Jim Gow is a lanky Brit with the distinction of being a successful entrepreneur, an especially small group in Japan, whether Japanese or foreign. There is something unusually engaging about his story. Perhaps it's the English gift of not taking things too seriously. Gow does not come across as your usual suited-and-booted, MBA-brainwashed, capitalist foot soldier. Rather, he candidly admits to being not very good at maths, and to having been fired from several jobs. A classic case of a rolling stone who ended up in Japan and made it big -- although one hasn't heard that kind of story since the 1980s.
Gow, who knew he had hit it big on his 40...