Japan Inc
Japan Inc aka Manga Nihon Keizai Nyumon (an introduction to the Japanese economy) is a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori (written 1986 to 1988). It's a non-fiction manga about the Japanese economy (also covering economics in general), mostly seen from the POV of several employees of the car firm Toyosan: The managers Tsugawa and Kudo, their boss Akiyama, their female coworker Miss Amamiya, and lower-rank guy Ueda. Originally serialized in the upscale business paper "Nippon Keizai Shinbun", the manga was published as an economics textbook by the University of California.
Tropes used in Japan Inc include:
- An Aesop: Capitalism is good.
- Bland-Name Product: The car firms Toyosan, Mitsutomo, Chrysky; the US TV station CBN...
- Bottle Fairy: Tsugawa's wife.
- Butt Monkey: Ueda
- Capitalism: Provides several of them as footnotes.
- Character Development: Ueda starts as the somewhat goofy little employee, but he learns and seems to have grown some discipline at the end.
- Eagle Land
- Foil: Tsugawa and Kudo. Tsugawa is your typical ruthless manager, Kudo is the social guy who thinks about the employees.
- Foreign Fanservice: A stripper in a cowgirl costume.
- Happily Married: Kudo.
- I Want Grandkids: Ueda's mom comments that Miss Amamiya has the right shape to get many children, hint hint.
- Jerkass: Tsugawa
- The Mafia
- Massive-Numbered Siblings: Ueda has eight, and seven of them are sisters.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Ueda's mother.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Ueda
- Private Detective: Finds out that a big union boss is customer in an S&M club.
- Ronald Reagan
- Salaryman: The main characters
- The Series: There's an anime made in 1987/88 (25 episodes of 25 minutes each). You can also find it on YouTube (at least, parts of it).
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Ueda has to correct his mother's impression that Miss Amamiya is this.
- Tsundere: Miss Amamiya has some of it.
- Visual Pun: When Ueda admits he likes America, she comments: "He must be an alien." In this panel, he is drawn as The Alien.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Tsugawa
- Your Cheating Heart: Tsugawa has an affair with an Italian woman - and Kudo knows.