The Inside Story of the Legendary Japanese Financial Dynasty

The House of Nomura is the true story of a dynasty, and
the tale told here is on an epic scale. The story begins in
the nineteenth century with Tokushichi Nomura I, the
bastard son of a noble family living in rural Japan, and
ends with insider trading and global political powerbroking
in the late l980s.

It is the story of the creation of the most powerful
company in the world, Nomura Securities, a firm so
wealthy it could buy up every stockbroking house in
London, merely with its own resources. Nomura’s
stranglehold on Japan’s financial markets is so strong that
Ministry of Finance officials consult the company on all
major policy decisions. While the interests of Nomura are
those of the Japanese government, its penetration of the
US bond market is such that were Nomura to cease
purchasing US treasury bonds, the American economy
would be at grave risk.

The House of Nomura reveals how this frightening
concentration of power has come about and how it is
wielded in the interests of Japan. It also lays bare the
incestuous links between politicians, stockbrokers,
bureaucrats and businessmen — the very links that toppled
the Japanese government in 1989.

The author is the first Westerner to have been granted
access to the fanilly papers of the Nomura dynasty, and,
by means of exclusive interviews with Tokushichi’s
descendants, he recreates in fascinating detail the
colourful personalities and dazzling lifestyles of the family
in pre-war Japan, its rise to power, its sudden decline and
its dramatic resurgence to supremacy.