The Nippon challenge

by Patrick Smith

A fascinatingly detailed account of how a handful of Japanese sailing enthusiasts overcame cultural tradition and public disinterest to make their country a credible contender for one of yachting's greatest prizes--the America's Cup. As Smith (Tokyo bureau chief for the International Herald Tribune) makes clear, Japan has tended to view the seas that surround it as a moat against the outside world or as an avenue of conquest, not as a playground. In 1987, however, a salty business executive named Tatsumitsu Yamasaki began to promulgate the idea that the island nation should vie for the 1992 America's Cup, in part to prove its willingness to compete on a playing field that had been a Western preserve. Yamasaki recruited sailing talent at home and abroad (mainly in New Zealand) while raising billions of yen from scores of corporate sponsors, including Yamaha.