

by far the most detailed and even-handed study of this important and neglected subject.-John W. Here is the backstage world of political influence and organized crime in the worlds second largest economy. From the Back Cover A fascinating study of how criminal enterprise can infect the very heart of modern capitalism. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition tells the full story or Japans 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. But in the west it has long served as the standard reference on Japanese organized crime and has inspired novels, screenplays, and criminal investigations.

Originally published in 1986, it was so controversial in Japan that it could not be published there for five years. Yakuza is the first book to reveal the extraordinary reach of Japans Mafia. Despite their criminal nature, the yakuza are accepted by fellow Japanese to a degree guaranteed to shock most Westerners.

Important and timely.Yakuza will serve for years as the source document on Japanese organized crime.-San Jose Mercury News State-of-the-art investigative reporting.must reading for those who consider themselves already highly conversant with yakuza activities.disturbing.-Journal of Asian Studies Book Synopsis Known for their striking full-body tattoos and severed fingertips, Japans gangsters comprise a criminal class eighty thousand strong-more than four times the size of the American mafia. Let them simmer a while, then fold in the Ku Klux Klan and youll have the yakuza. The authors miss none of the color and curious detail of the yakuza style, but at the same time go far beyond surface observations.-Far Eastern Economic Review The book is laden with fascinating information, some of it heretofore unavailable in English.-Washington Post Blend the Mafia with the Masons. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II Reviews of original edition: A superb study of Japans underworld that is both entertaining and revealing.

About the Book A fascinating study of how criminal enterprise can infect the very heart of modern capitalism.
