In need of a couple of Portuguese missionaries? How about a boatload of Dutch traders — or a platoon of World War II U.S. grunts?
Meet Motoko Inagawa. It's not that the sprightly 75-year-old's network of foreign acquaintances metaphysically extends to the long dead, but it's just that she's very dedicated to her chosen profession — which is supplying Japanese television and film companies with foreign extras and actors.
For 24 years, her company, known as Inagawa Motoko Office, has been the dominant force in the foreign-talent business in Japan. When the TV broadcaster TBS struck gold with their late 1990s prime-time show "Koko ga Hen da yo Nihonjin" ("This Is What's Strange About Japanese People"), which featured foreign residents debating the quirky minutiae of life in Japan, it was Inagawa who was supplying the controversial casts.