Dr Harry Sweeney, an Irish horse vet who was in Dublin last week to address the Ireland-Japan Association, arrived in Japan in 1990 100 years to the day after Lafcadio Hearn, the Waterford-born writer, had arrived, a Japanese journalist told him. "We will call you the Lafcadio Hearn of the horse world," he said.

That journalist was perspicacious. For, if another Irishman is to become as respected in the Japanese horse world as Hearn was in literary circles, then Harry Sweeney is that man.

He is the first non-national (this includes second- and third-generation Koreans) to have been allowed to buy agricultural land in Japan, one of the few Westerners to own a stud farm and the only "real Westerner" to have acquired a licence from the Japanese Racing Authority (JRA).

The 40-year-old Dundalk-born vet owns the Paca Paca horse-breeding farm, a 95-acre spread in the horse-farming area of Hokkaido in the north of Japan, which is big by Japanese standards - the average stud size is 20 acres. He currently has 15 horses, with more coming in this autumn.

Land prices in Japan are historically low at present because of the recession. "It's about the same as you have to pay for a stud farm in Meath or Kildare. The guy I bought the farm from, he was selling it at $100,000 less than he had bought it for 18 years before."

He initially started trading well-bred horses, which had been bought from elsewhere by Japanese owners, and selling them out of the country. "We were buying the cream from farmers that were a little bit compromised because of the recession," he explains. He also bought foals of US and European interest in Japan and mares of Japanese interest in the US and Europe.

When he started inquiring about buying a stud farm - "the holy grail was to be an owner because the prize money is so big" - common folklore had it that it was impossible for a foreigner to buy land.

"It was never in my nature to accept things the way they were - I suppose that was my strength in Japan. A lot of people, if they get rejected the first time, they accept it. When I probed it, there was no clear exclusion."

But there is huge bureaucracy to be overcome and one has to be a permanent resident and be approved by two different bodies. As luck would have it, he had bought a Fortyniner filly from a Mr Matoba for "a decent price" and, when he went before the crucial approval body a short time later, the chairman was Mr Matoba. He got his approval.

Harry Sweeney had gone to Japan for six months initially, to manage the Taiki Stud farm. Five years later, he became general manager of the larger Machikane farm, where he stayed for three years.

Living at Taiki, the nearest English speaker was an hour's drive away.

"While that was tough, there were advantages. It was very clear, unless I learned Japanese, I wouldn't survive. On the very rare occasions when my wife (Anne) wasn't talking to me, no-one was talking to me, so I had to keep talking to my wife and learn Japanese. In those days, you wouldn't make a direct-dial international call, there was no satellite TV and no internet. In the last 11-12 years, all those things have come."

He learned the language by getting up at 5 a.m. every morning and doing an hour-and-a-half of study. His early journeys with horses were undertaken using landmarks instead of the road signs he couldn't read.

"I was never embarrassed about trying to speak it. I was happy to speak in the restaurants to the waiters and try as best I could. It's a difficult language and a lot of people lack the confidence to try and speak it."

While he still finds the writing very difficult, he has no problem reading the racing reports or anything to do with the business.

Horse racing was introduced into Japan 130 years ago and today is controlled by the JRA, which is directly under the control of the Department of Agriculture. It's a highly regulated and very profitable sport for the owners and a popular sport for the punters.

The JRA controls the country's 10 tracks and all betting is done on the Tote; on a big race day, the attendance at a track could be 190,000 and the entrance would be between 50p and £1.

"Families bring picnics and it's a more casual day out than here. I would prefer to see a day when people coming out of the Curragh would look like the people coming out of Croke Park," he says.

But for the 2,500 owners, racing is an elite sport.

The lowest class of race, a maiden race, would have a prize fund of £100,000, with £50,000 for the winner, prize money back to eight place and around £3,000 in appearance money for every horse that finishes. "It's the only country in the world where you win, even when you lose. There are currently in Japan 365 horses running who still have career earnings of greater than $1 million."

The average earned by the 8,000 horses that raced last year was £100,000.

"I asked the Turf Club the equivalent figure in Ireland - it was £940. There are plenty horses in Japan with earnings of $8 million to $9 million in prize money alone."

He says getting his JRA breeder's licence was his greatest achievement to date in Japan - "an opportunity to participate and compete for that great prize money" - but he underwent a rigorous three-month investigation before he was accepted.

Two private detectives were assigned to check him out, confirm his property ownership, get financial statements. They even rang the house to check the spelling of his son Cathal's name.

Then there was the interview. "As a vet, I was used to oral exams, I never expected anything as strenuous; it was intensive in the extreme."

He says his membership was not too popular.

"They worry about competition. They were slightly concerned because they saw if I had a farm and joined the breeders' association, ultimately, I would become an owner. And I was careful not to let them know that I was in the process of becoming an owner."

Mr Sweeney has achieved a great deal in a very short time.

"Japan is a good place to work because Japanese workers are very diligent, rarely miss days, are very honest and dedicated, but there is a better social life over here," he says frankly.

On the staff side, he says: "They are not horsemen as such. They don't have the same innate skills. They don't relate to animals. A dog's life in Japan is a dog's life. A lot of dogs are chained up nearly all their lives. There are certain aspects, from a vet's point of view, I find distressing."

But life in a rural area of north Japan was lonely for Anne, a nurse from Dublin. "It's very hard to have friends because you're a foreigner. She was very restricted, especially with the kids. It's quite difficult to get beyond the polite, nice level. Anne learned how to drive a tractor. Even despite my teaching, she was a long way from winning the ploughing championships.

"There are many things that are really nice. The food is great, Japanese beer is the best in the world, it's a very safe country - we would never lock the house, never lock the car where we were."

Three years ago, the family relocated to Co Meath, although he still spends around 200 days a year in Japan.

Their children, Colm (10), Kevin (8), Cathal (5) and Eoin (4), would have had to start in the Japanese education system.

"Two of them have very red hair - they would absolutely stand out and never integrate fully. Second, Japan is a very regimented and conformist society. There is great pressure on kids and people in general to conform. It was going to be difficult for our kids to do that. That is what's wrong with Japan: they need more people who're willing to be bold, to dream an idea and have the confidence to do it and hope it will work. There's a commonly quoted proverb, 'the nail that protrudes is hammered down'. It's the same for kids." he says.

The cultural difference does not inhibit Mr Sweeney, however.

"I'm not restricted by Japanese business etiquette because I'm a foreigner. They don't expect me to know and, even if they do, they don't expect me to obey. I can be a little bit bolder in business because I'm not constrained by the hierarchical thing. It's hard for guys to start anything because of the established business relations. It's a very closed society."

And if it is of interest to any future business associates, he has named the filly he has in training Warning Salvo.