Book on finance expats in Tokyo

[Mulboyne]

Ugly Americans : The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions

This book gets a ringing endorsement today from UCLA's Tom Plate who "cannot recommend it more highly"

I have to disagree. It is about the expat finance crowd in Tokyo and falls very short as an accurate description of that area. OK for a novel but it is supposed to be a true story. The stories of high-rolling expats are the usual string of tall tales. Read the excerpt on Amazon describing a Kabukicho sekuhara club Here and you get the idea. Avoid.

[Captain Japan]

Ugly Americans : The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions

This book gets a ringing endorsement today from UCLA's Tom Plate who "cannot recommend it more highly"

Tom Plate might be the most boring writer in history.

The stories of high-rolling expats are the usual string of tall tales. Read the excerpt on Amazon describing a Kabukicho sekuhara club Here and you get the idea. Avoid.

Taro thought so as well and filed it under "Newbie Journos" finding Japan.

[Mulboyne]

Taro thought so as well and filed it under "Newbie Journos" finding Japan.

Oops...

[Taro Toporific]

Taro thought so as well and filed it under "Newbie Journos" finding Japan.

Oops...

Well, Mulboyne's opinion carries a hell of a lot more weight.
I've only been on the receiving end of a foreign buyout of a Japanese company getting reamed by a Chinese company no less...you know that's gotta hurt, ouch.

[gkanai]

I enjoyed Gillian Tett's "Saving the Sun" which was about LTCB and Shinsei and Ripplewood a lot.

I was initially interested in the Mezrich book, but the more I hear about it, the less I am interested.

[Captain Japan]

I have to disagree. It is about the expat finance crowd in Tokyo and falls very short as an accurate description of that area. OK for a novel but it is supposed to be a true story. The stories of high-rolling expats are the usual string of tall tales. Read the excerpt on Amazon describing a Kabukicho sekuhara club Here and you get the idea. Avoid.

I read that passage. It is a bit over the top, for sure; lots of silly descriptions for Shinjuku and whatnot.

Mulboyne, care to shed some light on what parts specifically might be "tall tales" of high-rolling ex-pats?

One guy at the office told me about one such place he likes in Kabukicho. It is a strip club actually. But some nights they'd have harrassment nights. They put a makeshift train car on stage and let the customers have at it with a selection of girls in sailor suits. But there is one caveat: you can't grab the girls in certain sensitive areas. The girls are wired and if you grope inappropriately, an alarm would go off and some heavies come from the back and beat the shit out of the perpetrators. After that show, the girls then get up on stage and urinate above a fishtank while still wearing their underwear. The soaking garment is then be stripped and tossed to the anxious crowd.

[Mulboyne]

In the book, a "legendary" FG trader regularly holds court and business meetings in hostess bars and routinely mixes with yakuza. In one club, his bright protege falls in love with "the most beautiful girl" who not only isn't actually a hostess but turns out to be the owner's daughter. Said owner asks "Do you love her?" and gives his blessing to the union saying "Have a happy gaijin life together!"
Since finance has its fair share of outsize egos and competitiveness, if you've been to one crazy bar then someone else always has to have been somewhere more outlandish. Never mind that most never stray far from the usual haunts.
Tokyo certainly has some fairly unorthodox venues but not many people find them and those who do certainly don't shack up with the owner's pride and joy.
One story I often used to hear was about a Kabukicho club with live sex shows. If you went to the toilet, you had to be sure to go through the unmarked door. Should you go through the door marked "Men", you allegedly got a bag over your head, handcuffs on your wrists and an impromptu starring spot in the next show. There are still people in this town who claim to have been to this wholly fictitious club. I've no doubt there are some pretty hardcore places here but most people prefer to have the stories pre-packaged and ready to trot out rather than actually try and find them.
Living like rock stars? I think this year's cocaine/heroin deaths give a better insight into how some idiots try to do that.

[Mulboyne]

Oh dear...the film treatment has been bought by Dreamworks according to Scriptsales.com

Title: Ugly Americans
Log Line: In the mid-1990s, John Malcolm, a Princeton graduate, took a job offer to be an arbitrage trader for a couple of expatriates in Japan. There, he and his co-workers went from rags to riches and created the American Dream half a world away until run-ins with the Yakuza and governmental agents sent him on the run for his life.
Writer: Robert Schenkkan
Agent: William Morris Agency
Buyer: DreamWorks
Price: n/a
Genre: Drama
Logged: 5/13/05
More: To be adapted from Ben Mezrich's "Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions." Option. Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Productions will produce.