The blonde man in shorts and a baseball cap, sporting a lopsided grin and a dangling backpack and parking a rusty bicycle, looked less like a captain of industry than a superannuated college student. Yet American Chuck Grafft, 50, is founder and CEO of Foreign Buyers Club, one of the largest importers of Western consumer goods to Japan.
In a coffee shop near his offices on Port Island, Kobe, Grafft spoke recently about how FBC has helped generations of Japan-based expatriates sate their cravings for cranberry sauce, Mexican refried beans and other delicacies from home.
Grafft was originally hired to teach English to Japanese businessmen preparing for positions overseas, and arrived in Osaka in 1985. He conceived the idea of creating a business simulation-based language program for his company, which he spun into a successful multibook series that took two years to produce.
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