T. Boone's Tokyo Campaign

By Kumiko Makihara/Tokyo

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 raider. Pickens was in prime form last week as he challenged corporate officers at the annual meeting of Koito Manufacturing, a Tokyo-based automotive-lighting maker in which he controls a 20% share. "Do you treat all owners this way? Or is it just American shareholders?" Pickens asked, grilling the nervous Japanese board members.

While Pickens' bid for influence in Koito was viewed at first as just an isolated corporate raid, the canny Texan has managed to portray it as a symbolic campaign against Japanese investment barriers. As a result, he has gathered attention in both Tokyo and Washington, where experts fear that his exploits may aggravate trade tensions.

Pickens became Koito's largest stockholder last March, when his investment firm took over the shares (estimated cost: more than $800 million) from Kitaro Watanabe, a billionaire Japanese real estate speculator. In a project code- named Falcon, after Pickens' private jet, the Texan claims his goal is "to maximize the profits and value of Koito for all the shareholders." He asserts that Japanese companies put corporate interests before those of individual shareholders, notably by reinvesting profits in the company rather than increasing dividends.

Pickens is demanding seats on Koito's board for two colleagues and himself, but the Japanese company is challenging his motives. They suspect that Pickens may be involved with Watanabe in a scheme to elicit a greenmail payment in return for the 20% stake. Koito officials say twice last year Watanabe approached them with an offer to sell back his shares at a premium. They believe that after Koito rejected Watanabe's offer, he searched for a buyer in the U.S.

Koito officials became even more suspicious of a scheme against them when they saw disruptive characters known as sokaiya at the meeting. These stockholders, who typically have links to gangsters, prey on companies by charging protection money to keep quiet at such meetings or hector other stockholders. The sokaiya seemed to take Pickens' side in their outbursts, but they did not vote in his favor.

Though Pickens was rebuffed, his Tokyo crusade may pay other dividends. Pickens is believed to be interested in making a run for the Texas governorship, so his Japanese offensive may be calculated to play well back home. Koito, for its part, is launching its own publicity offensive, contending that if such eminent U.S. companies as Gulf Oil and Phillips Petroleum can turn away Pickens' bids, Koito can snub him too.