Introduction

The time is the beginning of the 1980s. Six of us are seated along a rectangular table, three on each side, in a Japanese restaurant on the other side of the world from Japan. At one end of the table is a Japanese trade official talking in English to the second-in-command of the host country’s agency tasked with coaxing inward direct investment sitting opposite him. Diagonally across at the other end of the table is the executive of a Japanese manufacturer talking across to me, but in Japanese. Facing each other between these two pairs are the director of the agency and the president of the said manufacturer. Linguistic incompatibility has rendered them silent. In no uncertain terms, and making no attempt whatsoever to mute his tones, the executive is launching on a tirade addressed to me but aimed at the trade official. He detested that type. They just sat on their behinds and did nothing. They had no idea what work really meant. The message was not new to me. I had had first-hand experience with a number of small businesses in Japan where I had lived by that time for over a decade. I was familiar with the Mercedes-driving machine shop owner quivering with indignation as he recounted the frosty reception given him by an administrative flunky in ill-fitting trousers or a bank clerk half his age and commanding a tiny fraction of his income.