Yakuza: A 400-Year History of the Japanese Underworld - Hardcover

by Andrew Rankin (Author)

The definitive history of Japanese organized crime, from its origins in samurai-era black markets and gambling rings to the shadowy syndicates of the present.

"The best book in English on this fascinating and misunderstood subject." ―Richard Lloyd Parry, author of People Who Eat Darkness

Japan's gangster groups, known collectively as the yakuza, are among the oldest underworld societies in the world. With military-style organization and a code of absolute obedience, they have run Japan's black markets for centuries. They have remained strikingly conspicuous in Japanese society and as a cultural force beyond Japan, with movies and video games celebrating their exploits globally.

Andrew Rankin offers the first comprehensive history of the yakuza, from their emergence out of seventeenth-century samurai gang culture to the present day. Though their activities have always encompassed illegal gambling and sex trafficking, the yakuza have also aggressively maintained business interests in private security, the construction industry, the entertainment industry, and debt collection. Yakuza bosses acquired a degree of legitimacy by styling themselves as peacekeepers maintaining order at society's bottom end. Yet that legitimacy has come into doubt in recent years as Japan's contracting economy has pushed the yakuza into increasingly predatory criminal activities.

Featuring a lively cast of extortionists, smugglers, hit men, and corporate crime lords, Yakuza is a fascinating tour of Japan's sprawling mob syndicates and the cultural traditions with which they are so deeply intertwined.

Author Biography

Andrew Rankin studied and worked in Tokyo for twenty years before earning a doctorate in Japanese literature from Cambridge University. He is the author of Seppuku: A History of Samurai Suicide and Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist: An Intellectual Portrait. He now lives in Bali, Indonesia.