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Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld 2nd Edition
Author(s): David E. Kaplan (Author), Alec Dubro (Author)
- Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd
- Publication Date: 1 Mar. 2003
- Edition: 2nd
- Language: English
- Print length: 440 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780709065104
- ISBN-13: 0709065108
Book Description
Known for their striking full-body tattos and severed fingertips, Japan’s gangsters comprise a criminal class 80,000 strong – over 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 Originally published in 1986, Yakuza was so controversial in Japan that it could not be published there for five years.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, works of art and more.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘In Kaplan and Dubro’s Yakuza, Japan as a crime-free society comes under scrutiny and emerges badly tarnished… the result of four years’ research… supported by a mass of evidence.’ Times Literary Supplement; ‘A hugely impressive piece of investigative reporting… gives us an insight into the social pressures and conventions which have fuelled the world’s most successful capitalist economy… mind boggling.’ The Scotsman; ‘The Kaplan-Dubro book investigates how yakuza influence the economy, business and political figures up to the highest levels… treading explosive ground.’ The Daily Telegraph; ‘Startling… sure-footed in its treatment of the historical background… the right-wing and the yakuza have worked side by side.’ The Listener; ‘As bizarre as something out of Alice in Wonderland… an organization that sounds worse than the Mafia.’ Yorkshire Post; ‘A superb study of Japan’s underworld that is both entertaining and revealing. The authors miss none of the colour and curious detail of the yakuza style, but at the same time go far beyond surface observations.’ Far Eastern Economic Review
About the Author
David E. Kaplan covers organized crime and terrorism for US News & World Report. He is co-author of The Cult at the End of the World: The Terrifying Story of the Aum Doomsday Cult (1996) and author of Fires of the Dragon: Politics, Murder and the Kuomingtang (1992). Alec Dubro is a freelance journalist and communications consultant.
