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Acknowledgments ❖ Many people and organizations deserve thanks for their contributions to my formal and informal education, their support of my endeavors to study in Japan, and their general enthusiasm for both me and my work beyond what I could ever have imagined to deserve. Tom Rohlen served as my doctoral advisor at Stanford University. His grace, intelligence, and sense of humor were instrumental to my education there, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of being his student. Myra Strober and Francisco Ramirez served on my dissertation committee, providing detailed comments on my thesis and, along with Woody Powell, probing questions during a thesis defense that turned out to be an intellectual delight. At the University of Virginia, Michael Kubovy became my mentor for one year while I was the recipient of a UniversityTeaching Fellowship. We spent many hours discussing interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship. Gary Allinson was both a friend and a supporter; I count his books on the history of Japan among the best that I have read. I met Jack Huddleston while in an M.B.A. program at the University of Washington, and both in his class and beyond we disagreed on almost everything, but our mutual love of respectful debate turned into a long-term friendship. Both he and Gary are much missed. I want also to thank the anonymous readers in international business and the sociology of Japan for their extensive and helpful commentaries on the manuscript. Mick Gusinde-Duffy has been a gracious editor at Temple, pushing me along while giving me the room I needed to complete the work. None of this research would have happened without support from the people of Transco, my subjects for this book. At all levels of the organization, they were generous with their time, open with their opinions, and welcoming day in and day out even though I was no doubt a burden at times. I am lucky to be able to count some of them as friends, and I wish the best for each and every one of them. Nor would the research have happened without the financial support I received from the Blakemore Foundation, the Stanford Institute for International Studies, the David L. Boren Graduate Fellowship program, the University of Virginia Summer Research Awards and University Teaching Fellowship, and the Ellen Bayard Weedon East Asia Travel Grants. Among family and friends, I am grateful to many, but have room to name only a few. Brad Reed, my partner, is an unending source of love and support. Charles Fuller, my father, calls regularly just to ask how things are going. Liz Perry first introduced me to Japan.The women in my “dinner group” (Hanadi Al-Samman, Mehr Farooqi, Neeti Nair, and Rina Williams) provide me with many kinds of helpful conversation. I want also to extend a special thanks to Bert and Sue Blikslager,Victoria Blikslager O’Hara, and all the denizens ofWolfTrap Farm in whose company the morning fog is sure to lift. xvi Acknowledgments ...

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