Adelstein offers a unique and intense exploration of the Japanese mafia, blending elements of reverence and brutality. His firsthand insights reveal the intricate workings and cultural significance of this underworld, providing a perspective that is both captivating and informative. Through vivid storytelling, he captures the complexities of organized crime in Japan, making it an essential read for those interested in the intersection of crime and culture.
The Last Yakuza tells the history of the yakuza like it's never been told before.
The sequel to bestseller Tokyo Vice, now a major HBO drama, with a second season coming in 2024.It’s been a while since Jake Adelstein was the only gaijin crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun. The global economy is in shambles, Jake is off the police beat but still chain-smoking clove cigarettes, and Tadamasa Goto, the most powerful boss in the Japanese organised-crime world, has been banished from the yakuza, giving Adelstein one less enemy to worry about — for the time being.Adelstein has a new gig these days: due-diligence work, or using his investigative skills to dig up information on entities whose bosses would prefer that some things stay hidden. Underneath layers of paperwork, corporations are thinly veiled fronts for the yakuza. Pachinko parlors are a hidden battleground between disenfranchised Japanese Koreans and North Korean extortion plots. TEPCO, the electric power corporation keeping the lights on for all of Tokyo, scrambles to hide its willful oversights that ultimately led to the 2011 Fukushima meltdown. And the Japanese government shows levels of corruption that make gangsters look like philanthropists.In this riveting memoir, Jake Adelstein once again reveals Japan’s dark underworld, as he battles to keep himself in the light.
Makoto Saigo, a half-American, half-Japanese young man, struggles to achieve his dream of becoming a rock star in small-town Japan. After his aspirations falter, he joins the yakuza, where he must navigate a dangerous world defined by loyalty and violence. Known as Tsunami, Saigo discovers that differing philosophies within the organization can lead to deadly consequences, and one misstep could cost him dearly. The story explores themes of ambition, identity, and the harsh realities of life in organized crime.
Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquility, but what he got was a life of crime - crime reporting, that is. 'Tokyo Vice' is his account of the seedier side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking and corruption are as familiar as ramen noodles and sake.