Curt Stone is the founder and owner of Far East Investigations.
Located in Japan, it is a successful private eye firm able to merge in both the Eastern and Western worlds. Stone earned his qualifications while working as a combat Intelligence officer during WWII after being trained in Japanese language by the military. He interrogated Japanese prisoners on the front lines to provide on-the-spot intelligence. Remaining in the Army after the war, he served in Korea and rose to the rank of Major before retiring at the end of that conflict.
In 1955, roughly nine years before the start of the series, Stone began his own company which quickly gained a solid reputation. Much of the investigative work that his small company performs in on behalf of Western businesses seeking to establish relationships with Japanese firms and needing background information before making the first step. To do this, Stone employs four operatives part-time in addition to an assistant and a Eurasian secretary. The meatier cases Stone usually reserves for himself.
In addition to the success he was having in his business, Stone is said to have invested most of army pay in the Japanese real estate marked at the end of the world war, a move that has proven quite lucrative. Japan has become his home and he feels comfortable there even though he is a foreigner. He understands the culture, appreciates the beauty of much of what he sees, and can move about the island nation without drawing too much attention to himself. He speaks the language so well that on the telephone it is impossible to recognize he is not a native.
Successful in business and set for life, Stone faces one problem. He is 37 years old, modestly wealthy, successful, and too often bored.
Which is why he is willing to take assignments from the U.S. Government.