Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Last Yakuza
- Life and Death in the Japanese Underworld
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Buy Now for £18.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
The Last Yakuza tells the history of the yakuza like it’s never been told before.
Makoto Saigo is half-American and half-Japanese in small-town Japan with a set of talents limited to playing guitar and picking fights. With rock stardom off the table, he turns toward the only place where you can start from the bottom and move up through sheer merit, loyalty, and brute force―the yakuza.
Saigo, nicknamed “The Tsunami”, quickly realizes that even within the organization, opinions are as varied as they come, and a clash of philosophies can quickly become deadly. One screw-up can cost you your life, or at least a finger.
The internal politics of the yakuza are dizzyingly complex, and between the ever-shifting web of alliances and the encroaching hand of the law that pushes them further and further underground, Saigo finds himself in the middle of a defining decades-long battle that will determine the future of the yakuza.
Written with the insight of an expert on Japanese organized crime and the compassion of a longtime friend, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein presents a sprawling biography of a yakuza, through post-war desperation, to bubble-era optimism, to the present. Including a cast of memorable yakuza bosses―The Coach, The Buddha, and more―this is a story about the rise and fall of a man, a country, and a dishonest but sometimes honorable way of life on the brink of being lost.
What listeners say about The Last Yakuza
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Double D
- 26-05-24
Life really is stranger than fiction...
It's probably a testament to Jake Adelstein's writing and, of course, the fantastic Brian Nishii's masterclass in vocal performance, that at times, I simply forgot that this was NOT fiction! Not gonna lie, it was Nishii's name that attracted me here.
Adeslstein made it clear from the outset that he had no intention of glorifying the yakuza, their lifestyle or even Saijo himself. But, as happens in life, the more you get to know someone, the more you understand the person they are and sometimes even the choices they've made, good or bad. As someone from London's inner city, I personally ended up liking Saijo (and the yakuza like him) who didn't blame others for their own choices (I forgave him the record/management company dig. I mean, who wouldn't? They're always trying to double cross the artists, right?).
This book inspired me to listen to it's immediate predecessor "Tokyo Vice", which I had been skirting around because it had not been written by a Japanese journalist. I'm not sure listening out of synch made too much of a difference except to me personally, that I probably would have never got around to Tokyo Vice otherwise.
I would now be interested to read/listen to some of the other yakuza/journalist/police accounts mentioned in both books.
This is an excellent listen. Five stars all round!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!