
Shoshaman
A Tale of Corporate Japan
Shinya Arai(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 18. April 1991
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-520-07142-1 (ISBN)
Description
Acknowledging no god but the corporate good, the shoshamen--high-powered professionals within Japan's integrated trading companies--serve as the unrelenting cogs of an economic machine. Or do they? Shoshaman takes us inside the world of Japan Inc. to explore the daily lives of the people who inhabit it. Written by a senior executive in a major sogo shosha, this absorbing novel reveals, as no textbook can, the strategies required to win the race to the top. It also makes painfully clear the ethical and psychological choices that such a race demands. The cast of characters is as varied as the corporate world itself, from the devoted Ojima, who has been passed over by the company, to the spirited Masako, who strikes out on her own. The hero, Nakasato Michio, finds that the road to success is long and perilous, as he tries to satisfy his ambitions while remaining faithful to his values. First published as Kigyoka sarariman in 1986 and made into a prize-winning television miniseries in 1988, the book has been acclaimed in Japan for the verisimilitude of its characters and situations.
It offers a clear understanding of what it is like--in human terms--to survive and perhaps succeed within the confines of the Japanese corporation.
It offers a clear understanding of what it is like--in human terms--to survive and perhaps succeed within the confines of the Japanese corporation.
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-07142-1 (9780520071421)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/1991
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€30.49
Available for download
Persons
Arai Shinya is Executive Vice President of Summit Inc. and a Director of the Sumitomo Corporation. His fiction, published under the pen name of Azuchi Satoshi, includes Downstream Industry (Shosetsu ryutsu sangyo; 1981), retitled in paperback as Supermarket (Shosetsu supamaketto; 1983). Chieko Mulhern is Professor of Japanese and Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the translator of Pagoda, Skull, and Samurai: Three Stories by Koda Rohan (1985) and the author of a historical novel, Amethyst Ring (Aoi suisho; 1985).
Content
INTRODUCTION The Japanese Business Novel
By Chieko Mulhern
PROLOGUE The Intruder
April
ONE New York
March
TWO The Turning Point
Fifteen Years Ago
THREE Black Hair
April
FOUR Lost Years
April
FIVE Between Entrepreneur and Salaryman
May
SIX Our People
Early June
EPILOGUE The Insubordinate Loyalist
Late June
AFTERWORD
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
By Chieko Mulhern
PROLOGUE The Intruder
April
ONE New York
March
TWO The Turning Point
Fifteen Years Ago
THREE Black Hair
April
FOUR Lost Years
April
FIVE Between Entrepreneur and Salaryman
May
SIX Our People
Early June
EPILOGUE The Insubordinate Loyalist
Late June
AFTERWORD
ABOUT THE AUTHOR