cover image The House of Nomura: The Inside Story of the Legendary Japanese Financial Dynasty

The House of Nomura: The Inside Story of the Legendary Japanese Financial Dynasty

Albert J. Alletzhauser. Arcade Publishing, $22.95 (343pp) ISBN 978-1-55970-089-4

Nomura Securities, the Japanese brokerage, dwarfs like American houses in profitability. Tracing how a small Osaka money-changing firm became a dominant force in world finance--surviving bank panics, General Douglas MacArthur's dismemberment of corporate Japan, competitors and internal corruption--Alletzhauser, a stockbroker, points up indigenous or peculiar features of Japan's business world. Payment of hush-money to racketeers who knew too much about financial, political or sexual scandals became an institutionalized feature at Nomura, and to gain tactical control over its labor force night and day, thousands of single men are housed in Nomura's cement-block dormitories. In this colorful company history, the author draws the curtain on a low-profile giant. Photos. 50,000 first printing. (Apr.)