Part personal memoir, part professional flashback, part socio-cultural commentary, The Call of Japan chronicles the author’s experiences during his 40 years of living in Japan, from 1950 to 1974 as a ‘reluctant banker’, and from 2003 to the present as a writer. The Call of Japan comments extensively on the country’s economic, political and cultural realities during the crucial early years of post-war reconstruction as well as during more recent times.

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I

The Wooing (1950-1958)

1950

1 Now You Love It…

2 Should We Trust Our First Impressions?

3 The Emperor and the General

4 The Old Tokaido Line to Osaka

5 Of Hot Baths and Fragrant Tea

6 The Halfway-up Bank

7 A Rhythmic Neighbourhood and the Broken White Soldiers

8 The Midnight Whistle

1951

9 Work, Leisure, Home Life

10 The Floating World

11 Through a Paper Screen Darkly

1952

12 Punishment for Going Missing

1953

13 A Well-oiled Little Cogwheel

14 Those Restless Bones

1954

15 Joining the Kantomon

16 Upstairs/Downstairs in the Japanese Economy

17 A Tale of Two Cultures

1955

18 How to Fish and How to Say Goodbye

1956

19 Back in Holland…

20 A Fresh Start: Osaka

1957

21 The Teachings of IJsbrand

22 Kyoto and the Magatama Attitude

23 Another Way of Seeing

24 More Kyoto Adventures

1958

25 Osaka Realities

26 Escapes and Escapades

27 Casting the Die

Part II

The Winning (1959-1966)

1959

1 Dark Rumblings Beneath a Pristine New Year

2 An Orderly Wedding – and a Honeymoon of Sorts

3 A Witch in the House

4 Shifting Sands

1960

5 A Narrow Escape

6 Political Turmoil in Tokyo – and an ‘Economic’

Response

1961

7 ‘Getting to Know You…’ or What Went on in the Hot-springs

1962

8 Crisis Management (by the Seat of the Pants)

9 The Foul Smell of Success, and the Need for Faith 1

10 Capital Living

1963

11 The Looming Olympics … and the Overflowing Cup

12 The Seamy Side: Defeating the Yakuza

1964

13 Nothing Changes, Except Everything Else

14 ‘See No Evil…’

1965

15 A Superior Society?

16 Chameleon Man

1966

17 A Thoroughly Ordinary Year

Part III

The Waning (1967-1974)

1967

1 Beyond the Social Whirl

2 Pornographic Chic

3 The Seven Generations Curse: A Case History

4 Falling Scales

1968

5 A Great and Alien Land

6 Kafka’s Ape and a Tower in the Air

1969

7 Amae or How to Have it Both Ways

1970

8 The Growing Conflict

9 Business as Usual

10 A Beautiful Death?

1971

11 ‘Go Placidly Among the Noise and Haste…’

1972

12 Nixon in China and the Tanaka Phenomenon

1973

13 The Art of Evasion

14 Decision Time

15 The Good and the Bad: An Assessment (1973)

16 An Unlikely Story

1974

17 Creeping Doubts

18 Trailing Roots

Part IV

The View From Abroad (1974-2002)

1 Preamble

1974

2 Ageing Albion

1975

3 Pessimistic Nippon

1976

4 Back to Banking - in Curaçao…

1977

5 A Business Trip to Japan - and T?fukuji Revisited

1978

6 Japan Again - and Remembering the Departed

1979

7 The Final Months in Curaçao - and the Move to Holland

1981

8 Japan’s Lengthening Reach - and a New Start for Me

1982

9 AMRO’s NewYork Branch Opened - but Japan Still a Factor

1983

10 Walking the Bride Down the Aisle…

1984

11 Pulled Between Two Cities…

1985

12 U.S. Banks Upset by Japan’s Market Aggression

13 Last Rites for a Lady

1986

14 An AMRO Tokyo Conference - and Special “Service” at a Restaurant

15 A Memorial Service in Nagoya

1988

16 Goodbye to Banking - and Japan’s Bubble Economy

1989

17 The End of the Showa Era - and the Fall of the Wall

1990-1998

18 The Restless Years

1999-2003

19 In London - but Focusing on Japan

Part V

Back on Familiar Soil (2003 to the Present)

Preamble

1 The Difference 70 years make

2 Japan’s Fundamental Problems and Vulnerabilities

(a) Lack of Natural Resources

(b) Frequency of Earthquakes and other Calamities

(c) Declining Population

(d) Troubled Relations with its Neighbours

(e) Lack of Decisiveness in Addressing Fundamental Problems

3 My late Wife’s Unique Personality
4 An Overview of my Writings and other Activities

(a) My Writings

(b) Photography

5 What We Can Learn from Japan

Afterword

Glossary

Index