Keiretsu

Maverick capitalist Boone Pickens has denounced them as "government-sponsored cartels." Chrysler's Lee lacocca has suggested forming "our own little keiretsu system" in the United States. But whether you regard Japan's mammoth corporate alliances as a menace to trade or a model for change, you probably don't understand how the keiretsu really operate. Here, at last, is the book that will open your eyes. "Our hard-nosed business leaders look like Dorothy wandering through Oz when it comes to dealing with Japan," observes David Russell, an American business journalist based in Tokyo since 1982.…