Synopsis

Japanese cars are being burned in Detroit. Toyosan Motors' leadership faces a tough choice: should they start manufacturing in the U.S.? Mr. Kudo, our protagonist, thinks it's a terrible idea. Offshore production would crush Japan's local auto suppliers and hollow out the entire domestic industry—he's seen it happen to American TV makers. His rival, Mr. Tsugawa, dismisses Kudo as soft and smells an opportunity to break unions. Can Kudo stop this? That's how this manga kicks off. It's a smart, entertaining look at economics through a Japanese lens. The rest of the series tackles the yen's rise, the oil shocks of the 1970s, deficit spending, globalization in business and banking, and Japan's post-industrial future. This is an English translation of the first volume of Manga Nihon Keizai Nyumon, originally published in 1986 by Nihon Keizai Shimbun (basically Japan's Wall Street Journal). It's based on their serious economics primer but told through comics, packed with data and charts. When it hit shelves in Japan, it was a massive hit—over 550,000 copies sold in under a year. The stories capture Japan's mood during the bubble years: optimistic but anxious, tinged with self-pity. There's real skepticism about politicians and bureaucrats throughout. The prime minister cares more about polling numbers than sound policy. By the end, though, Toyosan's workers show that Japan's economic strength isn't about resources or government—it comes down to ethical, responsible business practices and thinking ahead.

Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.

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