60 Minutes report on yakuza
60 Minutes reports on yakuza boss Tadamasa Goto’s UCLA liver transplant, a story originally broken by Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
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The news report mentions how certain yakuza might want to kill Adelstein for writing about an embarrassing secret. He even says that he keeps his window shutters closed to protect himself from yakuza snipers. The death threats do not, however, stop him from making numerous public appearances on to promote his book.
Update: Adelstein has left a comment clarifying that the 60 minutes interview took place several months ago, when the situation was more dangerous with a certain yakuza boss. Things have slightly improved since then.
[hat tip to FG Forums]
Update: Jake Adelstein will be speaking about his Yakuza reporting at Good Day Books in Tokyo on December 6th. (Anyone who wants to attend and ask him questions must buy a copy of the book from the store.) [via TokyoReporter]
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The host of 60 Minutes is a little over the top …
ie, What do you have to do in your daily life to keep you alive … so do you live in darkness?
The yakuza canNOT trace their history back to the samurai; the DAYS of the samurai, yes, but not the samurai themselves. Get your history straight 60 Minutes.
James,
Thanks for the posting. I know i come across to you as the Dave Spector of journalism and a relentless publicity hound. I tried to address the reasons why in the Tokyo Reporter interview but maybe I explain myself poorly. Simply, I’d rather be a public nuisance to certain yakuza groups than a private one–in terms of self-preservation–it helps. Mizoguchi Atsushi did the same thing and Itami Juzo did as well. It didn’t work so well for Itami-san.
I don’t feel particularly unsafe in the United States since Goto became a Buddhist priest in April of 2008. When 60 Minutes came to film, this summer, which seems like ages ago, there was still a problem with the Matsubakai. In 2008, when I was still trying very hard by the power of the pen to get Mr. Goto kicked out of the Yamaguchi-gumi, I named all four yakuza who got liver transplants at UCLA in 日本タブー大全２００８. One of them 荻野 is now head of the Matsubakai which has between 1,000-2,4000 members in Tokyo–depends on whom you ask. He felt that I’d dishonored him by implying that like Goto, that he had also made a deal with the FBI. This was not the case. He got adopted (yes, even adults can be adopted in Japan) and entered the US under the name Arai. I won’t bore you with more details of yakuza politics. I think that he and I are okay with each other. I hope so.
I haven’t done a public appearance in Japan, and the book talk in December will probably be the first. I’m not hiding but I’m not walking around with a sign that says, “Yakuza suck!” on my back either.
oops, correction–Goto became a Buddhist priest on April 8th, 2009.
Not that I really believe he’s serious about it but might as well give him th benefit of the doubt.
Jake:
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment here.
I read your book, and I thought it was quite good. I don’t think you are the “Dave Spector of journalism” – you’ve clearly worked as a reporter and have personal experience with the topics you write about. You worked for years as a beat reporter for the Yomiuri, which gives you far more professional stature and street cred than Spector.
I know that you see publicity as a form of protection, and I can see that making sense. In your other interviews and in your book you mentioned very real methods the yakuza have used to silence enemies, but the sniper precaution you mentioned in the 60 minutes interview struck me as a bit over the top – have yakuza been known to send snipers to kill journalists?
Thanks James. Honestly, I don’t know of any cases of yakuza sniping their enemies. I probably should research it. However, when the TMPD guys from 組対3 came over to the house, they were the ones to tell me to keep the windows shuttered and they explained there was a risk of being shot. They had other advice which seemed odd at the time but I assume they’re basing it on past cases. The police have generally been pretty helpful. So the long answer is that I’m doing what the cops told me to do and assuming it’s good advice.
Dylan,
In response to your question–when I’m in Japan I usually am escorted everywhere by an ex-yakuza boss, who is also a long-time friend. I think most of my advance on the book has gone into paying his salary. (Lol).
If he wasn’t down on his luck, I don’t think I could have hired him but you know how it goes, 捨てる神あれば拾う神あり。And I check in with the police before I come to Japan, while I’m there, and before I leave. I’m getting used to the routine. Goto-gumi was split into two groups last year after he was kicked out but he still has a number of people working for him, and occasionally cars with his signature license plate show up in my neighborhood–which is spooky. I’m not quite sure what the message is there.
DNA,
About the yakuza and the samurai, I agree.
Please excuse me if I don’t write in to this forum for a while. The 60 Minutes broadcast created some unforeseen issues and I’m trying to resolve them.
It starts with Intel ad ? why ? I want to switch to AMD
Really interesting, and thanks to Jake for commenting on the post!
This was really interesting, especially since i’m in the midst of playing Yakuza 2 on my PlayStation 2 at the moment.
seeeesh, another staged interview
Can’t a big Yakuza like this buy/get a liver and have the transplantation made in Japan ?
Did you not watch it whatsoever?
Cool story, thanks for posting this. Would be awesome to see more actual stories like this about Japan and less “wig cat”.
Just my opinion…
All your base are belong to wig cat.
I think it’s great that Jake was commenting on this weblog and the book looks fantastic. Definitely the only one I’m going to acquire in the next few weeks (since I’ve got so many books already yet to read).
A gunman in Japan has taken his own life after wounding three people in Yokohama, outside Tokyo, police said.
The gunman had taken refuge in a building in a residential area which the police surrounded.
A police spokesman said one of the injured men was in a critical condition and the other two were lightly wounded.
Japanese media reported the violence appeared to be gang related. Shootings are rare in Japan, where there are strict gun control laws.
Police named the gunman as Kenji Hayashi, a 62-year-old member of the Inagawa-kai, a large Japanese organised crime group.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8345953.stm