This book introduces the experiences of a foreign woman in Japan, depicting accurately the way a Westerner feels when she encounters Japanese standards and rules. Amelie Nothomb was born in Belgium and began living in Japan from the age of two until she was five and returned later when she started working in a Japanese corporation in Tokyo. The novel is told to be relating her own experience of this time spent in the cruel settings, particularly at the headquarters of a corporation called Yumimoto.. The author’s sense of humour merged with the underlying sadness of the first contact with Japanese codes of behaviour, reveal the courage of a foreign woman trying to fit into the classic Japanese corporation based on hierarchy. This novel helped