Susan CHIRA

TOKYO IN NEW YORK: 5 MEN OF POWER

By Susan CHIRA

MAMORU Tabuchi considers it a good week if he eats dinner at home twice. Most nights, the president of Mitsui's American subsidiary is driven in a chauffeured Cadillac to the Yale Club in midtown New York to pick up his wife, Seiko, and begin an obligatory round of social engagements. They may head for a reception at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel nearby, a small dinner party for visiting Japanese colleagues at the Kitcho Restaurant blocks away, or a lecture at the Japan Society, also in midtown. The schedule is often so heavy that the Tabuchis, who live in suburban Scarsdale, rent a suite at the Yale Club so that his wife can change clothes before parties - or between them. Mr. Tabuchi heads the American operations of Mitsui & Company, a large Japanese trading conglomerate. His busy evening schedule reflects his position at the summit of Japanese businessmen in the United States. Within this self-contained world, the 59-year-old Mr. Tabuchi and a handful of other top executives have the sort of fame and influence that Lee A. Iacocca of Chrysler or Walter B. Wriston of Citicorp have among Americans.

New York Times • Business • page 1 • 3,263 words