Is that image Jon Stewart keeping muffins away from John Oliver? Funny.

I plan to pick up Tokyo Vice today. I heard an interview with Jake Adelstein on NPR yesterdat, very interesting stuff, can't wait to get the book.

I'd actually first seen an article by that guy in Maxim. Think it was excerpts from the book. Good stuff, though I can't imagine actually wanting to make the mob mad.

The most disturbing thing he mentions is how everybody goes along with the Yakuza at all levels of government and law enforcement. It's nothing new, though.

lol, i love the picture :)

I might crack open a book for the first time in years! Sounds interesting.

Pictures cute, interview is pretty funny.

Wow. He was really nervous, but the book sounds interesting. I met with the Yakuza a few times when I was in Japan and they were actually nice guys. I guess they aren't scary unless you cross them.

I've read his book and its rather good. There are a lot of insights into what its like being a newspaper reporter working the police beat. Great read. Highly recommended.

I read the article on Maxim too, really good stuff.

It's kinda scary that you can encounter Yakuza in all levels of society, but I think they are not the type of criminals who would point a gun at you and steal your wallet, so "average" people are safe from them, I guess.

Nonetheless, I would NEVER piss off Yakuza.

Thanks for showing so much interest. I'm a quiet fan of this site. I'm a little out of touch with anime--I watched all the Ghost in the Machine stuff, including the TV series and still think INNOCENCE (Ghost In The Machine 2) was a masterpiece. Well, this is probably because in some ways the movie is really about the horrors of human trafficking. I'm planning to watch DEATH NOTE on the next long trip back to Tokyo.
The book is not as funny as the Daily Show interview. Sometimes, the whole deal with the yakuza in Japan is so surrealistic you can't help but laugh. Not all of the yakuza are cold-blooded sociopaths. I had to hire a bodyguard from last year to work in Tokyo and he himself used to be a yakuza boss, with 150 people under him. I've known him for over sixteen years and I trust him. And I have some yakuza friends but most of them are like dangerous animals--you want to even avoid eye contact. They are a group in transition as well. If they were all evil it would be easier to know what to do with them in Japanese society. It's kind of a grey area.
Does anyone know any good anime about yakuza? I haven't seen any yet. The best movie about them, MINBO NO ONNA is no longer available in the US--but it's funny and accurate. THE YAKUZA with Robert Mitchum does show them at their best. Few honorable yakuza left these days. Maybe there were never many to begin with.

LOL is that really you! Awesome. Any good yakuza anime? I don't really think there are any, at least ones that goes for realism. There are a lot of yakuza parody characters in anime tho, it's like every third romantic sitcom anime has a character who is a yakuza princess nowadays.

There are a few episodes in Black Lagoon season 2 that might be interesting to you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lagoon episodes 18-20

Jeff, thanks for the tip. I'll try to find them sometime. Look there's Shiina RIngo--the Queen Of Kabukicho on your TV and Film section. I had a friend who was totally in love with her. I think she popularized the fake attachable mole for a while. I swear that it was once a trendy thing in Japan. Unless I'm getting senile.

http://www.npr.org/internedition/fall09/story.php?id=5

This is a great little piece about the book, neo-anime style. It discusses this bizarre case of a husband and wife serial killer, who made the mistake of offing a yakuza.

Lions, dogs, dismemberment, and gangsters--all the things that make Japan such an interesting place. http://www.npr.org/internedition/fall09/story.php?id=5
The young intern doing the feature really worked hard on it. I admire his youthful enthusiasm.

Hmm, interesting stuff. I'll pick it up.

@Jake, good to see you on here. Anyway, I've seen a j drama where the main character is a yakuza heiress who's trying to be a school teacher. It's called Gokusen if you're interested. It's a comedic drama. I thought it was pretty entertaining. Also, thanks for the links. Pretty interesting stuff.

Great art in the links you posted. Really interesting presentation of the info.