the unexpected, and to set aside their notions of how society "should" operate.