A young American businesswoman discovers life inside a Japanese corporation. Armed with a new degree in Japanese studies, plenty of youthful idealism, and a can-do attitude, a young woman accepts a job as the first American trainee at Honda's headquarters in Tokyo. Her image of Japanese corporate life is dramatically challenged on her first day at work when she is issued a blue polyester uniform--a uniform worn only by women! With good humor and accessible prose, Laura Kriska relates her journey through the company, from serving tea to executives and cleaning the boss's desk to a stint in public relations and developing training classes for Japanese associates going to America. The reader is rooting for Kriska as she recounts her struggle to adapt to--and ultimately thrive in--the culture of a traditional Japanese company. Shortly before her departure, she comes full circle by introducing a successful campaign to make women's uniforms optional. Now with a new foreword by the author, The Accidental Office Lady is a vivid and valuable firsthand account not only of corporate Japan and the gender inequality that persists within it, but of an outsider's successful attempt to work within cultural boundaries to affect organizational change.

Discover how this leader-focused approach to understanding, managing, and maximizing organizational diversity and inclusion can increase employee retention and productivity. Workplace misunderstandings lead to lost revenue, lost time, and increased legal risk, thus your success in the marketplace will depend on our ability to collaborate across difference. Yet, inevitably, Us versus Them gaps disrupt workplace efficiency. In The Business of WE, cross-cultural consultant and diversity expert Laura Kriska will: Provide a practical roadmap for creating trust with others who are culturally different from yourself Help you create a WE mindset throughout your organization, bringing teams together into cohesive units. Walk you through the steps in fostering a workplace that is inclusive and respectful of all employees—one of the most critical, yet most widely mismanaged keys to success. Stakeholders are demanding real change, and nothing less than comprehensive solutions that lead to meaningful and lasting solutions will suffice. The Business of WE arrives just in time to help you stop Us versus Them gaps before they start and foster authentic connections across race, ethnicity, religion, age, and any other factor of identity to exponentially strengthen your entire organization.

One Sunday evening, a friend asked if he could stop by. Over a bottle of wine - I don't remember if it was red or white - he suggested that my husband, Rick Kriseman, should run for the St. Petersburg City Council. That conversation changed the course of our lives. Six years on the City Council led to six years in the state House of Representatives and then two four-year terms as mayor of Florida's fifth largest city. That conversation let to eight elections and 22 years in public life for Rick - and for me, the accidental first lady of St. Petersburg, a life on the front lines and behind the scenes of local politics.

Immortality bites- new from the author of Accidentally Dead and The Accidental Werewolf. Wanda Schwartz is raking in the dough selling Bobbie-Sue Cosmetics-and she's a pro at recruiting new saleswomen. So, she's shocked when a man comes to one of her in-home parties-a very hot man. Heath Jefferson is sure to put some extra spin into a lot of women's color wheels. When Wanda is diagnosed with a terminal illness, it doesn't have to be a death sentence. With a werewolf and a vampire for best friends, she has options that most ordinary people wouldn't. As Wanda ponders what to do about her mortality, Heath reveals he has secrets, and one of them is that his former bloodlust has turned into an old-fashioned lust-for Wanda. And he's already given up too much to lose the love of his lifetimes.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A decorated former Air Force pilot. A pregnant flight attendant. A dedicated TSA agent. The fates of these three, and many others, converge in Danielle Steel’s gripping new novel—a heart-stopping thriller that engages ordinary men and women in the fight of their lives during a flight from New York to San Francisco. On a beautiful May morning at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, two planes have just departed for San Francisco—one a 757, another a smaller Airbus A321. At a security checkpoint, TSA agent Bernice Adams finds a postcard of the Golden Gate Bridge bearing an ambiguous—perhaps ominous—message. Her supervisor dismisses her concerns, but Bernice calls security and soon Ben Waterman arrives. A senior Homeland Security agent, still grappling with guilt after a disastrous operation in which hostages were killed, Ben too becomes suspicious. Who left the postcard behind, which flight is that person on, and what exactly does the message mean? As Ben scans the passenger manifests, his focus turns to the A321, with Helen Smith as its senior pilot. Helen’s military service and her tenure with the airline have been exemplary. But her husband’s savage death in Iraq was more than anyone should bear, leaving her widowed with three children. A major film star is on board. So is an off-duty pilot who has just lost his forty-year career. So is a distraught father, traveling with the baby son he has abducted from his estranged wife. Sifting through data and relying on instinct, Ben becomes convinced that someone on Helen’s plane is planning something terrible. And he’s right. Passengers, crew, and experts on the ground become heroes out of necessity to try to avert tragedy at the eleventh hour. In her stunning novel, Danielle Steel combines intense action with stories of emotionally rich, intertwined lives. As the jet bears down on its destination of San Francisco, strangers are united, desperate choices are made, and futures will be changed forever by a handful of accidental heroes.

This book reviews employment and leisure trends in Japan from the post-war era to the present. In addition, it also examines how these trends will affect tourism destinations and businesses that rely heavily on Japanese overseas tourism. Topics that are of particular interest to readers include the most current Japanese employment and leisure data and how the data compares with the earlier, postwar era that made up the boom-years of Japanese overseas travel. The latest data provides insight into how today’s working and living conditions in Japan impact overseas travel expenditures today. Readers, ranging from academics to business practitioners, will benefit from the book that provides the latest information that can be used in a practical manner to assist tourism-related businesses and organizations meet the current and future needs of the Japan overseas travel market.