Yakuza

by Kaplan, David E.

• ISBN13: 9780520215627
• ISBN10: 0520215621
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

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 Originally published in 1986,Yakuzawas so controversial in Japan that it could not be published there for five years.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 ofYakuzatells 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.

Author Biography

David E. Kaplan is deputy editor of the investigative team at U.S. News and World Report in Washington, D.C., where he covers organized crime, terrorism, and intelligence. In addition to Yakuza, Kaplan is author of the critically acclaimed Fires of the Dragon, on the murder of journalist Henry Liu, and co-author of The Cult at the End of the World, on the doomsday sect behind the nerve gassing of Tokyo's subway. His work has won more than a dozen awards, including honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the American Bar Association, Overseas Press Club, and World Affairs Council. Alec Dubro has written professionally since his first music review in Rolling Stone in 1968. Since then, he's gone on to write hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, as well as scripts, position papers, speeches, reports, and comic books. He has worked as a private investigator, editor, television news writer, and consultant to state and federal crime commissions. He currently lives and works in Washington, D.C., where he divides his time between journalism and communications consulting for the labor movement and NGOs. He is past president of the U.S. National Writers Union. The Center For Investigative Reporting, founded in 1977, is the only independent, nonprofit organization in the United States established as an institution to do investigative reporting. From their offices in San Francisco, the CIR staff write for leading newspapers and magazines and work closely with television news programs in the U.S. and abroad. Center stories have helped spark congressional hearings and legislation, U.N. resolutions, public interest lawsuits, and changes in the activities of multinational corporations, government agencies, and organized crime figures. Its stories have won numerous honors, including an Emmy, a Polk Award, a National Magazine Award, and a National Press Club Award. For more information contact CIR at 131 Steuart Street, Ste. 600, San Francisco, CA 94105 or at www.muckraker.org.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
About the Authors	xi
Preface to the New Edition	xiii
Prologue: Enter the Yakuza	xv
PART I: EARLY HISTORY
The Honorable Outlaws	3	(28)
PART II: THE KODAMA YEARS
Occupied Japan	31	(25)
Nexus on the Right	56	(27)
The Black Mist	83	(28)
PART III: THE MODERN YAKUZA
The Syndicates	111	(33)
Corruption, Japanese-Style	144	(31)
The Keizai Yakuza	175	(21)
The Collapsing Bubble	196	(27)
PART IV: THE MOVE ABROAD
Meth, Money, and the Sex Trade	223	(28)
Old Markets and New	251	(26)
Across the Pacific	277	(16)
To America	293	(32)
Epilogue: A New Yakuza	325	(10)
A Note on Research	335	(4)
Notes	339	(34)
Glossary	373	(4)
Bibliography	377	(10)
Index	387