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Book Overview
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.
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.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0520071425
ISBN13:9780520071421
Release Date:April 1991
Publisher:University of California Press
Length:256 Pages
Weight:0.80 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Shows subtle Japanese behavior
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Shosha Man shows the subtle ways the Japanese culture works. So much of the culture is reading between the lines, and this book really shows the honne and tatemae (the inner and outer self) of the Japanese salaryman. It lets the reader feel the unsaid between boss, employee, coworkers, and lovers, and shows how the different status levels come into play. I recommend this book for anyone who knows some of Japanese culture and wants to explore deeper.
A depiction of the struggle between Entrepreneur & Salaryman
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
I read this 'Japanese corporate novel' nine years ago, and it has sat on my shelves since that time...I've not thrown it away because I was so smitten by it. The translation - despite the threat of dull subject matter - it lively and fresh. And despite the changes in the Japanese situation over the last decade (remember when we thought Japanese global economic domination was an inevitability?), the applicability of the novel remains fully in force today. It gets to the heart of every Japanese 'salaryman' & their internal struggle with their acceptance of that lifestyle vs. their deeply internalized entrepreneurial yearnings.The breakthrough achieved by the book's protagonist, Nakasato, and the misery that befalls his one-time officemate Ojima, might seem mundane on the surface, but surely strike the average Japanese worker like a tremendous blow to the chest.Really top-notch stuff and far better than any dry non-fiction, treatise in delivering insight into the Japanese business mind.
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