My Tokyo Drucker Days, Part Three

In the previous entry in a series of posts about my recent Peter Drucker-related visit to Japan,  I wrote about Atsuo Ueda, Drucker’s longtime editor/translator in that country, who supervised the translation of my book. Even though I can’t read the language, I couldn’t resist buying a copy of Mr. Ueda’s new book, Peter F. Drucker Completed Book Guide. It is published by Diamond, Drucker’s longtime publisher, which also published my book.
Among other features, the guide appears to be a summary of each of Drucker’s books, with a beautiful design and the names of each book also in English. Some were different in their Japanese release (such as the multi-volume The Essential Drucker, which originated from a concept developed by Mr. Ueda) and at least one, My Personal History (2005), was not published in the United States. What makes Completed Book Guide particularly worthwhile to own are the thumbnail pictures of each of the book covers in Japan. This is especially true for Drucker’s two novels, The Last of All Possible Worlds (1982) and The Temptation to Do Good (1984).
The guide begins with a 26 page dialogue between Mr. Ueda and Shigesato Itoi. I have to admit I had not heard of Mr. Itoi before, but I’ve discovered that he is quite well known in Japan and beyond for his creative work in many different worlds; such as writing, television, video games and advertising. Given his wide range of talents, accomplishments and interests, it’s not surprising that he should also be associated with Drucker.  I’d love to see an English translation of this dialogue, not to mention the whole book!