Made in Japan and Other Japanese Business Novels

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.