Made in Japan and Other Japanese "Business Novels" (East Gate Books) [Hardcover]

Tamae K. Prindle (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Almost sociological in their detail, these seven short stories--all examples of the "business novel," a popular genre in Japan--offer a fascinating, self-critical glimpse of Japanese corporate culture and the human costs of the work ethic. While some of the smoothly translated tales are dry and didactic, others deftly reflect a business world rife with pretension, manipulation and conformism. In Ikko Shimizu's romantic melodrama "Silver Sanctuary," an upstart banker's need to maintain an ideal self-image affects his choice of a marriage partner. "Kinjuo the Corporate Bouncer" by Saburo Shiroyama details power plays at shareholders' meetings. The settings range from a Tokyo candy factory to a Los Angeles trading company, and some of the stories cast a skeptical eye on the U.S. government's pressure tactics in trade negotiations and on the American advertising industry, "gifted at grasping mob psychology."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: M E Sharpe Inc (February 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087332529X
• ISBN-13: 978-0873325295
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,453,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The real Japan revealed, September 24, 2008

By 

Michael E. Piston (Mercer Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Made in Japan: And Other Japanese Business Novels (Paperback)

The stories of this book are persuasively presented as portraying the real Japan - a place of Darwinian struggle for economic survival in which the large and powerful eat, chew up and spit out the small and weak. The main story centers around a company whose role as a supplier to a large Japanese "OEM" (Original Equipment Manufacturer) is more like that of a samurai to his daimyo, but not even that since daimyos (lords) in feudal Japan were at least supposed to have some loyalty to their followers. Here however it is clear that the supplier simply exists to be used, abused and/or discarded by the OEM at its whim. We also get to observe the fine art of Japanese downsizing, in which unwanted employees, rather than receiving a pink slip in their envelope, are gradually but relentlessly eased out of a company that no longer wants them. There is also the pathetic story of an Office Lady past her prime who was unable to marry out of the corporation, and so is trapped in a world of sexual subservience, as well as a glimpse into the world of geishas which, surprisingly, the author presents as little more than high priced prostitutes. Altogether it is an intriguing look a country that seemed so intimidating to the U.S. in the 1970s, but now has faded into the background of our consciousness as U.S. public opinion finds another Asian economic monster to demonize.