T. Boone's Tokyo Campaign

An American tycoon tries to make an investment in Japan but runs into an intricate web of cozy corporate ties that shuts out foreigners. At the stockholders' meeting of the company in which he has become the largest single owner, the proceedings are interrupted by a handful of racketeers, who hurl derisive remarks at the company president. In a vote, none of the more than 200 shareholders at the meeting support the outsider's nomination of board members.

What sounds like a fictional thriller about a globe-trotting takeover artist is the real-life adventure of T. Boone Pickens, the Amarillo oilman and corporate...