In 1994, within months of microbreweries being legalized in Japan, two began operation, followed by around 50 the next year. Although the general public took little notice back then, this regulatory rejig was to reshape my life.

I had first considered starting my own brewery when I was working as a securities analyst for Salomon Brothers, covering companies that manufactured brewing systems. With the opening of the country's first microbreweries and the news that U.S. microbrewer Boston Brewing Co. had just gone public, I thought underwriting an IPO by a small Japanese brewing enterprise might raise my employer's profile.

At that time, it looked as though microbreweries were set to be the Next Big Thing, but their stocks in the U.S. fizzled almost as fast as the heads on their beers -- and with that my share-issue project, too. Nevertheless, I remained enraptured at the thought of having my own microbrewery and being able to escape the stock market for a more palatable way of making a living.