THE TAKEOVER by Saburo Shiroyama (Eiichi...

THE TAKEOVER by Saburo Shiroyama (Eiichi Sugiura), translated by Keiko Ushiro (Vantage Press: $12.95). A former university professor of economics, Saburo Shiroyama writes with an insider’s knowledge of corporate management and financial double-dealing in this suspenseful novel. Fumimaro Aoi represents a new breed of Japanese entrepreneur--young, aggressive and thoroughly unscrupulous. Despised by other businessmen as an amoral parvenu, Aoi decides to prove himself by taking over Akashiya, an aging department store that represents old money, old values and what remains of old Tokyo. His single-minded pursuit of his objective brings him into conflict with the conservative old-boy network that runs Japan’s major corporations with understated efficiency, in a revealing tale of greed and obsession.