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March 28, 2024, 04:36:10 PM

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Any good non-fiction books on the Yakuza?

Started by Twed, January 17, 2018, 03:46:35 PM

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Twed

(accurate fiction would do too)

Interested in learning about the Yakuza, not via Wikipedia. Particularly interested in their roles in Japanese corporations. Any recommendations?

Sin Agog

Not quite what you're asking for, but the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series of films is a bit like the Japanese Godfather, showing the rise of the Yakuza after WWII into respectability, and based on the actual Yakuza Kozo Mino's memoirs.

marquis_de_sad

The one you want is probably David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro's Yakuza, which was first released in the 80s, then they updated it in the early 00s. They're investigative journalists and the book is very much in the US journalism style. You can read chapter one here.

A more academic book is Peter Hill's The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State. Hill makes use of interviews with current and former members, as well as popular literature (including journalism) written by yakuza or yakuza-friendly writers. He also gets into theoretical questions like what the word mafia means and whether it should be applied to the yakuza. As you can see from the title, it fits in more to what you're looking for, but both books deal with yakuza business, so it just depends on what style you're after.

Twed

Thanks both. Amazing answers. I'll read them all and maybe watch the filmz.

marquis_de_sad

No worries, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on them when you've finished.

Kishi the Bad Lampshade

Seconded on the Kaplan book. I believe there was a thread on it relatively recently.

Bhazor

Yay, someone noticed me. Here's the thread on it.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,62784.msg3264514.html#msg3264514

I'll paraphrase what I said in that thread. Excellent overview of the Yakuza but it rattled along so fast I ended up wanting to read more indepth about a hundred individuals and incidents that turned out to have no books available in English.

If you're interested in the corporate side you could look up books about the 1950s Lockheed scandal. That seems to be one of the few stories about the Yakuza that got much traction outside of Japan. I don't have any direct book recommendations for that though again Kaplan does spend multiple chapters talking about how the Yakuza manipulate and subvert Japanese corporate culture for massive profit.