Although the cover review says it's "hilarious", that's a bit hyped. Still, this book has just the right amount of humour and irony to keep you entertained. If it was all humour, then it would be stereotyping and exaggerating, as many other books on Japan have done. The writing style is good, topics change from one thing to another, there are lots of nice anecdotes and you never get bored.
If you know some Japanese, you'll appreciate the names of the people described: Mr Nombiri (Easygoing), Mr Hayakui (Fasteater), Mr Higashi (East), who doesn't know much about the West, Mr Nishi (West), who is a fan of General Electric, Mr Shinsetsu (Kind), Miss Kekko (Nothanks) who doesn't want to go on a date, Prof Erai (Great), Mr Shatai (Carbody), who works for Nissan, Mr Eizo (Screenimage), who works for Xerox, etc. There are also translations of the some of the company rules: some good, some weird, and some funny. The author reflects on career decisions that caused him to switch from hitchhiker to salaryman, before going independent again. He describes how he adapted to the local culture and shows how far an outsider can go -- and should go -- in Japan Inc.
