The Brothers

Just as America has its moguls - its Getties, Rockefellers and Trumps - Japan too has its legendary business figures, men who have made vast fortunes through sheer force of character, and have been responsible for transforming the face of the country. In THE BROTHERS, Lesley Downer tells the story of the most famous, colourful and charismatic of all Japan's business dynasties. Within Japan they are legendary - for their boundless wealth, their exploits, personalities, private lives and also for their fabled hatred of one another. The story focusses around three men- the father, a citizen Kane figure who worked his way up from nothing to become one of the richest, most powerful and most hated men in the country; his illegitimate son, to whom he left most of his fortune, and who is now rated one of the richest men in the world, with personal assets of #16 billion, and his more avant garde legitimate son, who was spurned by his father and built up his own vast business empire. THE BROTHERS is both great drama and also the extraordinary story of the last hundred years of Japanese history.