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The Last Yakuza extract in Rolling Stone

“Some stories are best told from the end.”

The Last Yakuza, Jake Adelstein

The Last Yakuza tells the history of the yakuza like it’s never been told before in this gripping, true crime story by the author of Tokyo Vice.

Read the full extract on Rolling Stonehere.

 

Jake Adelstein was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, from 1993 to 2005. From 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a US State Department–sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. Considered one of the foremost experts on organised crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He is also the public relations director for the Washington, DC–based Polaris Project Japan, which combats human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex trade.

The Last Yakuza

The Last Yakuza tells the history of the yakuza like it’s never been told before in this gripping, true crime story by the author of Tokyo Vice.

Makoto Saigo is half-American and half-Japanese, living in small-town Japan. He has two talents: playing guitar and picking fights. When his dream of being a rock star fails to materialize, he turns to the only place where you can start from the bottom and move up through sheer performance, loyalty, and brute force—the yakuza.

Saigo, nicknamed Tsunami, quickly realizes that even within the organization, opinions are as varied as they come, and a clash of…

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Jake Adelstein

Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since…

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The Last Yakuza

Jake Adelstein

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