Customer Reviews

The House of Nomura: The Inside Story of the Legendary Japanese Financial Dynasty

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it is a well researched book on the history of nomura. where it came from, by whom, how it developed...it is written in 1990 when nomura could buy up goldman sachs. it is outdated now but it is a good account of nomura history up to 1990. read it with the understanding that most info that the author could get is positive, that firm isn't as strong as the author described, especially now.

The story of the biggest Japanese investment bank.
The development of this broker powerhouse was based on their door-to-door salesman: 'The pressure to generate stock-market orders is with a salesman every waking hour.' (p.191)
No orders, no commissions ... fired.
Good picture of the Japanese employee: a well paid slave, nearly without freedom or domestic life (see also the hilarious book by Amélie Nothomb 'Fear and Trembling').
Only 10% of the company's profits go to the employees, the other 90% to the directors, who spend fortunes on mistresses, official or not.
This book is not critical enough, although now and then it touches the other heart of the matter: churning of client accounts by overstressed salesmen, bribing of politicians and state officials, murky deals with underworld figures.
Interesting investigation but not the whole truth.