This light-hearted look at business relations between Japan and the West follows the fortunes of two cultural transplants - Bob Collins, a forthright American insurance executive who lives and works in Tokyo, and Shuji Tomikawa, a Harvard-educated Japanese working for Mitsui Real Estate in New York City.

Through his meetings with these men, the author is able to draw some surprising conclusions about current Japanese business practices, both in relation to foreigners attempting to trade with them, and in terms of their own headlong rush into overseas markets, from the Ginza bars of Tokyo to the wino gangs of Times Square.