FUNNY BUSINESS A Outsider’s Year in Japan <i> By Gary Katzenstein (Prentice Hall: $8.95) </i>

The recipient of a prestigious Luce fellowship, Gary Katzenstein spent a year in Japan as an intern for the giant Sony electronics conglomerate. His tongue-in-cheek account of his attempt to penetrate both a Japanese corporation and Japanese society are amusing and revealing.

Significantly, he failed in his effort. No matter how hard he tried to adapt or how fluent he became in Japanese, Katzenstein remained a gaijin, an outsider, surrounded by an unbreachable wall of polite circumlocutions and distrust. Conversely, he found himself unable to accept the Japanese ideal of group identity and the relatively low standard of living that prevails in an extremely rich country.

“Funny Business” raises serious questions about the Japanese management techniques that have been lauded in the American press. Valuable reading for MBA candidates.