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Yakuza Diary: Doing Time in the Japanese Underworld |  | Author: Christopher Seymour
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy Used: $11.86
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New (4) Used (22) Collectible (2) from $11.86
Seller: trinity-city-books
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 1280319
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 212
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 087113604X
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1060952
EAN: 9780871136046
ASIN: 087113604X
Publication Date: August 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
In the spring of 1993, freelance writer Christopher Seymour talked his way out of the grasp of a suspicious immigration official just in time to extend his stay in Japan during a countrywide yakuza (organized crime) gang war. From the opening pages of Yakuza Diary, his lighthearted enthusiasm is infectious. As he works his way into the yakuza network of physically imposing men with full-body tattoos and a weakness for tacky golf clothes, Seymour has adventures both scary and farcical. And he collects a slew of revealing details. For example, Seymour tells us that part of the affected romance of the hugely successful and influential Japanese underworld is that they style themselves as losers: ya-ku-za literally means 8-9-3, a losing hand in an old-fashioned Japanese card game. The Village Voice writes, "Christopher Seymour's journey into Japan's netherworld is alternately funny and harrowing, and always thoroughly original. His self-effacing style makes the perfect foil for this fascinating guided tour of institutional crime and ritualized violence."
Product Description
Japanese gangsters--the Yukuza--make up the biggest, richest, and most secretive organized crime syndicates in the world. The combined Yakuza is ten times larger than the American mafia, with profits that would rival any Fortune 500 company. Written in the tradition of Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy, Seymour's Yakuza Diary infiltrates the Yakuza, presenting the details of a world that, until now, has remained modern Japan's dirty little secret.
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| Customer Reviews:
 exciting look into the chivalry and danger of Japan's Yakuza March 25, 1998
leif25@aol.com (TX)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Just read it. You'll see what I mean. The book is fun, exciting, and makes you dream of what it would be like to be a gangster for a while. (maybe it is just me)
iidesu ne! March 21, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Absolutely fascinating. Seymour manages to become friends with the most interesting and unorthodox crime group in the world without glorifying them. He meets with all kinds of people in the yakuza, from an Aizu Kotetsu newcomer to a Yamaguchi-gumi oyabun. I read it all in one night. yondekudasai!
Christopher Seymour has guts to go this far May 27, 2000
Maarten Vleugel
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Christopher Seymour wrote an exciting book. He lived with the Yakuza and actually worked for the Yakuza in order to create this great piece of fun to read literature. I greatly admire him for doing this dangerous job. Everybody who wants to know about the hidden vital organs of Japanese society should read this book. Just to get an impression of how the organs work.
The stuff that Japanese people won't tell you about January 31, 1999
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A really good easy read. If you live in Japan this book is a must. Impress your friends with your knowlage of the Japanese underworld. A very interesting book. You'll never eat a bowl of ramen with the same gaijin inosence.
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