Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, Expanded Edition | David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro

Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, Expanded Edition | David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro | Interesting

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Yakuza: Japan's Cr...

	Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, Expanded Edition David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro University of California Press, 2003 - 422 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Known for their striking full-body tattoos and severed fingertips, Japan's gangsters comprise a criminal class eighty thousand strong--more than four times the size of the American Mafia. Despite their criminal nature, the yakuza are accepted by fellow Japanese to a degree guaranteed to shock most Westerners. Here is the first book to reveal the extraordinary reach of Japan's Mafia. Originally published in 1986, Yakuza was so controversial in Japan that it could not be published there for five years. But in the West it has long served as the standard reference on Japanese organized crime, inspiring novels, screenplays, and criminal investigations. David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro spent nearly two decades conducting hundreds of interviews with everyone from street-level hoodlums and police to Japan's most powerful godfathers. The result is a searing indictment of corruption in the world's second-largest economy.
This updated, expanded, and thoroughly revised edition of Yakuza tells the full story of Japan's remarkable crime syndicates, from their feudal start as bands of medieval outlaws to their emergence as billion-dollar investors in real estate, big business, art, and more.

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An Underworld Education

"Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld" is a book that is almost criminally enthralling.

In the United States the world of organized crime tends to be viewed as entirely exclusive to Anglo-European or Eastern European groups. Whether it be the Cosa Nostra or the Armenian mob little is generally known about the criminal organizations of the East. Particularly Japan's Yakuza.

How many of you knew that the pervasiveness of methanphetamines throughout the world is thanks to the Yakuza? Also, how many of you knew that the Yakuza is so widely integrated into Japanese society that they have often held press conferences announcing the end of gang conflicts or that they even have their own offices? How many of you knew that the Yakuza was allowed to survive and thrive after WWII thanks to the American occupation of Japan? Did you also know that the CIA employed some Yakuza as spies against the left wing in Japan after the war? ...and that these same people that they employed and let gain power...were the same people they put in prison for Class A war crimes?

These are just a few of the interesting and altogether jaw-dropping facts you'll learn by reading this book, a very thoroughly researched study on the fairly little known but globally expansive criminal organizations of Japan. If there aren't at least a dozen parts in this book that don't shock and amaze you I would be very surprised. I could go on and on about all of the interesting facts on the Yakuza covered in this book (from its vaguely noble beginnings to its rather uncertain future) but I think if you are interested in knowing about them you should read this book firsthand. You will NOT be disappointed.

A fantastic book.

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Interesting

Great book. To those who say its communist, I ask several questions:

-Its from good ol' UC Berkeley. What did you expect?
-Have you ever been to the bay area? What did you expect?

This book is just a part of the great San Francisco Bay Area culture. People should learn to appreciate that this is simply how we think here in the Bay.

Otherwise a fascinating look at the Yakuza.

International Crime, Japanese Style

Since this book was originally published in 1986 it has been the standard reference work on organized crime in Japan. This new, greatly expanded edition only adds to its status. Organized crime in any country tends to share certain similarities. Their activities concentrate on gambling, prostitution, drugs, extortion, and smuggling. Also, they are usually very right-wing and nationalistic. The Yakuza are no exception, but there are some differences, "...it is as if the Ku Klux Klan and the Mafia formed an enduring, politically potent alliance." The symbiotic relationship between Japan's political system, Big Business, and the Yakuza is a disturbing indication of the depth and prevalence of corruption and bribery in the world's second-largest economy. The authors (both American journalists) trace the roots of the Yakuza to its medieval beginnings, but most of the book concentrates on the period since the American Occupation, when the present form of Yakuza organization solidified (and also exposes the involvement of the CIA with the Yakuza's post-war growth). It documents the rise of the Yakuza into a multi-billion dollar enterprise with worldwide investments in real estate, art, big business and more. The original book ended before the bursting of the "Bubble Economy", and this new version picks up the story and shows how the Yakuza have adapted since then to the new economic climate. The authors also cover extensively the internationalization of the Yakuza, particularly their various attempts to move into America. A must-read for anyone interested in contemporary Japan and Japanese politics.

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Detailed Historical Insight

Not as gory or glamorous as I expected, this book does paint a very vivid and true to life picture of the yakuza. Recommended if you have an interest in the underworld.

Yakuza book

Although I have not read this book yet, I am looking forward to it and the shipping came on time.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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