WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:12.640 The Team House with your hopes, Jack Murphy and David Bark. Hi, everyone, 2 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:15.560 Welcome to episode three hundred and seventy five of The 3 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:18.440 Team House. I'm Jack Murphy here tonight with our guest 4 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:23.039 Jake Adelstein. He is the author of Tokyo Wece an 5 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:26.640 American reporter on the police beat in Japan. This is 6 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:29.199 a book I read way back in two thousand and nine. 7 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:34.119 I feel old looking at the date on there this afternoon. 8 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:39.000 He has also written The Last Yakuza Life and Death 9 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:43.600 in the Japanese Underworld. This is probably the best. I mean, 10 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:45.799 I would say it is the best English language book 11 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:47.960 about the Yakuza. You guys should go and check this 12 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.560 one out. And his follow up to Tokyo Wes Tokyo Noir, 13 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:57.679 which kind of continues Jake's own story in Japan in 14 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:01.359 and out of the out of Japan's Underworld. I hope 15 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:04.480 you guys will check this one out also. So, Jake, 16 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:06.200 welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. 17 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.719 Hey, it's a pleasure to be on your show. I'm, 18 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:13.159 you know, not as grizzled as your usual veterans, but 19 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:14.760 I'll do my best. 20 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.519 I should also mention Tokyovice has been turned into a 21 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:22.640 television show with two seasons that people can go and 22 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:25.719 check out. It's like loosely based on your book, but 23 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:27.599 it's it's good to watch. It's fun to watch. It's 24 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:28.120 a good show. 25 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:33.400 Oh yeah, thank you. Uh you know the person who 26 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:37.359 was running the show was my high school buddy. Oh really, 27 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:40.359 he went off to become a Yeah. Yeah, he went 28 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.519 up to college and he became a very successful actor 29 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.120 in New York and he wrote a lot of plays 30 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:54.000 set in foreign countries, including Afghanistan and in Africa. And 31 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:57.079 you know, he won a Tony Award, which I think 32 00:01:57.159 --> 00:01:59.280 is a big deal in the world of movies in 33 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:03.719 theater for this play about about the Kalestonian peace talks 34 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:09.680 and oglows and uh yeah, it's a great play. And 35 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:12.680 they made it into a movie too. And I asked 36 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:16.000 him to be the showrunner and HBO was like yes, 37 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:18.800 And so it's great to work with your high school money. 38 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:20.639 And he was very good about listening to what I 39 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:22.639 had to say ninety percent of the time. 40 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:27.240 Yeah, that's super cool. That came together quite well. So 41 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.560 I want to just start off asking you a bit 42 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:34.039 about your own origin story, which kind of you tell 43 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:36.240 in Tokyo. Wece. But I mean, as I recall, you 44 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:40.159 grew up in the Midwest, Jewish dude from the Midwest, 45 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:44.319 and you ended up working as a reporter in Tokyo. 46 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:47.680 Uh well, in like the early to mid nineteen nineties, 47 00:02:47.719 --> 00:02:50.240 Like tell us that whole trajectory from point A to 48 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:51.680 point B, how that came about? 49 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:57.680 Okay, Okay, yeah, it's uh it's it's you know, Columbia, 50 00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:59.960 there is an interesting place I went. I went back 51 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:02.879 there two years ago to do a podcast about a 52 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:05.520 serial killer in the hospital where my father worked. That 53 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:09.879 is a whole other story in an entire podcast. So 54 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.840 I grew up there. My father has always well has 55 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:16.719 spent most of his time at the HARRYS. Trueman, but 56 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.000 I'durm's Hospital where he's a pathologist. He was also the 57 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:23.800 medical examiner. So I grew up listening to lots of 58 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:27.400 stories about crime and murder and accidents, and that was 59 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:33.560 kind of always dinner conversation. And in high school I 60 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:35.840 got kind of picked on a little bit. I got 61 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:40.319 in a fight with the school bully, and my teacher, 62 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:42.199 instead of expelling me, told me I needed to take 63 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:46.879 karate lessons to channel my anger. And from there I 64 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.240 got interested in Japan. And so my first year since 65 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:53.479 student at the University of Missouri, I noticed that they 66 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:56.439 had an exchange program, and I thought, what a wonderful 67 00:03:56.439 --> 00:04:02.199 opportunity to go to Japan. And lucky for me, it 68 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.400 was a time like when the Japanese economy was booming 69 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.560 and Japan seemed very expensive. So we had no one 70 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:11.840 going from the university. We had twenty people coming from 71 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:14.599 Sophia University, which is the university where I was going 72 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:19.240 to go as an exchange student, and they relaxed the 73 00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:21.360 rules and let me go after only a year of 74 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:25.959 Japanese under my belt, and a couple of months after 75 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.399 I got there, I ended up living in a zen 76 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:32.120 Buddhist temple. It's that really weird story. I mean, there's 77 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:36.160 kind of one coinstance after another, and I'm still friends 78 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.279 with the chief priest. I mean, you know, and you 79 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:42.399 read the book where now he's my end master, which 80 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:46.879 is kind of a weird thing to say. 81 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.079 And so from there, that's how you kind of got 82 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:52.199 immersed in Japanese culture, in the Japanese language, and kind 83 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:53.279 of continued from there. 84 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:57.680 Yeah. Yeah, I mean I was full immersion, right because 85 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.920 you're in You're in the you know, living in this temple, 86 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:05.040 I'm living surrounded by Japanese people, and I'm going to 87 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:08.759 school all the time. And I thought, you know, if 88 00:05:08.759 --> 00:05:11.120 I'm going to really improve my Japanese, if I'm really 89 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:14.879 going to get better before I graduated, I should do 90 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.879 something that would force me to work hard. And so 91 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:21.399 I decided to study for the newspaper entrance examinations, which 92 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:24.560 are something in Japan that newstreamers do. 93 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:28.040 They hire you my examination, and I got to ask, 94 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:31.160 was this like a bit of like youthful hubris that 95 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:34.839 you're like, I'm some white kid from the Midwest. I'm 96 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:37.279 going to just jump right in and take the entrance 97 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.959 exam for a prestigious Japanese newspaper. 98 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:47.199 You know. It's it's a saying in Japanese that even 99 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:50.040 a stupid person can do one thing right. And so, 100 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:53.759 you know, I had some talent for Japanese and also 101 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.199 I am you know, I hate to admit it's such 102 00:05:57.199 --> 00:05:59.720 a contrarian that once I decided to do it and 103 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.600 people told me that it would never happen, I was 104 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:06.839 just like, wow, We'll see. So that was that. 105 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:11.519 So you went in, It took the test and got 106 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:13.600 the job. I mean, did they know they were hiring 107 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:16.040 an American when they blessed off on it? 108 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:22.480 Like, you know, the minionship would used to be the world. 109 00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:25.319 So I just his paper. I mean it had eleven 110 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:27.439 million readers a day at the time when everyone in 111 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:29.480 Japan was reading a newspaper. Most of the readers are 112 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:34.800 Japanese of course, right, and they wanted to internationalize themselves, 113 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:37.920 and so you know, they had a the question the 114 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:40.920 essay topic we have to write an essay was, you know, foreigners, 115 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:43.199 kay Cokuchi. So I wrote this essay. It was like, 116 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:45.759 if you're serious about an internationalized thing, and you really 117 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:50.519 you know, and you know you're giving us the topic 118 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:52.279 of foreigners, you should hire a foreigners so you have 119 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:55.920 a different perspective on things. And they took me up 120 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.240 on that. So to their credit, you know, they knew 121 00:06:58.279 --> 00:07:00.800 exactly what they were doing. They did have They did 122 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.399 it just like in the TV shows. There's have some 123 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:05.480 questions on whether me being nominally Jewish would be an 124 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:06.360 obstacle to be. 125 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:10.240 Working, but they didn't really care. 126 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:14.600 No, no, no, I mean I mean, if I had 127 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:16.120 been smart, I would say, you know, I should have 128 00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:18.480 said like, uh, you know, I, yeah, I have to 129 00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:20.160 have the Sabbath off because then I might have actually 130 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.839 done some vacation time on the job, but I didn't. 131 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.279 Yeah, I don't think they have rasha Shan as a 132 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:29.959 national holiday in Japan. 133 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:32.920 No, I mean, I don't. I don't think, you know, 134 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:37.560 I'll tell you what, like you know I do. I'm 135 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:39.800 not complaining. It's just how things are are in the 136 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.399 pan as they used to be. So we had, as 137 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:45.480 a newstry reporters, especially on the crime beat, we had 138 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:49.160 like eighty hour weeks, ninety hour weeks sometimes depending on 139 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:52.920 what was the news breaking. And you know, they would 140 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:55.360 give you a calendar with your days marked off on it, 141 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:58.639 and and you know, and you would almost never get 142 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:00.680 those days off. And then as I rose up in 143 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:03.319 the company, sometimes you would be on the night shift 144 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:06.680 and you'd be following a formula to mark your labor hours. 145 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.000 So I went once in the company, I hadn't I 146 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.560 hadn't been like in the office for three days working 147 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:14.319 on a story, manning the phones, and I marked myself 148 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.240 into like in the middle of a vacation, because that's 149 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:17.120 what the manual said. 150 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:27.079 It's pretty crazy, as you become a reporter in Japan. 151 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:28.839 I feel like this is kind of like where you 152 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:32.320 get taken into the next level of the immersion, Like 153 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:36.039 you start to interact with obviously the press, but also 154 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:38.679 the police. You're kind of on the metro beat, right, 155 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.639 so you're interacting with the police and eventually organized crime. 156 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:44.039 You're starting to learn sort of like where the fault 157 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:47.120 lines in society are, Like, like what was that like 158 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.080 and what were you learning as a young guy working 159 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:51.039 that job at the time. 160 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.360 First of all, what was really different for me is 161 00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:00.960 I didn't drink. I mean, you know, I drink in college. 162 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:04.759 I was like a straight edge punk and I'm living 163 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:07.519 in this zen Buddhist temple where you know, you can 164 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:09.559 drink it's an end Buddhist, but you're not supposed to 165 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:13.360 get drunk. And the first thing I realized that you 166 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:15.120 have to drink with the cops. If you don't drink 167 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:16.440 with the cops, they don't take you seriously. 168 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.840 And there's sort of like this interesting relationship between the 169 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:26.360 police and the press and the criminals and the way 170 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:28.639 you kind of like have to balance that as a 171 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:30.360 reporter working in that environment. 172 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:36.120 Yeah, I mean, because everybody has their part to play right. 173 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:39.679 And you know, when you're first starting off to the cops, 174 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:42.559 you're just a nuisance, right, You're you know, if they 175 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:46.320 like you, maybe they'll feed you a story. And in 176 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:48.720 the ACA is a you know, if they talk to 177 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:52.559 you at all, it's when they realize that you might 178 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:55.679 be able to write a story that would do damage 179 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:58.840 to their enemies, so they might feed you a good story. 180 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:00.399 I mean, that was a really weird thing that I 181 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:04.000 realized is is that the rules of engagement as a journalist, 182 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:09.440 especially covering organized crime, were like this. You could get 183 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:12.240 information from the akaza and you could pass it on 184 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:15.200 to the police, and that was okay. You just had 185 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:17.600 to make sure that the akada were these these mafiosas 186 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:21.360 understood that you understood that you were doing them a favor, 187 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:24.600 and it wasn't the other way around. And then but 188 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:26.960 you could never take information you got from the police 189 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:30.320 and give it to the akaza. And so everyone has 190 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:32.879 these kind of sort of rules and they're not written out, 191 00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:34.679 and you sort of warn them as you go along, 192 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:38.480 and you don't want to screw up, and and and 193 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:41.559 what makes being a police reporter in Japan really hard 194 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:46.720 is the cops cannot go on the record because the 195 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.960 Japan criminal because the japan Public service laws makes it 196 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.840 a crime for a police officer to speak about something 197 00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:56.759 that's confidential. So if they get caught, they can get fired, 198 00:10:56.919 --> 00:10:59.519 they can even be prosecuted, which is why you have 199 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:02.440 to have this intensive You and I are just drinking 200 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.159 and we both got so drunk. No one remembers what 201 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:07.120 happened last night, so of course you could have told 202 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.000 me anything about a breaking case. 203 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:14.000 And as I recall, there's also some interesting conventions with 204 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:18.879 the newspaper and with the editors. Obviously they have journalistic standards, 205 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:22.279 things have to be sourced properly, but there's also like, oh, 206 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:24.279 do we really want to piss off the cops by 207 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.320 publishing that? Do we want to really piss off the 208 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.799 yakuza by publishing that. They have to balance some of 209 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:29.679 these things as well. 210 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:35.559 Oh yeah, the balance with the cops is really hard. 211 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:39.240 You know. There was this one interesting case in which, 212 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.559 you know, I don't know about the cops in the 213 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:46.519 United States, but the cops in Japan are very jurisdictional, right, 214 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:49.600 so everybody has their fiefdom. So if there's a homicide case, 215 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:51.919 the homicide cops want to do it. Well, there was 216 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:55.759 one case where they the homicide cases homicide cops took 217 00:11:55.759 --> 00:12:00.080 over case from the organized crime squad involving the murder 218 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:04.279 of a low life journalist actually I mean one of 219 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:06.039 our own in a sense, but basically he made his 220 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:09.919 money by blackmailing people. He got paid by not writing articles. 221 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:14.279 So this you know, yakuza kills him. The police started 222 00:12:14.279 --> 00:12:17.080 an investigation. First the organized crime cops do it. Then 223 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:19.039 the homicide guys step in and they said, we're going 224 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:21.679 to do We're going to do this. So the homicide 225 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:24.799 cops send like low level rookies to arrest the guy. 226 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:28.279 But the suspect has a gun, right because he's the yaka. 227 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:31.039 Is only theaka that have guns in Japan unless so 228 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:34.559 the cops, And so when the cops show up to 229 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:37.039 rest him, not knowing what's going on, he pulls the 230 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:38.679 gun on him and he holds the hostage in a 231 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:40.840 car for a couple hours a stand off. He shoots 232 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:44.240 himself on the head. He survives. It's a huge scandal, 233 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:47.600 but it's just the whole thing is screwed up because 234 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:51.039 the homicide guys had so much hubris that they wouldn't 235 00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:54.279 listen to the organized crime cops, and they didn't tell 236 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:58.320 the rookies going to arrest him the possible danger that 237 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:00.679 he had a gun. So I thought, this is a 238 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:04.600 great story. Here's where police rivalry results in, you know, 239 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:07.840 nearly a death and a hausted situation. It could have 240 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:11.159 been avoided. And so I wrote up the article and 241 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:12.600 I showed it to my boss, and what do you 242 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:20.679 think happened? Said nope, no, no, He said, hold on, 243 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.240 this is a great story. So he went to talk 244 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:25.679 to the head of the investigative division, like the chiefs 245 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.279 of the detectives, and they made a deal that we 246 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.480 would have a scoop on any major crime story for 247 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.200 the next six months, and in exchange, we would bury 248 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:36.519 this story. We bury the story. 249 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:41.679 I think those types of arrangements exist in the American press, 250 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:45.440 with the big newspapers more than anyone would be comfortable 251 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:50.519 saying out loud, quite frankly. So I want to take 252 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.360 a minute today to tell you guys about the perfect gene. 253 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:55.799 I've been wearing them for a few weeks now and 254 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:57.679 really enjoy them, and I just want to share it 255 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:01.120 with our audience. You know, some times jeans have this 256 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:04.039 problem where you know, you guys all have seen these 257 00:14:04.200 --> 00:14:07.080 skinny jeens that they like crush your balls and you 258 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:09.399 know it's just not comfortable to wear or the other 259 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:11.799 way around. Jeans are like too baggy. You know, you 260 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:14.240 have this sort of like diaper in your ass area 261 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:17.840 looks like. So there are these problems that you know, 262 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:21.600 different fits of different types of genes have, and the 263 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:25.000 perfect gene strives to fix that, both the fit but 264 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:30.679 also the mobility, the maneuverability. It has a stretchy fabric 265 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:33.879 like they say it's like yoga ready, but you know 266 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:37.960 I would say it's athletics ready. You know, moving furniture, 267 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:40.759 doing things around the house. You're not going to have 268 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:44.639 that like super tight, like constricted fit that you feel 269 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:46.080 like you're not gonna be able to move around in. 270 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:49.919 And there are over four hundred thousand people out there 271 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:52.559 wearing these jeans at this point, so not all of 272 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:55.200 them can be wrong. I hope you guys will go 273 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.279 and check them out. So a few scenarios where you 274 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:01.000 can wear these jeans and where they really we come together. 275 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:05.440 Everything from you know, doing yard work or doing things 276 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:07.960 around your house, if you have to move furniture, around 277 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:12.399 or you have to do handiwork. They're perfectly comfortable, but 278 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:14.879 you can wear them, you know, getting your man spread 279 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.759 on on the subway if that's your thing. So the 280 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:21.240 Perfect Gene is great for all kinds of different environments, 281 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.720 whether it's doing handiwork around the house or on the 282 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:26.720 job or athletics. And we really hope you guys will 283 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:29.320 go and check them out. For a limited time, our 284 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:32.600 listeners get fifteen percent off their first order plus free 285 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.679 shipping at the Perfect Gene dot nyc. Or google the 286 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:39.600 Perfect Gene and use the code House fifteen for fifteen 287 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:43.000 percent off. That's fifteen percent off for new customers at 288 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:48.519 the Perfect Gene dot NYC with promo code House fifteen. 289 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.679 After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. 290 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.240 Please support our show and tell them we sent you. 291 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:59.360 So fuck yourkakis and get the Perfect Gene. 292 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:06.080 Yeah, I mean, I can't say that I miss it 293 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:08.480 that much, But there was something kind of fun about 294 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:12.600 going to going the evening rounds. You actually go to 295 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:14.600 the cops houses and you drink with them, right and 296 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:17.159 the organized kind guy. The guys were fun, I mean 297 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.919 because they did crazy cases. They're dealing with these violent criminals, 298 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:26.159 and they tended to be pretty nutty themselves. And because 299 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:28.799 like as I told you, the pretense is right that 300 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.759 this is just a friendly drink between buddies, right, so 301 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.840 you cannot take notes, you know, you cannot take out 302 00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:39.519 a pen and paper. So you drink, you know, for 303 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:42.080 a couple of hours. Maybe maybe you eat something too, 304 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.279 and you always try and bring something with you. And 305 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:48.639 then we had taxis that we could use a company 306 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:50.720 cars because of course peopn't want to get arrested for 307 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:54.480 drunk driving, so you'd have to write down everything as 308 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:58.159 fast as you can before you pass out. Our loves 309 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:00.759 is still in your head. I mean, it's great training 310 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:06.400 for remembering conversations because you can't take notes. So there's 311 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:10.079 one cop I really liked named Iso Bassan, and you 312 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:11.880 know he's retired now so and he doesn't have a 313 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:15.200 problem to mention his name. And when I go to 314 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.480 easta Basons, the first thing he would say was like, 315 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:21.519 would you like a beer? And that's very common advantage. 316 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:25.240 You start with a beer, and then we would drink 317 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:27.240 some Japanese sake and he was really into the sake 318 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:29.200 soap he would tell me where it was from. And 319 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:32.079 whether it was dry or whether it was sweet, and 320 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:35.039 you know what its name was and why this was 321 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:39.640 a good sake. And then after the sake, sometimes his 322 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:41.720 wife would make his dinner and we would have some 323 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:45.000 wine with the dinner, and if it was winter, he'd 324 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:46.680 give me a shot of whiskey for the roape because 325 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:51.039 it was cold outside. And so my notes from my 326 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.720 visits to his house would always like start with very nice, 327 00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:57.240 you know, fine print and details, but by the third 328 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:01.519 page office started trailing off as I'd pass out. That 329 00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:02.160 was kind of fun. 330 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:05.599 And at this point you're like, you're young too. You're like, 331 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:06.839 what like twenty five. 332 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:09.359 Or something, Yeah, twenty five, twenty six. 333 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:17.119 It's awesome. So let's there's a whole bunch of things 334 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.720 that I want to get into with you, but maybe 335 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:22.519 this would be the right place to sort of jump 336 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:27.759 off and ask you about Sigo and how you met 337 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:31.079 him and how how that kind of relationship came about 338 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:31.400 for you. 339 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.640 So I first met Sigol very early on, when I 340 00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:42.200 was doing this crazy story about uh dog breaders, shield 341 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:48.440 killer and his wife who murdered a bunch of their 342 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.119 customers who are I'm happy with and they killed Yaka 343 00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:57.480 the boss and his driver. Okay, so they killed the Yaka, 344 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:00.839 the bost and his driver. We all knew that the 345 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.400 police were investigating these guys, and we split up into 346 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:05.480 teams to cover the people that were missing, people that 347 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:08.920 had been killed by the bisecting again his name in 348 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:15.559 the serial Killer. I got assigned to cover Endo Makoto 349 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:21.359 and his driver Walkuisan and in the course of in 350 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:27.119 the course of that investigation, I started dating and those 351 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:31.880 mistresses and Sigo was in the same organized crime group, 352 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:36.799 the Ena Galachai, and at one point, uh, you know, 353 00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:41.200 I think he actually came to her house or something. 354 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:43.839 We had this sort of discussion of the fact that 355 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:46.079 you know, wasn't appropriate for me to be with the 356 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:49.400 his brothers and the organization's mistress, and I was like, 357 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:51.960 you know, the guy is probably dead and I should 358 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.039 be awarded. I should be rewarded for taking care of 359 00:19:54.119 --> 00:19:56.200 the mistress because there's no one to look after her. 360 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:59.319 And he just thought that was a lot of Chuck's 361 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:01.599 butun very fun. And then we just stayed in touch 362 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:09.880 until about two thousand and eight, when I was put 363 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:12.119 under police protection because I pissed off this yak as 364 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:14.640 a boss and he was kicked out of his organization 365 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:17.920 because he owed a bunch of money to them, And 366 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:21.440 so I asked him, you know, would you be my 367 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:25.440 bodyguard and my driver because I need both and he said. 368 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:30.880 Yes, Well that's uh yeah, maybe before we jump off 369 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.839 into the next thing, we should talk about that a 370 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:35.279 little bit more. You're you're talking about go to. 371 00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:38.359 Correct Oh, yes, I'm talking about Boto. 372 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.559 Yeah, so tell us about kind of like how you 373 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:42.960 pissed that dude off and how that became an issue 374 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:43.240 for you. 375 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:49.960 Oh sure, So got Tamasa is kind of the Richard 376 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.920 Branson of organized crime, Mike Richard Branson if he puts 377 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:59.039 a homicidal, homicidal maniac. So you know a little bit 378 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:01.720 of background for people who are not versus of thetof So. 379 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:08.200 Japan has basically twenty crime families called collectively called the Yakuza, 380 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:12.039 and the biggest of them all was the Yamaguchigumi, which 381 00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:16.200 at one time I had forty thousand members. They are 382 00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:24.759 they are public entities, meaning that you know, they have offices, 383 00:21:24.839 --> 00:21:29.240 they have business cards, they exist in the public. Actually, 384 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:31.039 I've got a fan magazine around if you'd like me 385 00:21:31.079 --> 00:21:32.480 to pull it out. I could show it to you, Yeah, 386 00:21:32.599 --> 00:21:34.000 just to show you how crazy that is. 387 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:34.720 Yeah, why not? 388 00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:37.880 Okay, hold on, I'll co grab it. 389 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:43.720 Yeah. So Jake's talking about how they're these Yakuza families. 390 00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:48.640 They get writers and publishers to actually make fanzines like 391 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:53.359 magazines extolling how great the Yakuza is and they're exploits 392 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.680 and how honorable they are and all this kind of stuff. 393 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:03.519 Oh yeah, yeh, So here we are. So this is 394 00:22:03.559 --> 00:22:10.960 a Yakaza fan magazine. It's really thick. This one is 395 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:14.559 especially a shoot because it has an article analyzing the 396 00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:18.160 legislation that was put on the books around two thousand 397 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:21.799 and between two thousand nine twenty eleven, which made it 398 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:23.720 a crime to pay off the Akiza. So there's a 399 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.799 big article here about and also criticizing the National Police 400 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:31.359 Agency for interesting on the human rights in Yakuza by 401 00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:35.160 outlying some of their criminal activities. I mean, I laughed, 402 00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:37.759 because it's like, it's not like you're born in Yakaza. 403 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:42.039 You do have some choice there. Who is the so 404 00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:42.720 this is? This is it? 405 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:47.640 Who's the readership of magazines like this, Jake? Like you know, 406 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:50.599 in America, of course, we have an interesting like crime 407 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.200 films and crime dramas like that. These criminals are edgy 408 00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:57.720 outsiders on the peripheral of society. Is that kind of 409 00:22:57.880 --> 00:22:59.759 who reads these magazines? 410 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:03.880 Yeah? Yeah, okay, so first of all, right, at the 411 00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:06.240 time when they're eighty thousand, because of in Japan, this 412 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.119 is kind of like you know, car and Driver if 413 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:10.720 you're in the automobile in the sty. 414 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:15.920 Yeah, it's like a people are industry publication. 415 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:21.319 Yes, so it's an industry publication, but also people reading 416 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.480 it are the police read it? Right, the journalists read 417 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:28.000 it and then you know, your your average sort of 418 00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:30.640 white collar worker and blue collar worker who dreams of 419 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:33.960 being a tough guy of not you know, of having 420 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:36.799 women in cars and lots of money and doing whatever 421 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:39.000 they want. They read it too because it's exciting, right. 422 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:41.240 People are interested in gangsters, like the same kind of 423 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:44.079 people who love true crime. And there are probably some 424 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:46.400 women readers who read it as well, so it's very 425 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:47.440 male oriented. 426 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:53.039 Okay, So back to Goto, So back to God. 427 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:58.440 So go To is was the head of the AMA 428 00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:00.519 Give Me, which is the largest organized crime group which 429 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:04.279 has been around nineteen fifteen, over one hundred years. He 430 00:24:04.519 --> 00:24:09.279 was head of their Tokyo Operations, and he was really ruthless, 431 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:11.680 and he was a really good businessman at one point. 432 00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:15.200 At one time he was the largest individual shareholder of 433 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:17.960 Japan Airlines. So I mean, think about that's a lot 434 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:24.519 of money to have. But because he was ruthless, because 435 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:26.839 he has no morals, he pissed off a lot of people. 436 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:29.519 And he also didn't take very good care of himself. 437 00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:32.920 So he needed a liver transplant, and the best place 438 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:35.079 to get a liver transplant is in the United States. 439 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:38.359 And in order to get that liver transplant, because he 440 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:40.519 was on a blacklist by the FBI, of course, the 441 00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:43.839 United States isn't going to let in a known criminal 442 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:48.559 of his nature in. He made a deal with the 443 00:24:48.599 --> 00:24:52.200 FBI that they would provide him a visa to go 444 00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:56.000 into the United States and get a liver transplant at UCLA. 445 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:01.519 UCLA found him a liver or the FBI didn't find him, 446 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:04.920 didn't find a deliver, but he did that and he 447 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:07.720 ratted out his buddies to get that deal. Or the 448 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:11.440 FBI was kind of wanted intelligence about organized crime within 449 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:15.119 the United States. The Japanese police and the National Police 450 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:18.240 Agency would not cooperate with the FBI for reasons I've 451 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:21.240 never understood. They wouldn't share their list of members with 452 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:23.559 the FBI, and the FBI wanted that list. 453 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:27.680 So go open kimono with the FEDS to get his liver. 454 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:34.039 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. But he kind of screwed 455 00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:35.759 them too, because as soon as he got his liver, 456 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:37.720 he you know, he checked out of the hospital. He 457 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:39.599 only gave them about a fit to what he promised, 458 00:25:40.039 --> 00:25:41.920 So it wasn't a very good deal in terms of 459 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:48.000 for the FEDS either. So you know what I did 460 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:51.160 is that I had heard about this. I'd heard about 461 00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:53.240 the fact that he got a liver transplant while covering 462 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:58.079 this huge story about a loan chark who made like 463 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:01.319 over hundreds of millions of dollars with his coloff a 464 00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:04.960 loan sharking operation which included laundering money at the MGM 465 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:09.160 Grand in Las Vegas. I mean, really like movie thriller 466 00:26:09.240 --> 00:26:13.000 kind of stuff. And on following that story for years, 467 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:15.559 I heard that Goto had made a deal to get 468 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.440 into the United States and get a liver transplant. It 469 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:21.279 took me a long time to figure out that he 470 00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:23.400 made a deal with the FBI to do it, And 471 00:26:23.480 --> 00:26:28.680 so when I started to write about it. Someone routed 472 00:26:28.759 --> 00:26:32.000 me out to him, and you know, I was hearing 473 00:26:32.039 --> 00:26:35.039 murmurs that that he was very unhappy with what I 474 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:39.079 was working on. And then the National Police Agency told 475 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:41.039 me to come to the office and said, well, you know, 476 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:45.720 you're under police protection. Apparently there's a contract out on 477 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:49.480 you and you know what exactly are you up to? 478 00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:52.720 And so that was very awkward too, because it's kind 479 00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:55.200 of like, you know, I didn't really want to give 480 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:58.000 up my sources, but they were quite aware of the 481 00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:59.720 fact that this deal had been made with the FBI 482 00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:02.960 and happy about it, so maybe they wanted this story 483 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:03.519 out as well. 484 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.200 Cigo kind of tipped you off, didn't the. 485 00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:11.720 Yeah, well, Sigo is one of the people's like, you know, 486 00:27:12.119 --> 00:27:15.880 you you may be in some serious problems here, you know, 487 00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:18.799 that's a That's the weird thing about the underworld is 488 00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:21.160 it's like a giant junior high school where everybody knows 489 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:24.279 each other, so you you get to hear things from 490 00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:28.319 other people, you know, even the other Well, this is 491 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:31.559 kind of strange. I've always been strange to be so 492 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:35.319 can you imagine like the Crips and the Bloods sending 493 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:38.599 Christmas cards to each other, not really no, but in 494 00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:42.119 Japan that's totally the way that you have all these 495 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:47.279 different organizations. You have the Sumiyo Skai, you have the amumi, 496 00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:50.079 and to some extent you can have you can be 497 00:27:50.119 --> 00:27:53.200 an in and you can be a blood brother with 498 00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:56.279 a member of someone in the Sumiokai. So you have 499 00:27:56.359 --> 00:28:01.200 these alliances that transcend organizations. So it comes very complicated. 500 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:04.839 Who knows what? And one third of the akas are 501 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:09.200 Korean Japanese, and because Koreans in Japan are subject to 502 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:13.200 auto discrimination, so there's a substrata of people in the 503 00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:16.119 akasa groups who know each other as like, well, you're 504 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:18.960 a fellow Korean, and even though we're in different organizations, 505 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:24.319 we have this in common. And I was kind of 506 00:28:24.359 --> 00:28:29.200 like navigating that labyrinth of connections between the organizations to 507 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:33.200 get information because it's reporter. Information is what you want, right, 508 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:34.359 That's what gets you a scoop. 509 00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:40.200 So let's let's pick up the got story towards the 510 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:45.000 end as we kind of jump forward in time, and 511 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:47.960 I'd like to dive in a little bit deeper with 512 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:51.359 you into the yakuza, and if you can tell us 513 00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:53.400 a little bit. You alluded to already a bit about 514 00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:56.880 the history of it. I think it's very very interesting 515 00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:00.640 in the last Kuza, how you explain that, you know, 516 00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:04.200 the yakuza in a lot of ways was born out 517 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:08.279 of a segment of the Japanese population that was marginalized 518 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:11.880 and they weren't allowed to work normal jobs. So like 519 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:14.759 the kind of the system sort of created this underworld 520 00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:15.799 at the time. 521 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:22.440 Oh yeah, so you know, originally, you know, let's talk 522 00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:24.960 about let's go back to eighteen seventy stuff. There are 523 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:28.039 two kinds of yakers that there were street merchants, and 524 00:29:28.119 --> 00:29:33.160 there were federations of gamers. But the Second World War comes, 525 00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:38.759 it ends disastrously for Japan and you have all these people. Sorry, 526 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:43.000 my phone is making annoying noises. Actually that was funny. 527 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:47.119 Was just telling me there's an Enegalachai meeting tomorrow. They 528 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:49.480 have meet monthly meetings, and you can watch all the 529 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:52.519 cars line up in front of their office and raponki 530 00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:53.680 across from Riz Carlton. 531 00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:56.039 Did they have someone that takes the minutes of the meeting. 532 00:29:57.480 --> 00:29:59.200 Yes, jes see, I'm just going to take some into 533 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:02.640 the meetings. It's it's I mean, like I said, right, 534 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:07.240 so it's very in your faith, right, So uh, they 535 00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:09.880 have a monthly meeting, it's usually the same day, and 536 00:30:09.880 --> 00:30:12.200 then you can sort of do yaka the watching. You 537 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:14.119 can watch them come in their cars and see you. 538 00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:17.759 I think the Lexus is their favorite brand now, Eastern Mercedes, 539 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:20.920 Benz and the cops are all lined up there, you know, 540 00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:23.640 watching them come in and out of the meetings. And 541 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:27.279 sometimes there's still some reporters from the weekly magazines there 542 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:30.440 to photograph the meetings. So that's always surreal. But back 543 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:36.119 to your point. So World War two ends and you know, 544 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:40.000 these guys come back from the war and it's total chaos. Right. 545 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:43.400 The Japanese police force exists, but they have a limited 546 00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:47.759 ability to police things, especially what are called third party nationals. 547 00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:54.400 Third party nationals are people who were under the Imperial Japan, 548 00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:59.559 the Taiwanese and the Chinese and the Koreans technically Japanese citizens, 549 00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:03.480 but not really. So after the war ends and Japan 550 00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.240 starts rebuilding, these people don't fit in. Like if you're 551 00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:11.279 a Korean Japanese, even if you nationalize, you know, the 552 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:17.680 jobs open to you are basically Korean barbecue rafel Leve 553 00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:22.400 Hotel owner, Pachinko parlor, pachinko Parlo being kind of like 554 00:31:22.440 --> 00:31:27.799 a gambling pinball machine place. And so the Akasa, though, 555 00:31:27.799 --> 00:31:31.039 we're a meritocracy, so if you could do the time, 556 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:33.559 and you could do the crime, they would let you in. 557 00:31:34.359 --> 00:31:37.480 And there's a other weird outcast class in Japan called 558 00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:44.799 Barackomene are people who traditionally worked with leather where butchers 559 00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:47.680 dealt with animals because that was considered unclean to kill 560 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:52.400 an animal. And the Akasa welcomed these people and didn't 561 00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:55.880 care what your ethnic background is or whether you were 562 00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:58.440 part of the Baracomine class, and that was one of 563 00:31:58.440 --> 00:32:02.119 the reasons that they did so well. And they also 564 00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:04.960 have this code. I wouldn't even call it a code 565 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:09.279 of honor. It's a code of conduct which is certain 566 00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:11.279 things would get you kicked out of the ax especially 567 00:32:11.319 --> 00:32:14.880 in the early days, which is petty theft that'll get 568 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:19.119 you kicked out. Robbery. Robbery is taking things with violence, right, 569 00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:23.920 you know, like mugging someone on the street, dealing and 570 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:28.799 using drugs. Of course, sexual assault because you know that 571 00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:32.480 is not acceptable and that would get you kicked out. 572 00:32:32.519 --> 00:32:38.519 But everything else, extortion, racketeering, threatening people, that was all okay. 573 00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:40.400 You can do all those things. 574 00:32:41.720 --> 00:32:44.200 So what was it really a code or was it 575 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:45.640 more like guidelines. 576 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:51.960 It's a code, and you know every every faction has 577 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:55.920 its own code and ethics, but the Inegalai especially right 578 00:32:56.440 --> 00:32:58.240 and then always like all these things, it depends on 579 00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:00.759 the Boston. You broke that code, they kicked you out. 580 00:33:02.680 --> 00:33:04.680 And one of the things that issues that the people 581 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:07.599 had with God was that he killed civilians, and killing 582 00:33:07.640 --> 00:33:10.839 civilians with a big no no. Threatening journalists was a 583 00:33:10.839 --> 00:33:13.759 big no note because you know, Japan had some sort 584 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:16.519 of social contract with the akasa and the police as well. 585 00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:19.440 It's like, okay, you know, you have these things that 586 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:22.680 you do and you make your money that nobody else 587 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:24.920 wants to do, and we're fine with that. But once 588 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:28.279 you step out of those lines, then you're just common criminals. 589 00:33:29.720 --> 00:33:32.440 Let's get a couple things out of the way that 590 00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:35.119 are sort of like the visible things about the yakuza 591 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:40.000 that people know about. Specifically, I want to talk about 592 00:33:40.039 --> 00:33:44.640 the tattoos and the sacrificial finger that gets authorized or 593 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:48.480 offered as apology. What are the truth behind sort of 594 00:33:48.519 --> 00:33:52.559 these like the cultural mystique of the yakuza. 595 00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:55.559 Okay, so you know, I'm opening this up here to 596 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:01.000 these guys. See this guy, this is the leader of them. 597 00:34:01.400 --> 00:34:08.000 Give me right here attending a attending a funeral for 598 00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:12.559 one of the founders of the organization. Oh, next to 599 00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:14.719 this is also a penis in large Manand they always 600 00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:16.519 have penis in large branants in these magazines. 601 00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:19.119 Who doesn't want one? 602 00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:23.760 Actually, I can tell you a funny story about the 603 00:34:23.800 --> 00:34:26.000 yacht of the Bosston about one of these operations went bad. 604 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:31.239 Plate we'll move that later to the conversation. So, you know, 605 00:34:32.199 --> 00:34:40.440 discussA snobson is missing a finger and and and it's 606 00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:43.800 unclear why he's missing that finger, but I do know 607 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:45.800 that it was an issue for the Amagumi when I 608 00:34:45.840 --> 00:34:48.119 wrote an article and I published a photo of him 609 00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:51.679 with the vice chairman of Japan's Olympic committee in twenty fifteen. 610 00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:56.800 You know this is Japan, right, the vice chairman of 611 00:34:56.840 --> 00:35:00.559 Japan's Olympic committee photographed and clearly friends with the head 612 00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.559 of Japan's largest organized crime group. Was a minor issue, 613 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:06.920 and that was a nice scoop for me. But before 614 00:35:06.920 --> 00:35:09.239 I published the article, I called up someone in the 615 00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:15.760 Amachigumi and said, like, basically, I'm writing this article. You 616 00:35:15.800 --> 00:35:18.480 know I'm not the only one that could write it 617 00:35:18.519 --> 00:35:21.639 as a professional courtesy. I'm letting you know. And the 618 00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:24.320 only thing that was said to me was could you 619 00:35:24.599 --> 00:35:27.800 crop the photo so that we don't see itscassa as 620 00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:30.000 missing as middle is a little picky there because he's 621 00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:32.360 very sensitive about it. I said, I can't do that, 622 00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:34.960 but I can't include a line in the article that 623 00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:40.239 your boss is honorable because I did so. First, we'll 624 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:44.360 get to this the little the little finger thing. Uh. 625 00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:48.639 In a time when Japanese people use sorts, right, if 626 00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.760 you cut off this finger here, you weaken your sword drip. 627 00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:55.119 So it is a sign of appeasement. By offering up 628 00:35:55.440 --> 00:35:58.719 part of your finger to the person you wrong, you're 629 00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:01.360 showing that you are sorry, and you're weakening yourself, just 630 00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:03.840 like a dog shows its neck right in a dogfight, 631 00:36:03.880 --> 00:36:05.559 to say, like, if you want to take me out, 632 00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:09.639 take me out, you know, let me live. So when 633 00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:14.079 yaka the culture, there's two reasons you cut off your finger, 634 00:36:15.079 --> 00:36:17.000 and usually it's just the tip of your pinky, right, 635 00:36:17.159 --> 00:36:19.119 you know, because you know you don't want to cut 636 00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:25.639 off this much, this much If you screwed up and 637 00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:28.199 you're chopping off your finger, so that you can stay 638 00:36:28.199 --> 00:36:32.400 in the organization or make amends or not pay a debt. 639 00:36:32.679 --> 00:36:35.400 But you owe that is called a shinny UVII. That 640 00:36:35.440 --> 00:36:39.440 is a dead finger. But if you do it on 641 00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:43.559 behalf of so your brother or your your friend in 642 00:36:43.599 --> 00:36:50.039 the organization who is done something wrong. Maybe he's stolen 643 00:36:50.039 --> 00:36:54.000 money from the organization, maybe he's maybe he's cooperated too 644 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:57.800 much with the cops, maybe he's fallen asleep on his 645 00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:01.000 job as a bodyguard. Anyways, screwed up. And you do 646 00:37:01.079 --> 00:37:04.559 that on behalf of him, then that is called an ecup, 647 00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:07.079 which is a living finger, and that is considered very 648 00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:10.519 honorable to sacrifice part of yourself, are getting a part 649 00:37:10.519 --> 00:37:14.360 of yourself or somebody else, That is an honorable thing. 650 00:37:14.519 --> 00:37:17.280 And even though if you and I look at someone's finger, 651 00:37:17.320 --> 00:37:20.719 all et is a missing finger right in the opposite 652 00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:23.480 world which I which is like you know, Tokyo Junior 653 00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:27.920 High School, everybody knows that that finger is either a 654 00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:29.280 dead finger or a living finger. 655 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:33.199 If you're in the market for a new mattress, you've 656 00:37:33.239 --> 00:37:35.760 probably seen all the brands out there vying for your attention, 657 00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:39.199 big names, splashy ads, all promising the same thing. 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You can go 687 00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:07.239 to goost bed dot com slash house and get twenty 688 00:39:07.239 --> 00:39:10.639 five percent off right now, love you and love ghost bed, 689 00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:13.159 Thanks guys. 690 00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:16.079 And it's also the idea is that it makes you 691 00:39:16.119 --> 00:39:19.239 more reliant on the organization, right, Like that's the part 692 00:39:19.239 --> 00:39:20.559 of the symbolism behind it. 693 00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:25.519 Yeah, yeah, the part of the symbolizations. You've you've chopped 694 00:39:25.559 --> 00:39:27.519 with the finger. You're lying on the organization for your 695 00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:30.960 bread and butter because now you're weaker. But it's also 696 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:33.119 a sign that you've been tolling for something. But it 697 00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:36.079 can also be a symbol of strength, right you know, 698 00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:38.440 it's painful to cut that off, so you show somebody 699 00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:41.079 your missing finger and it's like like, okay, this is 700 00:39:41.079 --> 00:39:44.760 someone who is enduring great pain to stay where they are, 701 00:39:45.159 --> 00:39:49.599 or enduring great pain on behalf of somebody else. And 702 00:39:49.719 --> 00:39:51.920 in the fifties and sixties it sort of became like 703 00:39:51.960 --> 00:39:54.960 a cool thing to chop off a finger, like people 704 00:39:55.119 --> 00:39:58.280 who look for excuses like Mike, you know, what can 705 00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:00.320 I do to justifying chopping on my face? Years so 706 00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:05.079 I looked like a tough guy. Uh. I don't know 707 00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:09.840 if I mentioned this in the book, but people don't 708 00:40:09.920 --> 00:40:12.840 like to say yakaz Jefpanes's polite society because it's you know, 709 00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:14.800 it scares people, right, it's you know, it's you know, 710 00:40:14.880 --> 00:40:20.519 it's not it's not said lightly. So often instead of 711 00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:27.480 saying yakaza, they do this, and that symbolizes a cut 712 00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:32.840 across the fai. So in the Akasa world, it used 713 00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:34.599 to be, especially in the days when you're having lots 714 00:40:34.639 --> 00:40:40.639 of gang wars, that instead of killing you, I would 715 00:40:40.639 --> 00:40:43.159 slash you across the face to show that I let you. 716 00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:49.000 And amongst the Akasa that sort of became kind of 717 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:51.199 a cool thing. But it's like, wow, I've been in 718 00:40:51.199 --> 00:40:53.800 a deadly sight, which I survived. So some of them 719 00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:56.880 started doing it to themselves, so that became. That's still 720 00:40:56.880 --> 00:40:58.519 the mark of the well. 721 00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:01.280 Speaking of that, I mean, is that the same rationale 722 00:41:01.320 --> 00:41:04.559 behind the tattoos. It's sort of like showing your loyalty 723 00:41:04.639 --> 00:41:07.840 to the organization and that I'm this tough guy outsider 724 00:41:07.880 --> 00:41:11.039 in society. 725 00:41:11.159 --> 00:41:13.719 Because there's five there's maybe five reasons you do that. 726 00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:18.559 One is, I mean, I love these people said that 727 00:41:18.599 --> 00:41:23.599 their tattoos area is One reason that you what you do. 728 00:41:23.639 --> 00:41:29.440 The tattoos is because it shows that you are tough. 729 00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:34.199 Because the tattoos down the traditional Japanese way are incredibly painful. 730 00:41:35.079 --> 00:41:36.920 I mean there's lots of blood. They're done with kind 731 00:41:36.920 --> 00:41:41.559 of a an awl awl, like a sort of blood instrument, 732 00:41:42.039 --> 00:41:46.159 using sumi, which is kind of like charcoal. It's very painful. 733 00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:51.920 The skin is almost burnt sometimes, you know, it never 734 00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:55.199 returns to its tense, like you can't feel any warmth. 735 00:41:55.280 --> 00:41:57.880 It's like the skin is dead, like somebody's burned there 736 00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:02.960 in the evening. They call it mom, which literally means endurance. 737 00:42:03.239 --> 00:42:07.960 So a tattoo shows one that you have separated yourself 738 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:11.159 from normal straight society, right, You've branded yourself I'm an outlaw. 739 00:42:11.719 --> 00:42:14.800 The other is I am tough. I have my toughness 740 00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:16.880 can be seen on my tattoo, the density of the 741 00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:21.639 tattoos on my skin. Sometimes the boss will pay for 742 00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:23.599 your tattoo, in which case you have to have the 743 00:42:23.639 --> 00:42:28.800 boss's name and the organization's emblem engrave on your chest. 744 00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:31.920 So that's like corporate branding taking and it's you know, 745 00:42:32.280 --> 00:42:34.679 to the ultimate level. Right, you are part of the 746 00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:39.119 Enangalachi for ever it's on your chest. And another thing 747 00:42:39.159 --> 00:42:41.280 is it shows you have money. It's like a rolex, right, 748 00:42:41.360 --> 00:42:45.679 the deeper the you know, the deeper the tattoo, the 749 00:42:45.719 --> 00:42:49.719 more colorful it is, the more finite it is, and 750 00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:52.119 the more of your body it covers, it shows that 751 00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:55.519 you have patience, endurance, and money. It takes hundreds of 752 00:42:55.519 --> 00:42:58.280 hours to get a full body tattoo, and all of 753 00:42:58.280 --> 00:43:00.599 those things make the tattoo very lower to the end. 754 00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:08.320 So that I guess the next thing before we go 755 00:43:08.360 --> 00:43:11.440 on to some stories and get back to Saigo, could 756 00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:13.679 you kind of like briefly outline sort of like the 757 00:43:13.800 --> 00:43:16.480 landscape and territory of the yakuza groups. I think you 758 00:43:16.519 --> 00:43:19.159 mentioned that there's about twenty of them. It's sort of 759 00:43:19.199 --> 00:43:20.239 like their territories. 760 00:43:22.920 --> 00:43:28.480 So the Yamaguchigumi, which is the largest one is is 761 00:43:28.519 --> 00:43:34.760 headquartered in Kobe, So Kobe is in western Japan, Kansai. 762 00:43:36.039 --> 00:43:38.559 They have like an entire city block and they have 763 00:43:39.159 --> 00:43:43.480 branches all over Japan. They're used to be an agreement. 764 00:43:44.079 --> 00:43:47.760 Up until two thousand and five, the Yamagumi couldn't open 765 00:43:47.880 --> 00:43:53.480 offices in Tokyo. Tokyo is off limits to them, and 766 00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:55.840 that was a very clear divide until two thousand and five. 767 00:43:56.039 --> 00:44:01.880 The inning Awa Kai is mostly western Japan, Tokyo, Saitama, Guma, 768 00:44:02.519 --> 00:44:05.920 Fukushima where the nuclear accident happened. They have power based 769 00:44:05.960 --> 00:44:12.239 there semi national, but not in Okinawa and not very 770 00:44:12.280 --> 00:44:16.480 powerful in Kshu. The sumiyos Kai, it's mostly located in 771 00:44:16.559 --> 00:44:22.280 Tokyo in surrounding areas. Ginza is their territory, so they 772 00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:24.119 get a lot of money and revenue from the hosts, 773 00:44:24.119 --> 00:44:26.360 clubs and clubs in the Ginsa area, which is a 774 00:44:26.440 --> 00:44:31.719 very rich area, and some of their mostly Tokyo based. 775 00:44:32.440 --> 00:44:36.800 The Matsuba Kai is sort of Yuma area. And then 776 00:44:36.840 --> 00:44:39.400 you have things like the Kudo Kai which is in Kshu, 777 00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:44.000 which is a very powerful, very violent group, actually the 778 00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:46.719 most violent of the actual groups. Is fudo kai. They're 779 00:44:46.760 --> 00:44:50.960 the guys that throw grenades into the bars of people 780 00:44:50.960 --> 00:44:55.280 that won't pay money. Most act of groups are a 781 00:44:55.320 --> 00:44:58.079 little better about cultivating good relationship with the public. If 782 00:44:58.119 --> 00:45:00.639 you throw grenades into a host as far that won't 783 00:45:00.679 --> 00:45:02.840 pay you money, the cops are going to come down 784 00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:04.360 you on. The people aren't going to look at you 785 00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:10.440 as benevolent out outlast. 786 00:45:10.639 --> 00:45:12.760 In your books, you kind of make the point that 787 00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:16.800 the yakuza do normally play a sort of stabilizing role 788 00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:20.039 in society rather than a disruptive one. 789 00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:25.320 Yeah, well, think about it this way. In a time 790 00:45:25.400 --> 00:45:30.559 when in a time when you know, the police were 791 00:45:30.559 --> 00:45:35.639 shorthanded yakas that basically keep street crime to a minimum 792 00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:37.920 in the areas that they control, and they control every 793 00:45:38.039 --> 00:45:41.559 and they controlled all of everybody paid protection money, and 794 00:45:41.599 --> 00:45:44.320 in return for that, no one was allowed to steal 795 00:45:44.320 --> 00:45:47.039 a person. No one was allowed to be robbing places 796 00:45:47.079 --> 00:45:49.840 in the neighborhood, because that's bad for business. You want 797 00:45:49.880 --> 00:45:51.719 people to go to the red light district and spend 798 00:45:51.760 --> 00:45:53.920 their money without worrying about getting mugged or whether we're 799 00:45:53.960 --> 00:45:57.800 worrying about getting robbed or having their credit cards stolen. 800 00:45:58.280 --> 00:46:02.239 So you know, some levels, even the police considered them 801 00:46:02.239 --> 00:46:09.440 anecessary evil because they limited their activities to certain certain activities, 802 00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:20.920 which were collecting money from construction companies, bid rigging, you know, racketeering, gambling, 803 00:46:21.719 --> 00:46:25.320 and you know, making pornography and other things that have 804 00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:30.360 always been on the sort of the outside of Japanese life. 805 00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:33.079 And you know, everybody paid the money, and that was 806 00:46:33.159 --> 00:46:35.960 kind of the revenue stream there. It's like you ran 807 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:38.519 a bar, you paid the money. If you were building 808 00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:41.760 an apartment building in the neighborhood, you paid the money, 809 00:46:42.639 --> 00:46:44.880 and in return for that, they kept you know, a 810 00:46:44.920 --> 00:46:48.960 minimum of trouble out. And also at a time when 811 00:46:48.960 --> 00:46:51.199 there weren't enough lawyers in Japan. This is a very 812 00:46:51.360 --> 00:46:54.880 weird but truth true thing, and it needs to be 813 00:46:54.960 --> 00:46:57.360 very hard to pass the bar in Japan, so there 814 00:46:57.400 --> 00:46:59.559 was a shortage of lawyers. So if you had a 815 00:46:59.599 --> 00:47:02.159 civil dispute with someone, right, someone didn't pay you money, 816 00:47:02.239 --> 00:47:05.320 or someone cheated you on a construction job, it might 817 00:47:05.320 --> 00:47:09.000 take you years to get your case into court and 818 00:47:09.239 --> 00:47:13.519 win the court battle, in which case the court wouldn't 819 00:47:13.519 --> 00:47:19.079 necessarily enforce the settlement, but if you went to the Yakada, 820 00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:21.559 they would handle it. Immediately and they would give you 821 00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:24.800 half of what you were owned, which is better than none. 822 00:47:25.039 --> 00:47:27.599 So for a long time, the yakada played a huge 823 00:47:27.639 --> 00:47:32.199 role in start selling civil disputes, car accidents, damages to 824 00:47:32.239 --> 00:47:36.679 property was expensive and time consuming to go to a lawyer. 825 00:47:36.960 --> 00:47:38.800 You went to the local yakaza and they took care 826 00:47:38.800 --> 00:47:42.480 of it for you. So as the number of lawyers 827 00:47:42.480 --> 00:47:46.960 in Japan has increased, the number of yakuza had also decreased. 828 00:47:47.119 --> 00:47:50.760 I can't say whether there's a correlation, but one lawyer 829 00:47:50.800 --> 00:47:53.840 I know who specializes in dealing with the yaka, you know, 830 00:47:54.360 --> 00:47:56.280 he was always saying, yeah, you know, one of the 831 00:47:56.280 --> 00:47:58.880 reasons the acada declient is because there's more lawyers here, 832 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:00.519 so their services aort I needed. 833 00:48:02.719 --> 00:48:05.559 Before we kind of get back to Sigo's story, one 834 00:48:05.719 --> 00:48:10.440 character in your books, especially the Last Akuza, is filled 835 00:48:10.480 --> 00:48:13.920 with colorful characters. The one that I got to mention 836 00:48:14.239 --> 00:48:16.599 and ask you about was this guy that you name 837 00:48:16.679 --> 00:48:19.679 in the book as Coach, which was Sigo's sort of 838 00:48:19.760 --> 00:48:23.000 mentor for a long time. And this guy is like 839 00:48:23.079 --> 00:48:29.159 the real Tokyo godfather, wears sunglasses, even indoors, chain smoking cigarettes, 840 00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:32.320 and you know, Lecturer and his boys the yakuza used 841 00:48:32.360 --> 00:48:35.719 to follow a code. You know, sounds like absolutely the 842 00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:37.639 kind of guy you'd want to have a few drinks with. 843 00:48:39.440 --> 00:48:43.039 Oh, yes, is a great guy. I mean he was 844 00:48:43.039 --> 00:48:45.760 a great guy. He's a really i mean right out 845 00:48:45.800 --> 00:48:49.280 of the movies. You know, before he was a yakuza, 846 00:48:49.320 --> 00:48:51.760 he was a baseball player in the Tumbull Fires. So 847 00:48:51.800 --> 00:48:54.880 he's got some really sort of force ethic to him 848 00:48:55.559 --> 00:49:01.679 and you know, keep a leek in the words he 849 00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:04.440 is passed. I mean, he was quite strict about that 850 00:49:04.519 --> 00:49:06.760 code of honor, you know, the one that was written 851 00:49:06.760 --> 00:49:09.079 on the wall of the office, which is, you know, 852 00:49:09.440 --> 00:49:13.159 Yakaza do not bother ordinary people. Yakuza do not steal, 853 00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:17.880 they do not rob, they do not engage in sexual assault, 854 00:49:17.880 --> 00:49:20.679 they do not engage in decency, they don't use drugs, 855 00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:22.280 they don't bother civilians. 856 00:49:22.840 --> 00:49:25.800 That quote in your book you you attribute to him, 857 00:49:25.840 --> 00:49:30.400 he says we're less than beggars, but better than thieves. 858 00:49:30.599 --> 00:49:31.599 And never forget that. 859 00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:36.119 Yeah, yeah, less than a beggar, better than the thief. Yeah. 860 00:49:36.199 --> 00:49:42.440 Kind of one of the things that's really interesting about 861 00:49:43.639 --> 00:49:46.920 You've seen the TV series, right, so students have got 862 00:49:46.920 --> 00:49:48.840 the plays kind of all it's not right. He's a 863 00:49:48.920 --> 00:49:52.760 really sweet guy in real life. The guy who's issued though, right, 864 00:49:52.760 --> 00:49:56.679 they're going with the crew cut and wear sunglasses sort of. 865 00:49:56.760 --> 00:50:01.960 They hear the leader of the Chihara Kai student Scotta, 866 00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:03.920 has been around so long and he's been in so 867 00:50:03.960 --> 00:50:07.400 many Akaza movies that he knew kind of how he 868 00:50:07.480 --> 00:50:10.599 knew the individual that he's essentially playing a TV version 869 00:50:10.639 --> 00:50:12.800 of which I thought was fascinating, and that was one 870 00:50:12.800 --> 00:50:14.760 of the reasons I think they was so good at 871 00:50:14.760 --> 00:50:17.280 the role. It was if you put two pictures of 872 00:50:17.320 --> 00:50:20.760 them together, they look similar. They have the same vibe. 873 00:50:24.679 --> 00:50:26.920 And the I mean what also in your book kind 874 00:50:26.920 --> 00:50:30.079 of strips some of the romanticism away from the yakuza 875 00:50:30.400 --> 00:50:35.000 is coach and other bosses in these organizations. I mean, yeah, 876 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:38.400 they're part crime lord, but they're also like social worker 877 00:50:38.559 --> 00:50:40.920 to all of their underlings, trying to get them off 878 00:50:40.960 --> 00:50:43.320 of methamphetamine and all kinds of other shit. 879 00:50:45.840 --> 00:50:49.159 Oh yeah, I mean it's like people who join the 880 00:50:49.199 --> 00:50:55.360 akas are usually not very you know, socially adept people, right, 881 00:50:55.440 --> 00:50:58.880 and so there was a kind of rationale and the 882 00:50:58.920 --> 00:51:01.320 head of the amagu Scubbies as well as we take 883 00:51:01.360 --> 00:51:06.199 people who are misfits, and we give them some discipline 884 00:51:06.320 --> 00:51:09.239 and we give them some training so they're not running 885 00:51:09.239 --> 00:51:12.559 amok and would you rather have them, you know, discipline 886 00:51:12.599 --> 00:51:17.039 criminals and disorganized criminals running around. And there's some truth 887 00:51:17.079 --> 00:51:20.480 to that as well. What is said is that people 888 00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:24.760 like the coach in recent years and and also a 889 00:51:24.760 --> 00:51:29.000 result of increasingly harsh legislation, have sort of disappeared. So 890 00:51:29.079 --> 00:51:31.559 the age where you know, the ri yaka who said, 891 00:51:31.639 --> 00:51:34.159 we won't do this because it's unethical, we won't do 892 00:51:34.199 --> 00:51:37.000 this because it's against the code, those guys have all 893 00:51:37.039 --> 00:51:39.239 faded out because you know, it's so hard to make 894 00:51:39.239 --> 00:51:43.840 a living. And then Nagalakai, you know, a lot of 895 00:51:43.880 --> 00:51:47.440 the people who were ethical, who insisted on following the 896 00:51:47.559 --> 00:51:51.840 old code have been kicked out because it's all about 897 00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:57.039 the money, you know, honor and no nobility. And you 898 00:51:57.079 --> 00:52:00.119 know what they called Nino the way of chivalry that 899 00:52:00.159 --> 00:52:03.239 the as supposed to his spouse, that's just an obstacle 900 00:52:03.320 --> 00:52:04.199 to getting things stuff. 901 00:52:06.480 --> 00:52:09.440 Let's jump back into Sigo's story for a bit, because 902 00:52:09.519 --> 00:52:12.199 you have a totally crazy story about how he has 903 00:52:12.239 --> 00:52:15.519 to cut his finger off and you talk about how 904 00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:17.840 it's kind of like some of the stories around this 905 00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:20.280 this thing is bullshit, and a lot of guys find 906 00:52:20.320 --> 00:52:24.159 doctors to do it for them, but Sigo decides he's 907 00:52:24.159 --> 00:52:27.320 got to do it himself and it turns into like 908 00:52:27.360 --> 00:52:29.559 a four alarm shit show in his kitchen. 909 00:52:31.679 --> 00:52:34.760 Oh oh yeah, yeah, this is a great story. And 910 00:52:35.599 --> 00:52:38.880 you know, his his wife, Juko Son, you know, when 911 00:52:38.920 --> 00:52:40.960 I asked her about it, she's just so very matter 912 00:52:40.960 --> 00:52:42.920 of fact about it, like like oh yeah, you know, 913 00:52:43.039 --> 00:52:46.199 like like you know, like telling a funny story about 914 00:52:46.199 --> 00:52:49.840 like maybe your husband, you know, getting a bad haircut. 915 00:52:49.920 --> 00:52:53.719 But basically he doesn't know how to do it, and 916 00:52:53.760 --> 00:52:58.280 so he gets like a sashimi knife and puts it 917 00:52:58.320 --> 00:53:02.480 on there, and you know, he and his wife trying 918 00:53:02.519 --> 00:53:05.440 to do it and they're not very successful. And then they, 919 00:53:05.559 --> 00:53:07.440 you know, try and do it with the cutting board 920 00:53:07.480 --> 00:53:09.760 and that isn't very successful, and if you know, you 921 00:53:09.800 --> 00:53:11.559 have to turn over the finger to do it, and 922 00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:15.079 it's just a bloody buddy mess. And at one point, 923 00:53:15.360 --> 00:53:17.280 one of his henchmen, who used to be in the 924 00:53:17.480 --> 00:53:20.599 band with him, you know, as they're dealing with this, 925 00:53:21.440 --> 00:53:23.880 finally chopping off the finger and getting this new and 926 00:53:23.880 --> 00:53:26.079 wrapping it in you know, what are they going to do. 927 00:53:26.119 --> 00:53:30.480 And it's this very dark moment in the household where 928 00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:32.719 there's blood all you know, there's a I don't think 929 00:53:32.719 --> 00:53:34.599 there's actually she said there wasn't a lot of blood. 930 00:53:34.920 --> 00:53:37.639 But you've got this finger, you've got the cutting board, 931 00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:39.960 you've got to wrap it up in things. Is that 932 00:53:40.079 --> 00:53:42.280 he takes the finger and he puts it in his 933 00:53:42.400 --> 00:53:45.480 nose and sort of shakes his head around with it 934 00:53:45.559 --> 00:53:49.639 to make everybody laugh, which they do. That's just you know, 935 00:53:51.960 --> 00:53:57.280 it is. It is bizarre. But I guess if you're 936 00:53:57.320 --> 00:54:00.280 there at the moment, there is something very comical about 937 00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:05.719 how hard it is to chop boxer chap. I think 938 00:54:05.719 --> 00:54:08.800 they're actually books written to show you how to do 939 00:54:08.880 --> 00:54:12.000 it the right way. 940 00:54:12.159 --> 00:54:15.920 So Saigo has this like interesting trajectory through the Yakuza. 941 00:54:16.079 --> 00:54:19.400 He's a methamphetamine addict, comes in and out of it, 942 00:54:19.440 --> 00:54:23.000 falls off the wagon. Coach tries to reform him, and 943 00:54:23.039 --> 00:54:25.719 he ends up getting kicked out right because he owes 944 00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:29.320 he can't pay his union dues as it were. 945 00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:32.679 Right right right, Yeah, union news. That's a great, great word. 946 00:54:32.679 --> 00:54:35.079 I always say association dues, but union dus is a 947 00:54:35.079 --> 00:54:37.599 better word. Yes, he gets kicked out. 948 00:54:39.280 --> 00:54:40.960 You want to talk a little bit about like how 949 00:54:40.960 --> 00:54:43.639 that happens and like the rise and fall of Sago. 950 00:54:44.880 --> 00:54:51.000 Oh sure, sir. So most people enter the akaza, that's 951 00:54:51.039 --> 00:54:53.559 what they call sumikomi, meaning like they go to the 952 00:54:53.639 --> 00:54:56.840 Yakuza Boston, like make me a man, and then they 953 00:54:56.960 --> 00:55:00.519 live inside of the akuza office. Is so like one 954 00:55:00.519 --> 00:55:05.079 to two years. They're basically answering the phone. They're you know, 955 00:55:05.400 --> 00:55:07.960 washing the back of the boss. They're following him around. 956 00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:12.719 There is secretary, there's caddy. They're answering the phones, and 957 00:55:13.519 --> 00:55:17.400 they learned the trade by living in the establishment, and 958 00:55:17.440 --> 00:55:20.880 they're given kind of an allowance. But Sigo started as 959 00:55:20.920 --> 00:55:27.480 a basically a motorcycle gangster running a motorcycle gang created 960 00:55:27.480 --> 00:55:30.960 his own right wing group that sort of functioned as 961 00:55:30.960 --> 00:55:33.760 a group shaking down local merchants and asking them to 962 00:55:33.800 --> 00:55:38.280 pay money to join his right wing organization or buy 963 00:55:38.320 --> 00:55:40.920 the periodical that the right wing organization was putting out. 964 00:55:41.159 --> 00:55:43.559 And when he decided to join the Innigala Chai because 965 00:55:43.559 --> 00:55:47.079 he had a dispute with another gang boss, he you know, 966 00:55:47.199 --> 00:55:50.039 he was entered like at a high level, like the 967 00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:53.800 equivalent of going to West Point right instead of starting 968 00:55:53.880 --> 00:55:55.599 as a private and working your way up, you know, 969 00:55:55.639 --> 00:55:59.320 from a listed you know, he'd already established his own organization. 970 00:55:59.480 --> 00:56:01.280 They welcome him. So he came in at like a 971 00:56:01.280 --> 00:56:02.199 captain memo. 972 00:56:04.360 --> 00:56:06.239 And he kind of like set up. He ended up 973 00:56:06.239 --> 00:56:08.880 having his own office and everything. What was the nickname 974 00:56:08.920 --> 00:56:14.960 they gave to his little kingdom. 975 00:56:12.679 --> 00:56:18.599 Oh, oh, well, I mean he had the nickname Tsunami 976 00:56:18.599 --> 00:56:21.519 because he was so violent and unpredictable, like a tropical 977 00:56:21.559 --> 00:56:25.119 storm that you never knew was coming. So he had 978 00:56:25.119 --> 00:56:29.119 his own little uh, his own little his own little 979 00:56:29.159 --> 00:56:32.119 Kumi there, you know, Sygogumi. So his own area in 980 00:56:32.239 --> 00:56:38.320 church there that was he has property and everybody, you know, uh, 981 00:56:38.760 --> 00:56:41.159 everybody in that area of paint Machid. The city was 982 00:56:41.159 --> 00:56:43.280 where he had most of his most of his power base. 983 00:56:44.400 --> 00:56:48.199 And as he rose up to you know, as you 984 00:56:48.199 --> 00:56:50.000 were up to the ladder. You know, the Eni al 985 00:56:50.119 --> 00:56:55.119 Kai is a very bureaucratic organization, so everybody wants to 986 00:56:55.239 --> 00:56:56.519 rise to the top. And at one point they had 987 00:56:56.559 --> 00:56:59.440 ten thousand organizations. So he became like an executive director, 988 00:56:59.480 --> 00:57:03.519 which is a very high position, and he was doing, 989 00:57:03.800 --> 00:57:08.400 you know, pretty well in the organization until a violent 990 00:57:08.440 --> 00:57:14.320 shooting in his neighborhood involving another yakaz member really brought 991 00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:17.960 down the police hard on the whole organization where he lived, 992 00:57:18.199 --> 00:57:20.559 and money started to dry up as people just said 993 00:57:20.559 --> 00:57:25.000 they wouldn't pay protection money anymore. And one of the things, 994 00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:28.320 you know, one of the reasons you're you join the Yakaza, right, 995 00:57:28.400 --> 00:57:33.920 is it's like a franchise, so you're paying basically for 996 00:57:33.960 --> 00:57:39.719 the rights, like nope. So the amaguchigubi here right, the 997 00:57:39.840 --> 00:57:47.159 name the organization, the symbol of the organization. It gets 998 00:57:47.159 --> 00:57:49.519 you money, it gets you power. If you don't have 999 00:57:49.599 --> 00:57:54.639 that organization. Marty Eric McDonald's about the Golden arches, and 1000 00:57:54.719 --> 00:57:57.760 that costs money, and that costs everywhere anywhere between one 1001 00:57:57.800 --> 00:58:01.079 thousand dollars a month to twenty thousand dollars to stay 1002 00:58:01.119 --> 00:58:03.239 on good terms. The higher you rise, the more money 1003 00:58:03.239 --> 00:58:06.159 you have to pay. And he wasn't able to pay 1004 00:58:06.159 --> 00:58:08.159 the money. And when you're not able to pay your dues, 1005 00:58:09.800 --> 00:58:12.800 they kick you out. And also he didn't answer his 1006 00:58:12.840 --> 00:58:14.480 phone for a couple of days as well, which is 1007 00:58:14.480 --> 00:58:17.119 a real bad one in the acaza. What is it 1008 00:58:17.159 --> 00:58:19.199 like in the military if you're like on duty and 1009 00:58:19.239 --> 00:58:21.639 you are on vacation, you don't answer your phone, you 1010 00:58:21.639 --> 00:58:22.400 get in big trouble. 1011 00:58:22.559 --> 00:58:24.440 Yeah, you'd be in some trouble if you're on duty 1012 00:58:24.480 --> 00:58:25.519 and not answering the phone. 1013 00:58:25.599 --> 00:58:32.559 Yes, okay, what if you're on vacation, you still get 1014 00:58:32.639 --> 00:58:34.440 in big trouble if you like, you know, you're on. 1015 00:58:35.880 --> 00:58:39.079 Question and recovery, and probably not if you're on vacation. 1016 00:58:39.239 --> 00:58:43.440 Now, okay, Well, this guy's active duty, right, so he 1017 00:58:43.519 --> 00:58:45.920 basically disappeared from duty for like seven days that he's 1018 00:58:45.960 --> 00:58:50.360 pissed off and they kicked him out, and he just 1019 00:58:50.440 --> 00:58:56.639 had a kid, and now he's got no revenue. And meanwhile, like, 1020 00:58:56.679 --> 00:59:00.320 I am under police protection, but I'm really tired of 1021 00:59:00.400 --> 00:59:03.039 like not being a feeling like I can't leave the house. 1022 00:59:03.920 --> 00:59:07.400 And so I heard that he's you know, that he's 1023 00:59:07.440 --> 00:59:09.679 out of a job. And at the time, if you 1024 00:59:09.760 --> 00:59:12.239 read Tokyo More, I'm doing these due diligence work, right, 1025 00:59:12.320 --> 00:59:16.079 so I've got a nice steady stream of money doing 1026 00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:20.480 these corporate investigations coming in. And I also realized that he, 1027 00:59:21.159 --> 00:59:23.400 you know, doesn't like go too Tatamasa, that he's not 1028 00:59:23.440 --> 00:59:25.320 a big fan of him, and I'm like, you know, 1029 00:59:25.679 --> 00:59:29.280 this is probably synergy. So we have a meeting at 1030 00:59:29.280 --> 00:59:31.440 my house and I basically say, look, you know, you 1031 00:59:31.480 --> 00:59:37.360 don't have a job and I need protection and I 1032 00:59:37.400 --> 00:59:39.760 and also you have a car. I don't have a 1033 00:59:39.840 --> 00:59:44.239 driver's license. What do you say? And so sort of reluctantly, 1034 00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:47.760 but also because he didn't have much of a choice, 1035 00:59:47.760 --> 00:59:50.000 He's like, okay, I will be your bodyguard and I 1036 00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:53.719 will be your driver. But I have one condition. And 1037 00:59:53.760 --> 00:59:55.760 I'm like, what is that condition? He said, I want 1038 00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:58.119 you to write a book about my life and about 1039 00:59:58.119 --> 01:00:00.119 the actors of because I am proud of who I 1040 01:00:00.159 --> 01:00:03.000 am and what we've done. I want my son to 1041 01:00:03.079 --> 01:00:07.119 know who his father was when he grows up. And so, 1042 01:00:09.480 --> 01:00:11.159 you know, I agree with him on the condition that 1043 01:00:11.239 --> 01:00:13.320 I get to write the truth about the aakaza and 1044 01:00:13.400 --> 01:00:17.280 not another book talking about how there are these noble outlaws, 1045 01:00:17.880 --> 01:00:22.719 you know, fearless men fighting for you know, traditional Japan. 1046 01:00:23.360 --> 01:00:26.960 And he was okay with that, and that was the 1047 01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:29.960 start of that book, was hiring him as a as 1048 01:00:29.960 --> 01:00:32.800 a bodyguarden. He wanted me to write this this story 1049 01:00:32.840 --> 01:00:37.360 about about the actada and his life and you know, 1050 01:00:37.519 --> 01:00:39.920 what are the akasa and there you know what he 1051 01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:42.840 saw as their decline from being principal people to just 1052 01:00:43.360 --> 01:00:44.519 money grubbing organization. 1053 01:00:45.559 --> 01:00:47.840 And so, how did the situation between you and go 1054 01:00:48.000 --> 01:00:49.679 to end up getting resolved? 1055 01:00:51.679 --> 01:00:58.000 Oh, it ended up getting resolved like this. Uh. I 1056 01:00:58.039 --> 01:01:00.000 wrote an article that came out of the Washington Post. 1057 01:01:02.119 --> 01:01:06.320 Then another article came out in the Los Angeles Times, 1058 01:01:06.840 --> 01:01:11.480 and then suddenly it became I became the least of 1059 01:01:11.519 --> 01:01:13.599 his problems. And I think that someone way up in 1060 01:01:13.679 --> 01:01:16.239 the organization told him Mike, at this point in time, 1061 01:01:16.840 --> 01:01:19.519 considering the bad press that would that it would bring, you, 1062 01:01:20.400 --> 01:01:24.280 do not harm this journalist. And also, because I'm not 1063 01:01:24.320 --> 01:01:27.599 an idiot, when I was writing the articles for the 1064 01:01:27.719 --> 01:01:33.559 Washington Post, I went to one of his rivals in 1065 01:01:33.639 --> 01:01:36.679 the organization in the same Amaguchi gum. Right, because it's 1066 01:01:36.920 --> 01:01:39.320 the amagu Me is factional, right. I don't know if 1067 01:01:39.320 --> 01:01:43.599 people understand that, Like it's not like the army, and 1068 01:01:43.679 --> 01:01:48.400 it's not like it's not like the navy. It is 1069 01:01:48.639 --> 01:01:52.400 a group of organized crime groups under the umbrella the Amaguchigumi. 1070 01:01:52.679 --> 01:01:57.960 But even within that organization there are conflicts between the factions. 1071 01:01:57.960 --> 01:02:03.800 So they Aamaguchi Gumi, the tatguomi Me and the hana busagumi. 1072 01:02:04.840 --> 01:02:08.440 They all may be fighting for the same territory and 1073 01:02:09.920 --> 01:02:14.239 revenue streams, even though they're under the same umbrella. And 1074 01:02:14.320 --> 01:02:17.159 amongst these yachta, the bosses, they don't all get along, right. 1075 01:02:17.280 --> 01:02:21.239 So you've got you know, sixty or seventy organizations within 1076 01:02:21.280 --> 01:02:24.280 the amakachu me. So I thought of the one yachta 1077 01:02:24.280 --> 01:02:27.079 to the boss who really disliked God and probably would 1078 01:02:27.119 --> 01:02:29.880 like his turf and territory. So I went to him 1079 01:02:29.880 --> 01:02:31.920 and I asked him for a comment for the Washington 1080 01:02:31.920 --> 01:02:35.199 Post article. First I had to go to a tenant, 1081 01:02:35.239 --> 01:02:37.360 and then I spoke directly to the public big boss. 1082 01:02:37.840 --> 01:02:40.960 And as we were speaking, I also felt that there 1083 01:02:41.000 --> 01:02:43.360 was this kind of communication between it which was like, 1084 01:02:45.079 --> 01:02:46.719 you know, as they say in the yaka the world, 1085 01:02:46.760 --> 01:02:50.800 the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And I 1086 01:02:50.840 --> 01:02:53.599 was basically saying to him without saying it bluntly, is 1087 01:02:54.079 --> 01:02:56.039 keep me alive and let me write my article and 1088 01:02:56.159 --> 01:02:58.920 this will result in the downfall of your rival, and 1089 01:02:59.239 --> 01:03:02.480 that church and Charryty is yours. And that seemed to 1090 01:03:02.480 --> 01:03:05.599 have worked out very nicely because there was no contract 1091 01:03:05.920 --> 01:03:09.719 on me after the Washington Post article came out, but 1092 01:03:09.840 --> 01:03:13.760 the police still kept me under protection for another five 1093 01:03:13.880 --> 01:03:15.000 years in total. 1094 01:03:18.320 --> 01:03:23.239 And it's interesting how like got and also coach they 1095 01:03:23.320 --> 01:03:26.440 have these like interesting deaths or like deaths and air 1096 01:03:26.559 --> 01:03:29.679 quotes like you're never really sure did they die or 1097 01:03:29.719 --> 01:03:31.800 did they just fade away? Where did they go? 1098 01:03:35.480 --> 01:03:40.920 You know, Yakuza sometimes disappear, so the coach, you know, 1099 01:03:41.000 --> 01:03:43.559 his death is shouted in the streamers like people aren't 1100 01:03:43.559 --> 01:03:45.440 supposed to talk about it, and I think that's how 1101 01:03:45.440 --> 01:03:51.320 he wanted it to be. Remember, go to Tamasa is 1102 01:03:51.400 --> 01:03:55.079 famous for attacking this film director made me tell me Jusso, 1103 01:03:56.159 --> 01:03:58.639 so you tell me Juso made this film in nineteen 1104 01:03:58.679 --> 01:04:04.519 ninety two called the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion and 1105 01:04:04.800 --> 01:04:08.599 the Japanese titles meanable to All. And Godo's men attacked 1106 01:04:08.599 --> 01:04:11.559 this director at his phone and they sliced open his 1107 01:04:11.599 --> 01:04:15.119 face very slowly, so less stars. And a few years 1108 01:04:15.159 --> 01:04:18.320 later in nineteen ninety nine, I think around nineteen ninety nine, 1109 01:04:18.679 --> 01:04:21.760 the director allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the top 1110 01:04:21.800 --> 01:04:24.840 of a building just as he was making another film 1111 01:04:24.840 --> 01:04:32.000 that had connections to Tokumi. But one of Godo's guys 1112 01:04:32.119 --> 01:04:39.639 named Mikuni told me you know on the conditions, on 1113 01:04:39.719 --> 01:04:42.440 the conditions that I couldn't tell his name unless ten 1114 01:04:42.519 --> 01:04:44.519 years have gone by for the time he told me, 1115 01:04:45.239 --> 01:04:48.760 he said, yeah, well you know that director. He told 1116 01:04:48.800 --> 01:04:52.280 me it didn't kill himself. He was taken to a 1117 01:04:52.360 --> 01:04:53.719 roof and they put a gun in his face and 1118 01:04:53.719 --> 01:04:56.440 they told him you could either jump and you might live, 1119 01:04:56.800 --> 01:04:58.559 or you can stay here. We'll go off your face 1120 01:04:58.559 --> 01:05:02.000 and they'll definitely die. And I assumed that he could. 1121 01:05:02.000 --> 01:05:04.239 He told me that because he was hoping that would 1122 01:05:04.239 --> 01:05:07.480 be his insurance policy. But he's been missing now for 1123 01:05:08.039 --> 01:05:11.559 five years and nobody knows where he is. I mean, 1124 01:05:11.760 --> 01:05:14.039 easy yaka that you can find his name in the newspapers, 1125 01:05:14.079 --> 01:05:16.320 you can find his name in the yakasavand magazines. But 1126 01:05:16.360 --> 01:05:20.639 he's gone now. Is he in hiding? Is he in 1127 01:05:20.679 --> 01:05:24.280 the bottom of a building in Tokyo, buried in the 1128 01:05:24.320 --> 01:05:27.119 cement base when they're a foundation of the building. I 1129 01:05:27.119 --> 01:05:31.199 don't know. But sometimes yaka that really do fade away, 1130 01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:34.199 like where did this guy go? And there's a lot 1131 01:05:34.239 --> 01:05:37.000 of them. I mean, there used to be eighty thousand 1132 01:05:37.079 --> 01:05:39.199 yachta to Japan. Now there's nineteen thousand, Like, so where 1133 01:05:39.239 --> 01:05:43.480 did those others sixty sixty one thousand Yakas I ad 1134 01:05:43.519 --> 01:05:46.320 vantaged to do they find new jobs? Are they in prison? 1135 01:05:46.559 --> 01:05:47.400 What are they doing now? 1136 01:05:50.480 --> 01:05:57.199 A couple sidebars I'd like to talk about before moving on. 1137 01:05:57.199 --> 01:05:59.599 One of them is the North Korean connection with the 1138 01:05:59.760 --> 01:06:04.239 part Chenko parlors. M can tell us about that. 1139 01:06:04.320 --> 01:06:08.360 Oh sure, yeah, gee. I don't know how many of 1140 01:06:08.360 --> 01:06:10.519 you listeners understand what pachinko is, but a well try 1141 01:06:10.559 --> 01:06:13.679 and explain it as simply as I can. So. Pachinko 1142 01:06:13.800 --> 01:06:17.480 is kind of like a pinball machine that's vertical, So 1143 01:06:17.559 --> 01:06:21.440 you put in the steel ball press a button, ball 1144 01:06:21.480 --> 01:06:26.159 goes in. If the ball hits the right targets, it 1145 01:06:26.280 --> 01:06:29.559 triggers like an avalanche and the machine spews out these 1146 01:06:29.559 --> 01:06:33.639 steel balls. The steel balls you can then take to 1147 01:06:35.079 --> 01:06:38.360 a gift counter. You can get a gift or you 1148 01:06:38.400 --> 01:06:41.159 can get sort of an exchange card, and you can 1149 01:06:41.199 --> 01:06:45.639 go outside of the patinko parlor to another place and 1150 01:06:45.679 --> 01:06:49.079 get it turned into cash. So that is sort of 1151 01:06:49.119 --> 01:06:55.719 legalized gambling in Japan. Pachinko was something that the Korean 1152 01:06:55.800 --> 01:06:57.719 Japanese did after the war, and it was a big 1153 01:06:57.760 --> 01:07:01.079 amusement thing. But it looked like the Japanese government was 1154 01:07:01.079 --> 01:07:04.880 going to outlaw them all together. So, you know, most 1155 01:07:04.880 --> 01:07:07.599 of the Japanese dollers quit, but the Koreans kept kept 1156 01:07:07.639 --> 01:07:10.679 running the patinko parlors and the Patica powers are still 1157 01:07:10.920 --> 01:07:14.000 a big part of the gambling landscape today, even though 1158 01:07:14.000 --> 01:07:18.719 it's you know, semi legal gambling. But remember Korea splits 1159 01:07:18.719 --> 01:07:23.800 into Korea, South Korea, North Korea, and the Koreans left 1160 01:07:23.800 --> 01:07:27.599 in Japan have to choose an alliance going to a lion. 1161 01:07:27.760 --> 01:07:29.679 You know, am I going to claim citizenship in North Korea? 1162 01:07:29.719 --> 01:07:30.679 Am I going to change? 1163 01:07:31.199 --> 01:07:31.320 You know? 1164 01:07:31.639 --> 01:07:37.239 Am I gonna claim citizenship at South Korea? And for 1165 01:07:37.280 --> 01:07:40.840 those who have relatives in North Korea, the patinko parlors 1166 01:07:40.920 --> 01:07:46.880 became indirectly North Korean revenue because if you have family 1167 01:07:46.880 --> 01:07:49.559 members in North Korea and you're in Japan and you're 1168 01:07:50.280 --> 01:07:52.760 living there and you're running Patica power, the North Korean 1169 01:07:52.800 --> 01:07:56.760 associations will come to you and say, you know, your uncle, 1170 01:07:56.880 --> 01:08:00.480 your sister, your brother, your cousin. You know they're going 1171 01:08:00.519 --> 01:08:02.760 to starve to death unless you contribute some money to 1172 01:08:02.800 --> 01:08:06.239 the homeland. And so for many years, pachinko industry has 1173 01:08:06.320 --> 01:08:09.920 been one of the sources of North Korea's revenue. 1174 01:08:10.639 --> 01:08:13.360 Does North Korea still make money by selling drugs and 1175 01:08:13.440 --> 01:08:16.439 operating these parowers and so on in Japan? 1176 01:08:18.239 --> 01:08:22.000 Yes, North Korea still has revenue coming. But as generations 1177 01:08:22.039 --> 01:08:25.119 die off, right, you know you had You know, if 1178 01:08:25.119 --> 01:08:28.720 you're a fourth generation Korean in Japan, you don't you 1179 01:08:28.760 --> 01:08:30.920 don't know anybody who's still living in North Korea. You're 1180 01:08:30.960 --> 01:08:35.079 you know, your your uncle, are you are, your grandfather 1181 01:08:35.239 --> 01:08:38.359 or whoever is there. You know, maybe you've never met them. 1182 01:08:38.760 --> 01:08:40.600 You have no idea who they are, so you don't 1183 01:08:40.640 --> 01:08:43.640 feel compelled to pay, so that money keeps t windling. 1184 01:08:44.039 --> 01:08:47.039 What North Korea is really making money now is is 1185 01:08:47.079 --> 01:08:53.119 doing cracking, hacking cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan. I think they've 1186 01:08:53.159 --> 01:08:55.600 done too now. I mean that it has been traced 1187 01:08:55.600 --> 01:08:57.760 in North Korea. North Korea is really good at hacking, 1188 01:08:58.000 --> 01:09:01.359 and they seem to be really good at hacking Japanese 1189 01:09:01.399 --> 01:09:05.760 from the currency exchanges like bitcoin, d and man and 1190 01:09:05.800 --> 01:09:09.760 there was another one just really recently. And I think 1191 01:09:09.960 --> 01:09:13.479 North Korea, while it still makes math amphetamines, it's hard 1192 01:09:13.520 --> 01:09:15.960 to get them into Japan. And they moved on to 1193 01:09:17.720 --> 01:09:21.000 cyber crimes, which brings a lot more revenue. 1194 01:09:22.079 --> 01:09:24.920 Another kind of subplot that you bring out in the 1195 01:09:24.960 --> 01:09:30.000 book that I was surprised to read is about olmshun Rico, 1196 01:09:30.159 --> 01:09:33.720 the cult in Japan that launched a I believe it 1197 01:09:33.720 --> 01:09:37.279 was a saren nerve gas attack in the Japanese subway system, 1198 01:09:37.359 --> 01:09:40.279 killed a couple people. You talk about how they had 1199 01:09:40.479 --> 01:09:45.039 a secondary plot to use a helicopter as a dispersion 1200 01:09:45.079 --> 01:09:48.359 device for another gas attack. Can you tell us a 1201 01:09:48.359 --> 01:09:50.760 little bit about, you know, how you kind of uncovered 1202 01:09:50.760 --> 01:09:51.840 that and reported on that. 1203 01:09:53.239 --> 01:10:00.640 Oh sure. So almos Sinikio was this criminal organization and 1204 01:10:00.720 --> 01:10:02.439 the cult that was an end of the world cult, 1205 01:10:02.520 --> 01:10:09.039 apocalyptic cult, and they recruited people from universities and police 1206 01:10:09.159 --> 01:10:12.479 and the laboratories, and they had this, you know, crazy 1207 01:10:12.560 --> 01:10:16.199 view of the world. And they were also making meth 1208 01:10:16.279 --> 01:10:20.319 amphetamine and wholesaling it to the to the aka, especially 1209 01:10:20.359 --> 01:10:23.399 the Godo Gumi, because you have a bunch of chemists 1210 01:10:23.439 --> 01:10:26.079 there right who can you know, can make a really 1211 01:10:26.119 --> 01:10:28.439 good myth and meth brings in money. It's like it's 1212 01:10:28.439 --> 01:10:31.560 the drug of choice in Japan. So they're producing the drugs, 1213 01:10:31.680 --> 01:10:34.960 they're selling it to the akada. The conduit between the 1214 01:10:35.039 --> 01:10:39.000 Yamagumi and the North Korea and North Korea was an 1215 01:10:39.039 --> 01:10:45.079 ome sort of high free named Mudai. And you know, 1216 01:10:45.439 --> 01:10:48.800 as the police are investigating home Chuinity kill and looking 1217 01:10:48.840 --> 01:10:52.239 at what they're doing and getting a sense of these 1218 01:10:52.279 --> 01:10:55.159 people are maybe producing nerve casts, they are going to 1219 01:10:55.199 --> 01:10:58.319 plan a huge terrorist attack. Uh. One of the organized 1220 01:10:58.319 --> 01:11:01.640 crime cops who was working on the connection between Mhini 1221 01:11:01.680 --> 01:11:07.079 kill in and and the Akasa UH discovered that they 1222 01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:11.720 had purchased a helicopter and that they and that they 1223 01:11:11.720 --> 01:11:15.359 were planning to use it for something nefarious. Uh. Unfortunately, 1224 01:11:16.079 --> 01:11:19.399 I think that they managed to make sure that the 1225 01:11:19.479 --> 01:11:23.359 that they were never put soidning gas on the helicopter. 1226 01:11:23.960 --> 01:11:28.239 So the sidning gas attack ended with these paper bags 1227 01:11:28.239 --> 01:11:30.319 full of siding gas being put on the subways all 1228 01:11:30.359 --> 01:11:36.000 around Ibia, which are then poked with holes and uh 1229 01:11:36.199 --> 01:11:38.960 and and it could have killed thousands of people. Fortunately 1230 01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:43.039 they didn't do the helicopter and disperse it over Tokyo. 1231 01:11:43.119 --> 01:11:45.079 I don't know how successful that would have been. 1232 01:11:45.159 --> 01:11:46.840 It could have been disastrous, yeah, I mean if it 1233 01:11:46.880 --> 01:11:50.279 was an aerosol dispersal, it would have been much greater casualties. 1234 01:11:50.319 --> 01:11:54.720 I think, Yeah, they were not make good at making aerosol. 1235 01:11:54.960 --> 01:11:56.960 We know, what I don't know if I remember I 1236 01:11:57.039 --> 01:12:01.039 put in the book or not, is they also had 1237 01:12:01.399 --> 01:12:04.880 a subdivision in New York City, and we're looking about 1238 01:12:04.880 --> 01:12:08.079 spreading it in New York City with the helicopter as well. 1239 01:12:08.760 --> 01:12:13.399 That was part of their plans because because Old Shinekio 1240 01:12:13.680 --> 01:12:17.439 had this you know, this makes no sense, but Old 1241 01:12:17.520 --> 01:12:20.880 Shinekio also had this incredible anti Semitic view that the 1242 01:12:20.960 --> 01:12:23.560 Jews were controlling the world economy and that was one 1243 01:12:23.560 --> 01:12:25.319 of their problems. And they were like, there's so many 1244 01:12:25.399 --> 01:12:28.199 Jews in New York that we should spread sun gas 1245 01:12:29.199 --> 01:12:32.800 there using a helicopter to you know, to change the 1246 01:12:32.840 --> 01:12:36.760 new world order. So that was amongst the crazy things 1247 01:12:36.800 --> 01:12:41.199 that they had planned. And they you know, they have 1248 01:12:41.279 --> 01:12:47.119 purchased helicopters from Russia, so you know, if they hadn't 1249 01:12:47.119 --> 01:12:50.039 been stopped early on, they might have tried it. I 1250 01:12:50.039 --> 01:12:52.279 think we were lucky that we ended up with the 1251 01:12:52.319 --> 01:12:55.359 smaller number of casualists that we had, But these guys 1252 01:12:55.399 --> 01:13:00.279 were crazy. Have you remember the series Millennium with Frank 1253 01:13:00.439 --> 01:13:05.800 with Lyles Hendrickson, Ye, The X Files. Yeah, okay, so 1254 01:13:05.840 --> 01:13:09.840 there's there's one episode, maybe the second episode called Jehenna, 1255 01:13:10.079 --> 01:13:12.399 which was modeled after O Machinikill where you have people, 1256 01:13:12.439 --> 01:13:16.279 they're telemarketers working for this strange cult and there's a 1257 01:13:16.319 --> 01:13:20.560 scene where someone is microwave to death. Well, OLM Schiniko 1258 01:13:20.680 --> 01:13:23.159 did that. They built a giant microwave. One of their 1259 01:13:23.199 --> 01:13:26.600 dissenters they put in the microwave and they like fried 1260 01:13:26.680 --> 01:13:32.880 him a lot. Yeah, these guys were insane, and they 1261 01:13:32.920 --> 01:13:35.359 were working hand in hand with organized crime. And when, 1262 01:13:36.199 --> 01:13:38.920 you know, when it was revealed that Ome had planned, 1263 01:13:39.119 --> 01:13:41.560 you know, had was responsible to the sating gas attacks, 1264 01:13:41.880 --> 01:13:48.840 and that they had tied the Amagikumi, you know, that's 1265 01:13:48.880 --> 01:13:51.000 not good for the public image of the group. Right. 1266 01:13:51.079 --> 01:13:55.039 So Murai, who was ahead of the one of the 1267 01:13:55.079 --> 01:13:58.760 executives of OLM Schinko, was coming out of a press 1268 01:13:58.800 --> 01:14:02.800 conference and he was stabbed to death by this you know, 1269 01:14:02.880 --> 01:14:05.439 so called right winger. And the right winger, of course, 1270 01:14:05.479 --> 01:14:11.239 turned out to be a yakuza, a Korean yakaza. And 1271 01:14:11.560 --> 01:14:15.479 you know, you know, he always claimed that, you know 1272 01:14:15.600 --> 01:14:19.119 that he did it out of patriotic out of patriotic reasons. 1273 01:14:19.159 --> 01:14:21.680 But when Joe, which is the name of the of 1274 01:14:21.760 --> 01:14:24.439 the person who assassinated were I When he got out 1275 01:14:24.479 --> 01:14:27.239 of jail after serving his time for killing this home 1276 01:14:27.319 --> 01:14:30.600 leader who had connections to the go to Gumi. Guess 1277 01:14:30.600 --> 01:14:31.720 who he went to work for. 1278 01:14:33.119 --> 01:14:41.039 SHINRIKOA yeah, really killing Yeah, because he he killed the 1279 01:14:41.079 --> 01:14:43.920 one person that could have fingered the Yakov involvement with 1280 01:14:43.960 --> 01:14:46.720 abcinity kill on his reward when he got out of jail, 1281 01:14:46.880 --> 01:14:50.239 was going to work for Godo hood by this point retired, 1282 01:14:50.279 --> 01:14:52.039 but at least he took care of his own. 1283 01:14:53.079 --> 01:14:56.239 You know something you touched on there that I think 1284 01:14:56.239 --> 01:14:59.399 I'll ask you because it's something that has always baffled 1285 01:14:59.439 --> 01:15:02.560 me personally. As you mentioned that amshin Rico had this 1286 01:15:02.640 --> 01:15:06.159 sort of anti Semitic bent to them, and I've seen 1287 01:15:06.199 --> 01:15:08.960 that a little bit with other like right wing groups 1288 01:15:09.000 --> 01:15:12.920 in Japan. This is sort of anti Semitism, and that 1289 01:15:12.960 --> 01:15:16.159 baffles me because what in the world do the Japanese 1290 01:15:16.159 --> 01:15:20.239 people know about Jews. I mean, we're not talking about 1291 01:15:20.279 --> 01:15:22.880 Israel and Palestine, we're not talking about Europe, we're not 1292 01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:26.479 talking about America. Like there aren't any actual Jewish people 1293 01:15:26.680 --> 01:15:30.159 other than you maybe in Japan. So like, where the 1294 01:15:30.199 --> 01:15:33.680 hell does this notion come from? 1295 01:15:33.720 --> 01:15:35.960 Well, you know, there is there is a Senate, there's 1296 01:15:35.960 --> 01:15:38.119 one or two synagogues. I don't know, you know, I 1297 01:15:38.119 --> 01:15:41.960 mean it's like, remember the Japanese were allied with with 1298 01:15:42.119 --> 01:15:43.359 Germany at one point. 1299 01:15:43.439 --> 01:15:46.680 Yeah, okay, And so. 1300 01:15:46.720 --> 01:15:49.520 I think there's always been this belief that, you know, 1301 01:15:50.039 --> 01:15:52.880 first of all, there's a belief there's a weird respect 1302 01:15:52.920 --> 01:15:55.920 for the Jews. There's a book called the Jews in 1303 01:15:55.960 --> 01:15:58.479 the Japanese which points out the similarity between the Jews 1304 01:15:58.520 --> 01:16:00.680 and the Japanese. So the one I had this kind of 1305 01:16:00.920 --> 01:16:04.680 Japanese santasy world in which they admire like the way 1306 01:16:04.720 --> 01:16:08.039 that this minority group is, you know, gained so much 1307 01:16:08.159 --> 01:16:11.199 power or done so well financially, and there's so many 1308 01:16:11.239 --> 01:16:14.960 sort of geniuses, or the way that they that they 1309 01:16:15.039 --> 01:16:17.800 know that they consider the Jewish family structure very similar 1310 01:16:17.800 --> 01:16:21.319 to a Japanese family structure. And that even you know, 1311 01:16:22.479 --> 01:16:24.960 in this book postulating the Japanese or the Lost Tribe 1312 01:16:24.960 --> 01:16:27.720 of Israel, all that crazy stuff, you know, it doesn't 1313 01:16:27.760 --> 01:16:30.439 make any sense to me. So there's an admiration, and 1314 01:16:30.520 --> 01:16:37.199 there's a fear, and and and one of the weirdest 1315 01:16:37.239 --> 01:16:40.199 stories of World War two is that there was this 1316 01:16:40.319 --> 01:16:44.439 idea that amongst the Japanese elite, some of the generals 1317 01:16:44.960 --> 01:16:49.239 that they couldn't trust Germany because they weren't white, and 1318 01:16:49.279 --> 01:16:52.399 at some point the Germans would turn on them. So 1319 01:16:52.560 --> 01:16:56.239 they smuggled a bunch of Jews out of Shanghai into 1320 01:16:56.319 --> 01:17:00.000 Kobe and gave them safe passage so that when when 1321 01:17:00.199 --> 01:17:03.800 it came time to deal with Germany, that they would 1322 01:17:03.840 --> 01:17:08.000 have Jewish power on their side. And that whole plan 1323 01:17:08.079 --> 01:17:14.000 to smuggle them out of of you know, of German 1324 01:17:14.119 --> 01:17:18.880 territories into Japan and Shanghai. It's called the Fugu plan 1325 01:17:19.239 --> 01:17:22.680 because Fugu has you know, it's this poisonous blowfish, which 1326 01:17:22.920 --> 01:17:27.279 if you handle properly, is a delicious delicacy. If you mishandled, 1327 01:17:27.319 --> 01:17:33.720 can kill you. So, you know, the Japanese fascination our 1328 01:17:33.800 --> 01:17:38.359 fear of Jews is never made any sense to me neither. 1329 01:17:38.359 --> 01:17:41.159 But on my way on my way to the airport, 1330 01:17:41.199 --> 01:17:43.960 there was a book like in the you know, best sellers, 1331 01:17:44.000 --> 01:17:46.760 which was like, you know, how to succeed in business 1332 01:17:46.960 --> 01:17:50.000 like the Jews, And I'm like, really, you're still putting 1333 01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:53.239 this out in the book in five. 1334 01:17:55.800 --> 01:17:57.960 Okay, this is as good a time as any to 1335 01:17:58.079 --> 01:18:01.359 jump into. You've got to tell us the Japanese penis 1336 01:18:01.680 --> 01:18:04.720 or the yakuza penis enlargement story that you told us 1337 01:18:04.720 --> 01:18:06.039 about that went horribly wrong. 1338 01:18:07.520 --> 01:18:11.039 Okay, So here we are. So here's your Yakaza van magazine, right, 1339 01:18:11.359 --> 01:18:14.439 you know, always opens with pictures of the of the 1340 01:18:14.439 --> 01:18:17.439 bosses going to meetings and stuff. I just got to 1341 01:18:17.479 --> 01:18:19.960 show you that you that's that, that's important stuff. Right, 1342 01:18:19.960 --> 01:18:22.359 this is the paparazzi part. Oh yeah, and there's always 1343 01:18:22.399 --> 01:18:28.880 the penis enlargement stuff. So no Mura, who is the 1344 01:18:28.920 --> 01:18:30.880 head of the kudo kai who I have met once. 1345 01:18:34.039 --> 01:18:37.199 I think his name is. You know, in Japan, the 1346 01:18:37.239 --> 01:18:39.560 last names are more important than your first names. He 1347 01:18:39.680 --> 01:18:41.920 sees one of these fands, he decides to get a 1348 01:18:41.920 --> 01:18:46.439 penis enlargement proced you're done. So he's getting done, and 1349 01:18:46.560 --> 01:18:50.600 his nurse noticed that he's wincing, and she says to him, 1350 01:18:51.039 --> 01:18:53.880 look at you with all those tattoos all of your 1351 01:18:53.880 --> 01:18:58.199 body that are so painful to reproduced, and you can't 1352 01:18:58.239 --> 01:19:02.199 take a little prick and she I set him and 1353 01:19:02.239 --> 01:19:07.079 he's really really angry about it. So later his man 1354 01:19:07.199 --> 01:19:09.760 attempt to kill her, and one of the reasons he 1355 01:19:09.800 --> 01:19:11.760 was originally given a death sentence which I think was 1356 01:19:11.840 --> 01:19:14.800 changed to life imprisonment on appeal was for the attention 1357 01:19:14.960 --> 01:19:18.359 murder of this nurse. Oh my god, because he couldn't 1358 01:19:18.399 --> 01:19:20.279 take it that he couldn't take the pain of the 1359 01:19:20.279 --> 01:19:21.640 penis margin procedure. 1360 01:19:24.399 --> 01:19:28.039 Uh, poor guy getting his pennis messed with. 1361 01:19:28.199 --> 01:19:34.000 Ye Oh, yeah, get with. I mean it's kind of 1362 01:19:34.399 --> 01:19:38.159 a low moment in Yakubai history. Yeah, I mean. 1363 01:19:40.479 --> 01:19:45.720 So let's let's talk about Tokyo Noir, your third book 1364 01:19:46.359 --> 01:19:49.239 that kind of follows up on Tokyo Wece and continues 1365 01:19:49.479 --> 01:19:56.159 sort of your own story and experiences in Japan. So 1366 01:19:56.359 --> 01:20:00.399 you get brought into a State Department study on human 1367 01:20:00.479 --> 01:20:05.000 trafficking in Japan. How does that sort of come about 1368 01:20:05.079 --> 01:20:07.680 out of your work as a journalist. 1369 01:20:09.720 --> 01:20:14.119 Well, when I was working for the Human Edition, both 1370 01:20:14.479 --> 01:20:17.880 we covered human trafficking, and I noticed there was a 1371 01:20:17.920 --> 01:20:23.159 huge discrepancy between the way the Japanese police were presenting, 1372 01:20:23.319 --> 01:20:25.920 you know, their efforts to combat it and what was 1373 01:20:25.960 --> 01:20:28.199 really happening. And so I had, you know, I knew 1374 01:20:28.199 --> 01:20:30.359 people in the State Department, so I would pull aside 1375 01:20:31.960 --> 01:20:34.439 stories that I worked on, or stories were the Japanese 1376 01:20:34.479 --> 01:20:37.399 press that showed, you know, because Japan didn't have any 1377 01:20:37.439 --> 01:20:43.159 real laws prohibiting human trafficking or punishing the traffickers would 1378 01:20:43.199 --> 01:20:48.159 only punish the women. That you know that there was 1379 01:20:48.399 --> 01:20:51.840 a huge failure to deal with this problem even addressed. 1380 01:20:51.920 --> 01:20:55.600 It's a problem, and I think one of the last 1381 01:20:55.600 --> 01:20:57.880 things I wrote at the newspaper before I left was 1382 01:20:58.439 --> 01:21:02.000 the International Labor Organization did a huge study of human 1383 01:21:02.039 --> 01:21:04.680 trafficking in Japan, which the Japanese government paid for, and 1384 01:21:04.720 --> 01:21:08.279 their conclusion was that Japan wasn't dealing with the problems. 1385 01:21:08.439 --> 01:21:12.840 They were punishing the victims immediately deporting them, and the 1386 01:21:12.880 --> 01:21:15.239 traffickers knew that they could get away with it, and 1387 01:21:15.319 --> 01:21:19.760 that Japan was turning a blind night of the problem 1388 01:21:20.079 --> 01:21:23.960 and needed to put serious legislation down on the books. 1389 01:21:24.800 --> 01:21:26.760 Here's the thing that the Japan government told the IOLL, 1390 01:21:26.880 --> 01:21:29.319 you cannot release the report, but we paid for it, 1391 01:21:29.359 --> 01:21:31.920 but you can't release it. So I got a copy 1392 01:21:31.960 --> 01:21:35.479 of it and we ran an article on it on 1393 01:21:35.520 --> 01:21:38.199 the front page of the paper summarizing the main points 1394 01:21:38.199 --> 01:21:40.720 of it, at which point, since the cats out of 1395 01:21:40.720 --> 01:21:45.039 the bag, then they released the report and I also 1396 01:21:45.079 --> 01:21:47.399 got a copy of it to the State Department. So 1397 01:21:47.600 --> 01:21:50.119 after I had left, the newspaper and was back in 1398 01:21:50.159 --> 01:21:54.680 Missouri to go to law school. The US State Department, 1399 01:21:54.680 --> 01:21:58.159 which was under George Bush, had decided that they really 1400 01:21:58.239 --> 01:22:01.079 wanted to pressure Japan into deal with the human trafficking 1401 01:22:01.119 --> 01:22:03.680 problem on a serious level, and the only way that 1402 01:22:03.720 --> 01:22:05.439 was going to happen was is if they could shame 1403 01:22:05.560 --> 01:22:10.319 Japan into doing it. So they decided to do an 1404 01:22:10.439 --> 01:22:15.079 investigation into the methodology of human trafficking in Japan, and 1405 01:22:15.119 --> 01:22:19.199 they wanted plausible deniability, so they farmed it out to 1406 01:22:19.439 --> 01:22:25.079 a nonprofit organization called Charitood International, which then farmed it. 1407 01:22:25.039 --> 01:22:30.399 Out to another company in the Virginia area that was, 1408 01:22:30.640 --> 01:22:33.239 you know, staffed by a whole bunch of XCIA people 1409 01:22:33.279 --> 01:22:35.600 and SA people and FBI people. 1410 01:22:36.159 --> 01:22:38.600 And then they asked me to be the investigator on 1411 01:22:38.640 --> 01:22:43.319 the grounds and I said yes because it seemed very important. 1412 01:22:43.319 --> 01:22:45.840 It seemed like if you could actually dig up the 1413 01:22:45.920 --> 01:22:50.760 material on who was, you know, who was allowing human 1414 01:22:50.800 --> 01:22:54.680 trafficking to thrive in Japan, what legislators were blocking changes 1415 01:22:54.720 --> 01:22:57.479 in the laws, who was profiting from it, what was 1416 01:22:57.520 --> 01:23:00.840 the collusion between organized crime and immigration that that could 1417 01:23:00.840 --> 01:23:03.640 have a positive impact on the world. And the other 1418 01:23:03.720 --> 01:23:05.880 thing that I liked about the offer when it came 1419 01:23:05.960 --> 01:23:09.560 to my way was that they told me I didn't 1420 01:23:09.600 --> 01:23:12.399 have to submit expense reports. Is that they didn't want 1421 01:23:12.439 --> 01:23:15.319 any receipts because they didn't want to know how I 1422 01:23:15.359 --> 01:23:16.079 got the information. 1423 01:23:18.000 --> 01:23:23.319 Ever, right there, Yeah, that's that's the most like CIA 1424 01:23:23.439 --> 01:23:23.920 thing ever. 1425 01:23:26.159 --> 01:23:28.880 Well, I mean it makes sense, right, I mean, even 1426 01:23:28.920 --> 01:23:30.920 though I am talking, we don't want a state department, right, 1427 01:23:30.920 --> 01:23:35.359 I'm working on this. I mean, even though I'm talking 1428 01:23:35.399 --> 01:23:37.479 directly to to these people and they know that I'm 1429 01:23:37.520 --> 01:23:39.439 working on it, you know, there's still this sort of 1430 01:23:40.079 --> 01:23:42.720 you know, goes to the group, and it goes to 1431 01:23:42.800 --> 01:23:45.920 the consulting company, goes to the nonprofit organization, to the 1432 01:23:45.920 --> 01:23:48.359 state department. Sometimes that I you know, it went directly 1433 01:23:49.479 --> 01:23:52.000 because you and I both know the fastest way to 1434 01:23:52.000 --> 01:23:54.279 get information about criminal activity is to pay a criminal. 1435 01:23:55.239 --> 01:24:00.680 And this is where knowing THEACASA is helpful because in 1436 01:24:00.720 --> 01:24:03.880 this world in which these people consider themselves the good guys, right, 1437 01:24:05.840 --> 01:24:08.600 what is the lowest to the low. There's pedophiles with 1438 01:24:08.720 --> 01:24:11.600 child pornographers as human traffickers. So if you talk to 1439 01:24:11.640 --> 01:24:13.920 someone who's a yakada of any moral fiber at all, 1440 01:24:13.960 --> 01:24:17.079 and you say look, dude, I want to know who 1441 01:24:17.079 --> 01:24:20.399 in who in your outfit is running these kind of operations, 1442 01:24:20.479 --> 01:24:23.840 and uh, and I could pay you. There's a lot 1443 01:24:23.840 --> 01:24:25.800 of people raise their hands. There's some people who are like, 1444 01:24:26.359 --> 01:24:29.399 I don't need any money, Like you know, these these 1445 01:24:29.399 --> 01:24:33.319 people are awful, you know, like prostitution is one thing, 1446 01:24:33.359 --> 01:24:36.960 but enslaving someone not paying it for their sex work, 1447 01:24:37.039 --> 01:24:41.399 that's just awful. That's slavery. So that was, you know, 1448 01:24:41.720 --> 01:24:44.840 an interesting job to have. And it turns out that 1449 01:24:45.399 --> 01:24:49.199 one of the people who was receiving money and political 1450 01:24:49.239 --> 01:24:53.359 favors from basically a lobby of human traffickers was so 1451 01:24:53.800 --> 01:24:55.800 one of the ways that women were being trafficked into 1452 01:24:55.840 --> 01:24:59.159 Japan at the time was the use of an entertainment FISA, right, 1453 01:24:59.199 --> 01:25:02.640 So they would men is allegedly as entertainers and they 1454 01:25:02.640 --> 01:25:06.359 get there, their passports would be taken away and they 1455 01:25:06.399 --> 01:25:09.720 would you know, be threatened, you know, like we know 1456 01:25:09.760 --> 01:25:12.520 where your family is, You work, and you do this 1457 01:25:12.680 --> 01:25:14.760 job and it wasn't a job that they were that 1458 01:25:14.800 --> 01:25:18.279 they that they signed up for, and then at some 1459 01:25:18.399 --> 01:25:21.399 point they would be sent back. So there was this 1460 01:25:21.640 --> 01:25:24.079 group called the Zen gay Ran, which was an association 1461 01:25:24.319 --> 01:25:27.479 of entertainment groups, and basically they were a human trafficking lobby. 1462 01:25:28.119 --> 01:25:31.439 And this group was having their annual meeting at the 1463 01:25:31.479 --> 01:25:35.039 headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party, which is the ruling party. 1464 01:25:35.399 --> 01:25:37.479 So it would be like the Republican Party or the 1465 01:25:37.520 --> 01:25:42.880 Democrat Party having a convention of human traffickers at their headquarters. 1466 01:25:43.239 --> 01:25:46.359 And one of the politicians they were particularly friendly with 1467 01:25:46.399 --> 01:25:50.239 and giving donations to was Shinzo Abbe, who later became 1468 01:25:51.680 --> 01:25:56.399 the Prime Minister of Japan twice. And these were the 1469 01:25:56.479 --> 01:25:59.279 kind of things that I was giving the State Department 1470 01:25:59.279 --> 01:26:02.319 in my reports them, you know, after I left the 1471 01:26:02.319 --> 01:26:05.079 newspaper while working for while working for them on this project, 1472 01:26:05.600 --> 01:26:08.000 and so you know, there were a couple other politicians 1473 01:26:08.039 --> 01:26:10.880 who were definitely receiving money to turn the other way 1474 01:26:10.880 --> 01:26:14.199 in block legislation that would stop which was a profitable industry. 1475 01:26:16.039 --> 01:26:18.119 What was the outcome of this study that you were 1476 01:26:18.159 --> 01:26:20.960 a part of, Like, did it actually force some reforms 1477 01:26:21.000 --> 01:26:24.640 within the Japanese legal system? Oh? 1478 01:26:24.720 --> 01:26:27.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the things that happened is 1479 01:26:27.039 --> 01:26:32.479 that the zen Geren dissolved. Prime Minister Abbe orto Abe 1480 01:26:32.640 --> 01:26:36.279 disassociated himself from the organization. So this human trafficking lobby 1481 01:26:36.680 --> 01:26:42.960 dissolved itself. The Japanese police began really enforcing the laws 1482 01:26:42.960 --> 01:26:47.399 and putting traffickers away on a big on a big scale, 1483 01:26:47.520 --> 01:26:50.319 and I think that the sort of backdoor deal. And 1484 01:26:50.359 --> 01:26:53.319 I'm not privy to what actually happens behind back doors 1485 01:26:53.319 --> 01:26:56.800 on this, but my feeling was that the United States 1486 01:26:56.800 --> 01:26:59.319 said to Japan, We're going to rank you as low 1487 01:26:59.399 --> 01:27:02.600 as North Korea unless you get serious about this problem, 1488 01:27:02.880 --> 01:27:05.439 and you also need to clean up the problems that 1489 01:27:05.479 --> 01:27:09.000 are then Gooya immigration because there was definitely one immigration 1490 01:27:10.520 --> 01:27:13.079 office in which the girls were being trafficked through, like 1491 01:27:13.159 --> 01:27:16.319 you know, with you know, they they clearly made no 1492 01:27:16.439 --> 01:27:19.880 attempts to screen the girls to see if they were 1493 01:27:20.359 --> 01:27:23.680 really in Japan on entertainment visas, and the restrictions for 1494 01:27:23.800 --> 01:27:28.279 entertainment visas became very severe. So, you know, by two 1495 01:27:28.319 --> 01:27:32.079 thousand and nine, I feel like Japan as a destination 1496 01:27:32.399 --> 01:27:35.199 place for human traffickers had really sort of fallen off 1497 01:27:35.199 --> 01:27:37.800 the map. So yeah, I definitely think could came out 1498 01:27:37.840 --> 01:27:41.319 of it. And sometimes, you know, in that time, when 1499 01:27:41.439 --> 01:27:44.720 Japan cared about what the world thought of it, they 1500 01:27:44.720 --> 01:27:46.520 didn't want to be shamed and didn't want to be 1501 01:27:46.600 --> 01:27:48.960 listed as like, you know, next to North Korea in 1502 01:27:49.079 --> 01:27:52.720 terms of how they dealt with human trafficking. So of 1503 01:27:52.760 --> 01:27:56.319 the things that the Bush administration did, you know, their 1504 01:27:56.439 --> 01:27:59.960 efforts to curb human trafficking and to get you know, 1505 01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:01.760 at least Japan to think it seriously, you have to 1506 01:28:01.880 --> 01:28:04.199 give them a padle in the back. Well done. 1507 01:28:06.359 --> 01:28:09.720 Talk to us a little bit about getting involved in 1508 01:28:09.760 --> 01:28:12.920 the world of private investigations and due diligence and how 1509 01:28:12.960 --> 01:28:16.479 this is sort of a segue for you from journalism. 1510 01:28:17.680 --> 01:28:21.079 Oh so, you know, while I'm working on this human 1511 01:28:21.119 --> 01:28:25.039 trafficking study, Japan starts cracking down on the yakaza in 1512 01:28:25.079 --> 01:28:28.079 the stock markets. The yakaza had moved so much into 1513 01:28:28.119 --> 01:28:31.800 the financial markets that in a white paper put out 1514 01:28:31.800 --> 01:28:33.920 at a national police agency around two thousand and sixty 1515 01:28:33.960 --> 01:28:37.520 two thousand and seven, they pointed out that the axisa 1516 01:28:37.600 --> 01:28:40.479 made these huge inroads into the financial world and said, 1517 01:28:40.520 --> 01:28:45.840 you know, the incursion of organized crime aka the yakata 1518 01:28:46.399 --> 01:28:51.159 into Japan's financial markets threatens the very foundations of our economy. 1519 01:28:52.840 --> 01:28:56.199 And so they really began looking at the links of 1520 01:28:56.359 --> 01:29:00.680 yakuza like setting up front companies and doing stock market manipulation, 1521 01:29:00.840 --> 01:29:06.560 are being basically venture capitalist and creating companies like our 1522 01:29:06.640 --> 01:29:09.960 powering companies like Goodwill Corporation, which was one of the 1523 01:29:10.039 --> 01:29:16.600 largest labor dispatch companies in Japan. And they also decided 1524 01:29:16.640 --> 01:29:20.079 that they weren't going to give foreign banks or foreign 1525 01:29:20.079 --> 01:29:23.199 investment companies, you know, a free pass. So one of 1526 01:29:23.279 --> 01:29:25.800 the things that happened around two thousand and four is 1527 01:29:25.840 --> 01:29:28.960 they basically took away City banks private banking license because 1528 01:29:30.399 --> 01:29:33.640 they were involved, you know, in handling act of the 1529 01:29:33.680 --> 01:29:36.720 money and they had either either no one in compliance 1530 01:29:37.439 --> 01:29:40.279 or they had people in compliance and they were still 1531 01:29:40.279 --> 01:29:43.159 doing business. And so that was kind of a warning 1532 01:29:43.199 --> 01:29:45.840 bell to all these investment companies that were in Japan, 1533 01:29:46.279 --> 01:29:49.680 big banks like like Lehman Brothers and Gold and Sachs 1534 01:29:49.720 --> 01:29:52.960 that they needed to get their shit together are the 1535 01:29:52.960 --> 01:29:55.399 financial services the agency would come down on them and 1536 01:29:55.479 --> 01:29:59.640 maybe take away their licenses. And so as all this 1537 01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:02.800 happening with this one investment bank and then later another 1538 01:30:02.840 --> 01:30:05.279 one reached out to me and said, like, you know, 1539 01:30:05.760 --> 01:30:08.399 we hear that you are someone who is well versed 1540 01:30:08.439 --> 01:30:11.840 in this world and that you could spot what is 1541 01:30:11.880 --> 01:30:15.439 called a front company, meaning a company that is you know, 1542 01:30:15.479 --> 01:30:18.000 illegitimate or is running a fraudulent operation, or sometimes there 1543 01:30:18.000 --> 01:30:22.000 are companies that are actually successful but using yakaza like 1544 01:30:22.039 --> 01:30:25.960 tactics like blackmail and insider trading or getting seed money 1545 01:30:26.000 --> 01:30:31.279 from organized crime. And so I was like, sure, you know, 1546 01:30:31.960 --> 01:30:34.119 it sounds interesting to me. It sounds like what I've 1547 01:30:34.239 --> 01:30:36.800 been doing is a reporter for many years. And so 1548 01:30:36.840 --> 01:30:39.680 I started taking on these jobs. And not only was 1549 01:30:39.720 --> 01:30:42.560 it pay very lucrative, it's really interesting to sort of, 1550 01:30:43.359 --> 01:30:47.359 you know, learn to spot what is a front company, 1551 01:30:47.479 --> 01:30:49.720 learned to see what is a company that is really 1552 01:30:49.800 --> 01:30:54.279 run by organized crime. And that sparked the gamut from 1553 01:30:55.000 --> 01:30:59.479 you know, coffee shop chains to pride octopus ball places 1554 01:30:59.520 --> 01:31:03.680 to massage powers and sometimes they were running accounting firms, 1555 01:31:05.399 --> 01:31:09.720 database companies. Uh. There was even this firm called you 1556 01:31:09.720 --> 01:31:12.760 You Betoma, which was kind of Japan's Classmates dot com 1557 01:31:13.199 --> 01:31:15.479 and a yaka is a boss from the Kodoka. I 1558 01:31:15.560 --> 01:31:18.479 took it over. So why do you think a boss 1559 01:31:18.479 --> 01:31:20.319 would want a yaka? The boss would want to take 1560 01:31:20.319 --> 01:31:27.439 over classically Japanese equivalent of Classmates dot com, extortion, blackmail, Yes, 1561 01:31:27.600 --> 01:31:31.640 exactly right, I mean, you know you've got the site 1562 01:31:31.680 --> 01:31:38.760 had three million users, three million people, you know, and 1563 01:31:38.840 --> 01:31:41.359 you know how people tend to misbehave a high school unions. 1564 01:31:41.399 --> 01:31:44.560 I'm not me, but you know other people, it's kind 1565 01:31:44.560 --> 01:31:49.800 of it's such a fertile fertile there's probably communications going 1566 01:31:49.800 --> 01:31:52.159 on between people and these websites that they should definitely 1567 01:31:52.159 --> 01:31:54.239 not have, and and that was very attractive to the e. 1568 01:31:58.520 --> 01:32:01.600 But you did dip your hands into journalism a few 1569 01:32:01.600 --> 01:32:07.319 more times during this time period. There's a very interesting 1570 01:32:07.399 --> 01:32:12.439 chapter in Tokyo Noir about the earthquake in Fukushima, the 1571 01:32:12.520 --> 01:32:16.960 nuclear power you know, meltdown that took place, and the 1572 01:32:17.039 --> 01:32:20.720 yakuza involvement both in the nuclear power industry but also 1573 01:32:21.239 --> 01:32:24.600 in responding to the earthquake and the resulting tsunami. If 1574 01:32:24.640 --> 01:32:25.960 you can tell us about that a bit. 1575 01:32:27.760 --> 01:32:32.159 Sure, so you know, this was actually the very first 1576 01:32:32.159 --> 01:32:34.960 start of Cliver wrote for The Daily Beast. The Yakiza 1577 01:32:34.960 --> 01:32:38.640 claimed to be humanitary organizations, and it is true that 1578 01:32:38.760 --> 01:32:41.640 in times of crisis like the COVID earthquake in nineteen 1579 01:32:41.680 --> 01:32:46.039 ninety five, that they're very quick to get to the 1580 01:32:46.079 --> 01:32:50.479 scene of the of where the tragedy has taking place, 1581 01:32:51.000 --> 01:32:55.079 and they have institutional awareness because unlike government agencies where 1582 01:32:55.079 --> 01:32:59.960 people rotat out the same people have been there for years, 1583 01:33:00.039 --> 01:33:02.039 so they know what to bring. They bring blankets, they 1584 01:33:02.039 --> 01:33:08.079 bring food, they bring tents, sometimes they bring generators. They 1585 01:33:08.079 --> 01:33:11.399 bring everything to the scene that people need. And when 1586 01:33:11.399 --> 01:33:15.560 the Fukushima disaster happened, I was pretty sure that they 1587 01:33:15.600 --> 01:33:19.880 would be very, very They would be the first responders 1588 01:33:19.920 --> 01:33:22.199 because they know what is needed and they've got no 1589 01:33:22.279 --> 01:33:25.760 red tape. So I was stranded in the United States 1590 01:33:26.199 --> 01:33:31.159 when the nuclear accident and the meltdown and the tsunami hit, 1591 01:33:33.199 --> 01:33:35.399 but I was in touch with people back in Japan, 1592 01:33:36.079 --> 01:33:38.279 and so you know, I was asked him, what are 1593 01:33:38.279 --> 01:33:41.920 you doing? And the Daily vis also contacted me and said, 1594 01:33:41.920 --> 01:33:44.720 could you write something about what is happening in Fukushima, 1595 01:33:44.760 --> 01:33:46.800 And I said, I can write you about what the 1596 01:33:46.880 --> 01:33:49.720 Yakata are doing, which is interesting because they are going 1597 01:33:49.760 --> 01:33:54.319 into dangerous areas with food and shelter and no protection, 1598 01:33:56.159 --> 01:33:58.960 and so you know, I was like, well, you know, 1599 01:33:59.439 --> 01:34:01.640 I don't don't think the Aakas are a positive force 1600 01:34:01.680 --> 01:34:04.680 for Japan, but you have to give the devil as due. 1601 01:34:04.960 --> 01:34:08.920 So they were certainly very active in going there and 1602 01:34:09.520 --> 01:34:13.319 trying to bring peace and comfort to people in the 1603 01:34:13.399 --> 01:34:16.239 time of need, and so but I also don't trust 1604 01:34:16.239 --> 01:34:19.640 them because you know, they're yakuza. So I made them 1605 01:34:19.640 --> 01:34:22.439 send me films and in you know, video of them 1606 01:34:22.840 --> 01:34:27.199 up downloading supplies and receipts and other things so I 1607 01:34:27.239 --> 01:34:31.079 could be comfortable with writing it. And we wrote it 1608 01:34:31.159 --> 01:34:34.039 up for The Daily Beast, and that story went viral, 1609 01:34:34.199 --> 01:34:38.880 and I think that also changed my relationship with some 1610 01:34:38.960 --> 01:34:41.479 of the Akuza bosses as well in a very positive way. 1611 01:34:42.920 --> 01:34:46.479 And I think you may point out in the book too, 1612 01:34:46.560 --> 01:34:50.640 about how like one of the remaining sources of revenue 1613 01:34:50.680 --> 01:34:55.079 for the Yakuza is the nuclear power industry or power 1614 01:34:55.119 --> 01:34:56.119 industry in general. 1615 01:34:57.800 --> 01:35:00.920 Yeah, it's a dirty what they call in Japan a 1616 01:35:01.279 --> 01:35:04.840 sun ky job. It's Keith and Night, it's can it's crushi, 1617 01:35:05.000 --> 01:35:09.560 so painful, dirty, dangerous. I guess in Japanese it's like 1618 01:35:09.600 --> 01:35:11.560 three d's. I mean in English is like three d's. 1619 01:35:12.119 --> 01:35:15.640 So the Ya because a labor dispatch has always been 1620 01:35:15.640 --> 01:35:19.600 one of their businesses, and so the nuclear power plants 1621 01:35:19.840 --> 01:35:23.000 are supplied by the workers that are supplied by the 1622 01:35:23.079 --> 01:35:25.720 acas are they always have been because they can find 1623 01:35:25.720 --> 01:35:28.479 homeless people, They can find people who want to disappear, 1624 01:35:28.720 --> 01:35:31.520 They can find people who will work for cash who 1625 01:35:31.680 --> 01:35:34.439 you know, who don't have ID or who don't want 1626 01:35:34.439 --> 01:35:37.279 to be identified because they're on the lamp. And that 1627 01:35:37.319 --> 01:35:39.560 has been a sort of symbiotic relationship. 1628 01:35:39.640 --> 01:35:45.000 And the companies need this because there's like a radiological contamination, 1629 01:35:45.600 --> 01:35:47.760 like these are legitimately dangerous jobs. 1630 01:35:49.039 --> 01:35:53.720 Yeah, there's a legitimately dangerous jobs. The amount of radiation 1631 01:35:53.840 --> 01:35:57.399 someone can be exposed into a year is limited, and 1632 01:35:57.479 --> 01:36:01.239 so you know, and there's very people who want to 1633 01:36:01.279 --> 01:36:05.199 do that work. So the yakuza are basically where they're 1634 01:36:05.199 --> 01:36:08.520 going to go. I mean these days in Japan, if 1635 01:36:08.520 --> 01:36:11.000 you're in Akaza, you cannot join a sports club, you 1636 01:36:11.039 --> 01:36:13.560 cannot go to a hotel, you can't get a golf course, 1637 01:36:13.680 --> 01:36:16.520 you can't get a cell phone. But if you want 1638 01:36:16.560 --> 01:36:18.840 to work in a nuclear power plant, door is open. 1639 01:36:20.560 --> 01:36:23.159 And I've spoken to people at the National Police Agency 1640 01:36:23.279 --> 01:36:26.439 like like you know, basically Japan's equivalent of the FBI, 1641 01:36:26.560 --> 01:36:29.960 and ask them like why don't you do background checks? 1642 01:36:30.119 --> 01:36:33.520 And and very honestly, these guys have told me, you know, 1643 01:36:33.720 --> 01:36:36.119 of course we should do background checks because these guys 1644 01:36:36.159 --> 01:36:40.239 are criminals and it's not a good idea to have them. 1645 01:36:40.600 --> 01:36:42.560 Next two materials that could be used to build a 1646 01:36:42.560 --> 01:36:47.439 dirty bomb or or do something nefarious. And if we 1647 01:36:47.520 --> 01:36:50.239 do institutionalize them, you know, and if we and if 1648 01:36:50.239 --> 01:36:53.720 someday we really do background checks on these people, that 1649 01:36:53.760 --> 01:36:57.239 would be a good thing. And you know, what do 1650 01:36:57.279 --> 01:36:58.760 you think would be the natural follow up to the 1651 01:36:58.840 --> 01:36:59.479 question for that? 1652 01:37:01.600 --> 01:37:03.600 I mean, so why aren't you doing it? 1653 01:37:05.199 --> 01:37:10.680 Well? So you know the answer to that is, we're 1654 01:37:10.680 --> 01:37:14.640 not doing it because if we do it, we won't 1655 01:37:14.680 --> 01:37:17.039 have anyone to run the nuclear power plants. 1656 01:37:17.680 --> 01:37:21.199 Right, so plants are not up the code to begin with. 1657 01:37:22.159 --> 01:37:25.560 Is I mean, like you can't get normal union guys 1658 01:37:25.640 --> 01:37:27.800 to come work this job because it's not safe. 1659 01:37:30.079 --> 01:37:32.159 Yeah, I mean a lot of the plants are closed down, right, 1660 01:37:32.199 --> 01:37:34.479 and we closed down after that nuclear disaster, but you 1661 01:37:34.560 --> 01:37:37.800 have to maintain them, right. Some of these plants are 1662 01:37:37.840 --> 01:37:40.680 forty years old. They weren't designed to last this long. 1663 01:37:40.760 --> 01:37:44.199 They keep extending the line for them. Recently, no one 1664 01:37:44.239 --> 01:37:48.159 was looking. I think Japan extended the ability to keep 1665 01:37:48.159 --> 01:37:51.279 a nuclear power plant running for another ten years or something, 1666 01:37:51.439 --> 01:37:54.119 so you could have plants running for sixty years that 1667 01:37:54.159 --> 01:37:57.640 they're not designed to do that. I mean, Fukushima is 1668 01:37:57.680 --> 01:38:01.479 such a disaster that everyone thinks it's over, But if 1669 01:38:01.520 --> 01:38:05.000 you don't pour water into that nuclear core, you will 1670 01:38:05.039 --> 01:38:07.720 have nuclear fission again. Like every day they're pouring water 1671 01:38:07.760 --> 01:38:11.079 into the nuclear reactor and Shima, they've retrieved almost none 1672 01:38:11.119 --> 01:38:13.720 of the core materials yet, and if they stop pouring 1673 01:38:13.760 --> 01:38:17.079 water into it, you get basically another nuclear reaction. And 1674 01:38:17.439 --> 01:38:21.079 so every day japanque's pumping water into the Fukushimi reactor 1675 01:38:21.439 --> 01:38:24.319 core and every day that polluted water goes out into 1676 01:38:24.359 --> 01:38:27.199 the ocean. Probably we're for thirty forty years ago. 1677 01:38:27.720 --> 01:38:29.840 One of the big scandals I think you point out 1678 01:38:29.880 --> 01:38:33.239 in the book is that the Fukushimia, one of the 1679 01:38:33.279 --> 01:38:37.920 reactors there, melted down before the tsunami came. So it's 1680 01:38:38.000 --> 01:38:40.199 actually the earthquake that caused it to melt down, and 1681 01:38:40.239 --> 01:38:41.920 then the tsunami came afterwards. 1682 01:38:43.319 --> 01:38:46.920 Right right within the data that was collected by the 1683 01:38:47.720 --> 01:38:54.039 scientist named Kimura showed that within one minute of the 1684 01:38:54.479 --> 01:38:59.880 of the of the big of the giant Tohuku earth 1685 01:39:00.920 --> 01:39:03.359 that there was no water going to the nuclear core 1686 01:39:03.399 --> 01:39:06.039 because all the pipes burst. It's a forty year old reactor, 1687 01:39:06.680 --> 01:39:09.840 you know, pipes were bursting everywhere, water was coming out everywhere. 1688 01:39:09.880 --> 01:39:13.319 There was no. If you can't get the water to 1689 01:39:13.359 --> 01:39:16.760 the to the reactor, it's going to overheat because all 1690 01:39:16.760 --> 01:39:21.199 the pipes are gone, are cracked and but busted. And 1691 01:39:21.800 --> 01:39:25.119 you know, all the data indicates that it was a 1692 01:39:25.199 --> 01:39:27.840 nuclear and there was the earthquake itself which caused that 1693 01:39:28.319 --> 01:39:32.119 nuclear accident and one of the reactors. The story that 1694 01:39:32.159 --> 01:39:36.399 the TEPCO Total Electric Power Company has, you know, insisted 1695 01:39:36.479 --> 01:39:40.039 on is that there was an earthquake, then the tsunami 1696 01:39:40.119 --> 01:39:42.760 came in twenty twenty five minutes later, and then that 1697 01:39:42.920 --> 01:39:45.279 water knocked out the electric goods and that's why you 1698 01:39:45.359 --> 01:39:49.159 had a nuclear mouthout. That is true for some of 1699 01:39:49.159 --> 01:39:52.399 the reactors. Reactor number one, it was the earthquake itself 1700 01:39:52.640 --> 01:39:55.600 which destroyed the piping, the forty year old piping in 1701 01:39:55.600 --> 01:39:58.840 this reactor, a reactor that they had been worn many 1702 01:39:58.920 --> 01:40:03.680 times before, was shouldn't have been decommissioned. And and what's scary 1703 01:40:03.760 --> 01:40:08.159 is that all of Japan's new, you know, safety regulations 1704 01:40:08.640 --> 01:40:11.159 for nuclear actors are predicted on the idea that it 1705 01:40:11.199 --> 01:40:13.600 was a tsunami that caused the nuclear actor, not the 1706 01:40:13.640 --> 01:40:14.479 earthquake himself. 1707 01:40:17.319 --> 01:40:20.319 So before moving on to some other things, I'd like 1708 01:40:20.399 --> 01:40:22.880 to ask you to kind of close the loop on 1709 01:40:23.159 --> 01:40:27.560 go too and Sigo and tell us ultimately, where did 1710 01:40:27.600 --> 01:40:30.039 both of these guys end up? As far as we know. 1711 01:40:31.479 --> 01:40:37.279 Well, Seigo passed away during the pandemic of COVID, which 1712 01:40:37.359 --> 01:40:42.000 was which was sad. And I think, you know, uh, 1713 01:40:42.439 --> 01:40:43.960 I think he had a heart attack. 1714 01:40:45.319 --> 01:40:47.920 After he got back into he got back into another 1715 01:40:48.000 --> 01:40:49.239 yakuza group, didn't. 1716 01:40:49.039 --> 01:40:53.119 They Yeah, yeah, you know, they offered him. They basically 1717 01:40:53.319 --> 01:40:56.439 came to him and said like, look, you know your organization, 1718 01:40:57.239 --> 01:40:59.960 which you know, Watch was a huge organization, would have cratch. 1719 01:41:00.039 --> 01:41:03.159 We were douced, like, we need someone who has institutional memory, 1720 01:41:03.720 --> 01:41:06.359 and we need you to come back and we'll give 1721 01:41:06.399 --> 01:41:09.239 you promotion and put you in a position where you're 1722 01:41:09.239 --> 01:41:12.199 insulated from going to jail. And he and he took 1723 01:41:12.199 --> 01:41:15.880 the offer, and you know, as someone who had left 1724 01:41:16.039 --> 01:41:19.279 but then faced you know, the usual discrimination that all 1725 01:41:19.319 --> 01:41:22.119 yaktas have faced even after they leave. I mean, I 1726 01:41:22.159 --> 01:41:25.680 can't blame him, you know, I mean, honestly, if I 1727 01:41:25.800 --> 01:41:27.680 was him, and I had a choice of being you know, 1728 01:41:27.720 --> 01:41:30.239 the driver and bodyguard for me, versus being a yachta 1729 01:41:30.279 --> 01:41:31.920 the boss and having someone open the door for me 1730 01:41:31.960 --> 01:41:34.399 and drive me around being treated like a pig shot, 1731 01:41:34.880 --> 01:41:39.439 I mean ethical considerations as hide I'd probably say yes. 1732 01:41:41.960 --> 01:41:46.199 I mean, you know, well, it was disappointed and we 1733 01:41:46.279 --> 01:41:49.199 sort of had a falling out about it, but we 1734 01:41:49.399 --> 01:41:53.720 made we mended, so we stayed in touch. And you know, 1735 01:41:53.800 --> 01:41:56.960 I try and stay in touch with his son, you know, 1736 01:41:57.039 --> 01:41:58.800 who's like all kids, he's really hard to get a 1737 01:41:58.800 --> 01:42:01.520 hold of. But at least she's not his doing well good. 1738 01:42:02.399 --> 01:42:06.720 And as for Godo, the last I heard with it, 1739 01:42:06.880 --> 01:42:12.960 he is still still alive, getting a little senile. The 1740 01:42:13.079 --> 01:42:15.920 United States listed him as a crime lord as late 1741 01:42:15.920 --> 01:42:19.399 as twenty fifteen, even after he supposedly left the ACTUTA 1742 01:42:19.920 --> 01:42:25.720 and become a Buddhist priest. But you know, we don't 1743 01:42:26.039 --> 01:42:28.640 we don't interact, and you know, I can't say I 1744 01:42:28.680 --> 01:42:30.920 wish him well, but at least he's not in my 1745 01:42:30.960 --> 01:42:31.600 life anymore. 1746 01:42:34.000 --> 01:42:37.000 And you've kind of mentioned a couple times through this 1747 01:42:37.239 --> 01:42:41.279 interview about like where the Yakuza is today, what has 1748 01:42:41.279 --> 01:42:44.840 been going on that all this legislation came in. And 1749 01:42:44.920 --> 01:42:48.359 now if you're a member of the organization, you can't 1750 01:42:48.399 --> 01:42:50.920 get an apartment, you can't get a cell phone, you 1751 01:42:50.920 --> 01:42:53.520 can't buy a car. You know, people don't want to 1752 01:42:53.560 --> 01:42:58.119 be like you're treated like a leper. What has what 1753 01:42:58.159 --> 01:43:00.840 has the yakuza become today and where do you see 1754 01:43:00.880 --> 01:43:01.920 it going in the future. 1755 01:43:04.000 --> 01:43:11.199 It has become a a a traditional crime group that 1756 01:43:11.399 --> 01:43:14.000 now will do anything it can to make money. The 1757 01:43:14.079 --> 01:43:17.560 members still have to pay the association dues and they're 1758 01:43:17.600 --> 01:43:23.600 increasingly turning to crime like fraud, robbery, theft, whatever it 1759 01:43:23.640 --> 01:43:28.880 takes to make the money. Some of the groups still 1760 01:43:29.079 --> 01:43:34.800 survive because they have a well disguised you know, racketeering 1761 01:43:35.039 --> 01:43:39.880 going on. They're still getting payments under the table and 1762 01:43:39.920 --> 01:43:43.920 providing the services that you know, yaka I have always 1763 01:43:43.960 --> 01:43:50.640 provided protection of other things. I see them never completely 1764 01:43:50.680 --> 01:43:54.199 fading out because if you completely get rid of the yakasa, 1765 01:43:54.279 --> 01:43:56.359 there's so many cops who don't have a job, right, 1766 01:43:56.439 --> 01:43:58.159 so they want to kind of keep them at this 1767 01:43:58.319 --> 01:44:03.560 level of you know, of being powerless, but not completely 1768 01:44:03.600 --> 01:44:04.239 fading away. 1769 01:44:05.960 --> 01:44:07.560 The cops found a way to get paid. 1770 01:44:09.359 --> 01:44:11.079 Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, you always have you 1771 01:44:11.159 --> 01:44:13.439 need some kind of menace right to adjustify your. 1772 01:44:13.359 --> 01:44:21.560 Existence, and so for you personally, I mean the sort 1773 01:44:21.600 --> 01:44:25.600 of conclusion of Tokyo Noir, you become a Buddhist priest 1774 01:44:28.000 --> 01:44:30.079 like how that came about? How did you become a 1775 01:44:30.119 --> 01:44:30.680 holy man? 1776 01:44:32.560 --> 01:44:34.760 Wow? I'm such a bad Buddhist priest, but I am 1777 01:44:34.880 --> 01:44:39.640 keeping most of the precepts. Basically. You know, my landlord 1778 01:44:39.800 --> 01:44:42.760 in college let me live in this Buddhist temple for 1779 01:44:44.720 --> 01:44:47.720 you know, four or five years, and he has always 1780 01:44:47.720 --> 01:44:50.159 been a supporter of what I've done and a good 1781 01:44:50.239 --> 01:44:53.479 voice and good advice. He himself has in really bad 1782 01:44:53.720 --> 01:44:57.760 health since last year, I mean, which is really sad. 1783 01:44:58.039 --> 01:44:58.279 Uh. 1784 01:44:58.640 --> 01:45:03.760 He had got diagnosed Arkinson's and very late stage Parkinson, 1785 01:45:03.840 --> 01:45:10.079 so it's pretty severe. Anyway to a more cheerful story. 1786 01:45:11.000 --> 01:45:16.039 Around twenty seventeen, I was working on a story about 1787 01:45:16.960 --> 01:45:19.840 a young baker who had basically worked himself to death, 1788 01:45:19.840 --> 01:45:22.720 and he was working for a very famous bakery. And 1789 01:45:22.760 --> 01:45:24.640 I went to the funeral of the baker because his 1790 01:45:24.760 --> 01:45:27.600 colleagues at work asked me to go. I was trying 1791 01:45:27.600 --> 01:45:29.640 to write a story and it was a Soto's then 1792 01:45:29.680 --> 01:45:34.279 Buddhist funeral, and I figured it would be really you 1793 01:45:34.319 --> 01:45:36.680 know if to talk to the family so I complete 1794 01:45:36.680 --> 01:45:38.720 the story. It would be great to have an introduction 1795 01:45:39.560 --> 01:45:42.640 via the priest that officiated the funeral, So I went 1796 01:45:42.680 --> 01:45:45.359 to see Joe Ginson, who is my zen master, and 1797 01:45:45.399 --> 01:45:47.800 I explained the situation to him. I said, like, I'm 1798 01:45:47.800 --> 01:45:51.279 working on this article about death by overwork. That's something 1799 01:45:51.319 --> 01:45:54.520 that happens in Japan actually far too often. And I 1800 01:45:54.560 --> 01:45:58.600 asked for an introduction to the priest who had officiated 1801 01:45:58.640 --> 01:46:02.920 the funeral, and as we were talking catching up, he 1802 01:46:03.039 --> 01:46:06.520 said to me in his Cravilie voice, like, you know, 1803 01:46:07.439 --> 01:46:10.760 maybe it's time you stopped being a daredevil man whore 1804 01:46:11.000 --> 01:46:14.640 and put your life in order and followed the noble 1805 01:46:14.720 --> 01:46:17.800 path that you once were on when you were a student. 1806 01:46:18.520 --> 01:46:22.319 And I was like, you know, maybe that's not a 1807 01:46:22.319 --> 01:46:26.199 bad idea. And so we had this very long conversation 1808 01:46:26.359 --> 01:46:29.439 and he basically said, like, you know, I don't have 1809 01:46:29.520 --> 01:46:32.239 a disciple because I'm so cranky that no one can 1810 01:46:32.359 --> 01:46:35.119 deal with me. And I don't have a son either, 1811 01:46:35.239 --> 01:46:38.640 and you are the closest thing that I have, and 1812 01:46:38.680 --> 01:46:41.359 it would be wonderful if you followed in my footsteps. 1813 01:46:41.399 --> 01:46:47.680 And I said, after much discussion, I will think about it. 1814 01:46:47.359 --> 01:46:51.359 And I said if I were to do this, like 1815 01:46:51.439 --> 01:46:53.279 when would we do it? And he said you should 1816 01:46:53.319 --> 01:46:55.880 pick a date that's significant to you. I said, well, 1817 01:46:55.880 --> 01:46:57.720 we could do it on my birthday, which is March 1818 01:46:57.800 --> 01:47:02.479 twenty eighth, and he would like, that's amazing that you 1819 01:47:02.520 --> 01:47:04.560 know your birthday is Mark twenty eighth, And I said 1820 01:47:04.560 --> 01:47:06.119 why and he said, because that's when I took my 1821 01:47:06.159 --> 01:47:09.159 Buddhist priest vows. And I kind of gave him that 1822 01:47:09.159 --> 01:47:10.800 look like, yeah, you like you're full of shit, but 1823 01:47:10.880 --> 01:47:13.279 you know, I mean not in a sort of friendly, 1824 01:47:13.680 --> 01:47:17.359 friendly way. And so he went up to his room 1825 01:47:17.399 --> 01:47:19.720 and he pulled down this photo album of him when 1826 01:47:19.720 --> 01:47:22.600 he was fifteen, and I looked at the year was 1827 01:47:22.680 --> 01:47:26.600 the year show Off forty four, which in Western years, 1828 01:47:26.680 --> 01:47:30.520 nineteen sixty nine, and I said, oh, like, wow, you 1829 01:47:30.680 --> 01:47:34.479 became a Zen Buddhist priest on the day I was born. 1830 01:47:34.640 --> 01:47:37.279 And he said, no, no, no, no, no, you were born 1831 01:47:37.359 --> 01:47:39.680 on the day I became a Zen Buddhist priest. So 1832 01:47:39.840 --> 01:47:43.800 it's karma, so you're meant to follow in my footsteps. 1833 01:47:44.399 --> 01:47:50.399 And so I agreed. So so I took the vows 1834 01:47:50.479 --> 01:47:55.640 and I'm still learning the ropes. This is very military, 1835 01:47:55.720 --> 01:47:59.279 I guess. If you don't in my case, if I 1836 01:47:59.319 --> 01:48:02.800 don't advance to the next level of spiritual development, if 1837 01:48:02.840 --> 01:48:05.680 I don't rank up in the in my zend with 1838 01:48:05.840 --> 01:48:08.640 just pretranking. By twenty twenty seven, I get kicked out 1839 01:48:09.399 --> 01:48:11.880 either rank up or you are you lose. And next 1840 01:48:11.960 --> 01:48:14.199 year I have this giant test in which I have 1841 01:48:14.279 --> 01:48:18.239 to solve this metaphysical riddle and and and defend my 1842 01:48:18.319 --> 01:48:21.359 thesis in front of what, in front of whoever wants 1843 01:48:21.439 --> 01:48:24.960 to come to the temple. It's really hard, and so 1844 01:48:25.720 --> 01:48:29.159 I'm learning to do that. And uh, you know, I 1845 01:48:29.199 --> 01:48:33.600 can cook just vegetarian food. I can officiate some ceremonies. 1846 01:48:33.680 --> 01:48:36.239 I'm very good at the one where you chase away 1847 01:48:36.319 --> 01:48:40.159 hungry ghosts. So if you know someone who is plagued 1848 01:48:40.199 --> 01:48:42.640 by hungry ghosts because there's someone in their life who 1849 01:48:42.720 --> 01:48:45.279 hasn't moved on to the other world, I can handle that. 1850 01:48:45.680 --> 01:48:46.680 I'm very good at that one. 1851 01:48:47.239 --> 01:48:49.800 Do you do yakuza funerals? That's what I really need 1852 01:48:49.800 --> 01:48:50.039 to know. 1853 01:48:51.279 --> 01:48:53.680 No, No, I'm not doing it the funeral. I'm not 1854 01:48:53.720 --> 01:49:01.079 doing funerals. I oh yeah, yeah, I ever see this interview. 1855 01:49:01.319 --> 01:49:05.520 I'm not qualified to do a funeral yet, like you know, 1856 01:49:06.319 --> 01:49:09.800 because I really don't want that business. But if it's 1857 01:49:10.199 --> 01:49:13.560 something more like your boss died and you feel he's 1858 01:49:13.560 --> 01:49:15.960 like he's haunting the office, like I can deal with that, 1859 01:49:16.319 --> 01:49:19.239 but the actual funeral service now can't. Can't get them 1860 01:49:19.319 --> 01:49:21.840 to the next life. That's not there all. 1861 01:49:21.800 --> 01:49:25.239 Right, So tell us about where you are now in 1862 01:49:25.279 --> 01:49:26.960 this new book that you have coming out. 1863 01:49:28.199 --> 01:49:30.439 Oh well, thank you for letting me plug this. So 1864 01:49:30.479 --> 01:49:37.159 this book, The Devil Takes Bitcoin is about covering the 1865 01:49:37.239 --> 01:49:40.760 world's largest bitcoin exchange, which was in Tokyo and in 1866 01:49:40.760 --> 01:49:45.159 twenty fourteen it collapsed with half a billion dollars with 1867 01:49:45.239 --> 01:49:48.760 a bitcoin missing. And the CEO of this company was 1868 01:49:48.760 --> 01:49:53.359 a French guy named Mark Carpalis. It's really unusual. French 1869 01:49:53.399 --> 01:50:00.520 guy really loved loved Japan, loved cryptocurrency and basically what 1870 01:50:00.560 --> 01:50:03.359 was the epicenter of the cryptocurrency world, Like, if you 1871 01:50:03.399 --> 01:50:07.319 wanted bitcoin in twenty fourteen, mon Cox was the place 1872 01:50:07.399 --> 01:50:10.199 to get it. But it's also just a chronicle of 1873 01:50:10.239 --> 01:50:15.640 the history of bitcoin and how and how basically criminal 1874 01:50:15.680 --> 01:50:17.159 activity made it what it was. 1875 01:50:18.640 --> 01:50:22.760 It was an home by an enigmatic Japanese guy, wasn't 1876 01:50:22.800 --> 01:50:25.079 it like the like this dude that we don't really 1877 01:50:25.079 --> 01:50:27.479 know much about. 1878 01:50:27.319 --> 01:50:32.239 Sukoshi Nakamoto allegedly right allegedly a Japanese dude. And that's 1879 01:50:32.279 --> 01:50:35.359 when the book also gets into that because I didn't know, 1880 01:50:35.840 --> 01:50:39.520 I didn't give a shit about bitcoin in twenty fourteen. 1881 01:50:39.520 --> 01:50:42.039 I didn't even know what it was until this bitcoin 1882 01:50:42.439 --> 01:50:45.840 you know exchange collapsed in Tokyo and it became like 1883 01:50:46.000 --> 01:50:49.680 the center of the world news because the bitcoin prices plummeted. 1884 01:50:50.039 --> 01:50:54.760 In the same year, Newsweek put out an article identifying, 1885 01:50:55.680 --> 01:50:59.800 you know, Satoshinakamoto, the mythical, the mythological creator of this bitcoin. 1886 01:51:00.079 --> 01:51:02.760 You know, this guy who created the cryptocurrency that's not 1887 01:51:02.840 --> 01:51:07.640 worth billions of dollars. Newsweek identified him as this man 1888 01:51:07.720 --> 01:51:13.319 named Dorian Satoshinakamoto living in California, and my editor at 1889 01:51:14.560 --> 01:51:18.439 The Daily Beast, you know, called me up right, the 1890 01:51:18.560 --> 01:51:22.199 editor chief called me up and said, if this is true, 1891 01:51:22.680 --> 01:51:25.800 Newsweek has a tremendous scoop. But if it's not true, 1892 01:51:26.000 --> 01:51:29.359 please kick their ass. And those two events sent me 1893 01:51:29.399 --> 01:51:33.680 into four years of covering bitcoin. And it's such a 1894 01:51:33.720 --> 01:51:37.079 crazy story. And what's fun about this book is it 1895 01:51:37.079 --> 01:51:40.319 becomes a sort of personal memoir because not that I 1896 01:51:40.319 --> 01:51:43.479 ever intended to be. Because as I was working on 1897 01:51:43.560 --> 01:51:46.920 this story about this the theft of half a billion 1898 01:51:46.960 --> 01:51:51.600 dollars worth of bitcoin, it turns out that there was 1899 01:51:51.960 --> 01:51:55.439 someone else in the United States investigating this case who 1900 01:51:55.479 --> 01:51:58.960 couldn't get any help from the Japanese police, and I 1901 01:51:59.079 --> 01:52:04.760 was asked to smuggle the database of this exchange to 1902 01:52:04.920 --> 01:52:07.319 the FBI in San Francisco. And that's one of the 1903 01:52:07.319 --> 01:52:10.039 weird parts of the story which I did. I don't 1904 01:52:10.079 --> 01:52:14.840 know if that's if that's a journalistically ethically okay thing 1905 01:52:14.880 --> 01:52:16.920 to do, but you know, as I was working on 1906 01:52:16.920 --> 01:52:20.079 the story and I began to think that maybe some 1907 01:52:20.119 --> 01:52:22.399 of the people who accused were innocent, I felt like 1908 01:52:22.520 --> 01:52:25.119 that was the right thing to do. It's such a 1909 01:52:25.159 --> 01:52:28.439 fun book to write and also to read, because even 1910 01:52:28.439 --> 01:52:30.439 if you don't know anything about bitcoin, you'll sort of 1911 01:52:30.439 --> 01:52:35.199 be fascinated by how it evolved and how basically the 1912 01:52:35.239 --> 01:52:37.439 Silk Road, which was an underground market where you could 1913 01:52:37.439 --> 01:52:40.920 buy any any drug you wanted online, propelled it from 1914 01:52:41.000 --> 01:52:42.960 nothing to a billion dollar current. 1915 01:52:44.279 --> 01:52:45.640 And when does the book come out? 1916 01:52:47.159 --> 01:52:49.520 Book comes out on October fourteenth. 1917 01:52:49.520 --> 01:52:52.000 Okay, so we're like, we're like a week out now. 1918 01:52:53.199 --> 01:52:56.520 Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm happy to have a copy. 1919 01:52:56.560 --> 01:52:58.840 This is it came out a little bit earlier in Australia. 1920 01:52:59.600 --> 01:53:01.720 This is the who will cover actually lots of like 1921 01:53:01.720 --> 01:53:02.880 the guy in the hoodie. 1922 01:53:03.520 --> 01:53:07.119 So people can go find that on Amazon or wherever 1923 01:53:07.159 --> 01:53:08.319 books are sold. 1924 01:53:09.239 --> 01:53:10.680 Yeah, and if you want to, if you want to 1925 01:53:10.720 --> 01:53:14.239 send me a bitcoin, like one tiny bitcoin directly, I'll 1926 01:53:14.279 --> 01:53:16.119 mail it to you. 1927 01:53:17.760 --> 01:53:17.840 Uh. 1928 01:53:18.000 --> 01:53:22.319 I think we have some viewer questions for you. We'll 1929 01:53:22.359 --> 01:53:27.600 get into here. What do we got thee from Mark Corbin? 1930 01:53:27.680 --> 01:53:31.199 We have How do the Chinese tryad stand upark culturally 1931 01:53:31.199 --> 01:53:32.479 when compared to the Akuza? 1932 01:53:32.840 --> 01:53:38.960 Interesting, Okay, way out of my level of expertise. There's 1933 01:53:39.000 --> 01:53:42.640 a guy in the Canadian in the Royal Mounties who's 1934 01:53:42.720 --> 01:53:47.039 much better at this stuff. The Trands have some of 1935 01:53:47.079 --> 01:53:49.640 the same ritual of the acas I do of succession 1936 01:53:49.720 --> 01:53:55.119 ceremonies that elaborate things that were that where relations are 1937 01:53:55.399 --> 01:54:00.079 cemented with rituals invoking the gods. But that's about the 1938 01:54:00.119 --> 01:54:04.760 only connection they have. The triads and the actors that 1939 01:54:04.840 --> 01:54:07.479 don't work very well together, except for this one period 1940 01:54:07.479 --> 01:54:16.000 of time when carmakers in Japan needed to ah, it's 1941 01:54:16.039 --> 01:54:18.800 not what it's not listy and batteries. There's a part 1942 01:54:18.840 --> 01:54:22.680 of the the electric vehicle. It's a rare metal that 1943 01:54:22.800 --> 01:54:27.880 is needed to make like a prius and stuff. There 1944 01:54:27.880 --> 01:54:29.439 was a time when there was a shortage of that, 1945 01:54:29.479 --> 01:54:31.479 and the Triots and the actors that were working together 1946 01:54:31.520 --> 01:54:33.960 to smuggle that material into Japan. That's the only case 1947 01:54:34.000 --> 01:54:38.199 I know. I'm not an expert on the Triods unfortunately, 1948 01:54:39.720 --> 01:54:44.359 but they're working wlationship with the minimal. All Right, we 1949 01:54:44.479 --> 01:54:45.319 got a couple more. 1950 01:54:46.600 --> 01:54:49.079 How did you feel about the show's portrayal of your character? 1951 01:54:49.159 --> 01:54:52.000 In Ansel al Agort's performance. 1952 01:54:53.640 --> 01:54:58.439 An Sol did a really wonderful job. I trained in 1953 01:54:58.520 --> 01:55:02.680 Akito with the Tokyo Metrial and Police Department, and I 1954 01:55:02.760 --> 01:55:04.600 was never any good. Let me, let me get inoscar. 1955 01:55:04.760 --> 01:55:06.720 I've never been good at martial arts. I liked him, 1956 01:55:06.720 --> 01:55:10.399 but I suck. And Ansel trained with the same school 1957 01:55:10.439 --> 01:55:12.960 of Aikdo, and he was really good in a short time. 1958 01:55:14.159 --> 01:55:16.039 He did a really good job of getting in character. 1959 01:55:16.159 --> 01:55:20.439 His Japanese is amazing. The only thing I didn't like 1960 01:55:20.560 --> 01:55:23.560 about the TV series portrayal of me is that there's 1961 01:55:23.560 --> 01:55:27.000 a scene where I'm doing meth with Yaku's a fan 1962 01:55:27.079 --> 01:55:29.960 magazine writer, and I would never do meth, at least 1963 01:55:30.000 --> 01:55:33.479 not knowingly. It's really bad drug, which in general, I'm 1964 01:55:33.520 --> 01:55:37.319 not If people want to do recreational drugs. I think 1965 01:55:37.319 --> 01:55:39.439 that that's fine with them, but I don't want to 1966 01:55:39.439 --> 01:55:42.600 do them. 1967 01:55:42.840 --> 01:55:46.760 Got one more, how Willy, Who's a plan to maintain 1968 01:55:46.800 --> 01:55:48.479 their relevancy in current Japan. 1969 01:55:52.159 --> 01:55:54.439 I honestly think that they're beginning to try and portray 1970 01:55:54.479 --> 01:55:57.760 themselves as like a cultural tradition, like a Japanese living treasure. 1971 01:55:57.920 --> 01:56:00.319 So I know you should preserve us because we're part 1972 01:56:00.359 --> 01:56:03.479 of the lore of Japan. Were part of what attracts 1973 01:56:03.479 --> 01:56:07.159 people to be here, like the queen, like the queen 1974 01:56:07.199 --> 01:56:10.880 in England. Yeah, like the Queen in England. Right, I mean, 1975 01:56:12.199 --> 01:56:16.000 I you know, this isn't really answering the question. I 1976 01:56:16.000 --> 01:56:19.439 have so much material on the Akasa, Like I have 1977 01:56:19.680 --> 01:56:23.479 their phone directories, I have comic books I have, I have, 1978 01:56:24.119 --> 01:56:26.640 you know, some of the embroidered outfits they have, like 1979 01:56:26.720 --> 01:56:29.119 the sake bottles that they use for their ceremonies. Like 1980 01:56:29.119 --> 01:56:31.840 I've got all this stuff that I've collected over the years, 1981 01:56:32.199 --> 01:56:34.479 like in a warehouse in my second home in Kioto, 1982 01:56:34.560 --> 01:56:36.720 and I'm like, what should I do with this because 1983 01:56:36.720 --> 01:56:40.199 it's you know, thirty years of Yakaza fan magazines like 1984 01:56:40.199 --> 01:56:43.920 like no, I mean, I guess kind of opening Yakasa 1985 01:56:44.039 --> 01:56:45.640 Museum if Japan will let me. 1986 01:56:50.720 --> 01:56:53.720 But Jake, is there anything else that I haven't brought 1987 01:56:53.800 --> 01:56:56.199 up that you'd like to talk about before we get 1988 01:56:56.199 --> 01:56:56.800 going tonight? 1989 01:56:59.800 --> 01:57:03.159 Oh? I was gonna ask you, what is your tattoo? 1990 01:57:03.399 --> 01:57:05.000 I mean, you know, oh, I have I have a 1991 01:57:05.000 --> 01:57:07.960 bunch of I have a bunch of weep tattoos. Uh. 1992 01:57:08.000 --> 01:57:12.960 This is ghost in the Shell from Shiro, and so 1993 01:57:13.159 --> 01:57:16.279 is this one and this one also, they're all from 1994 01:57:16.319 --> 01:57:17.439 They're all Ghosts in the Shell. 1995 01:57:18.720 --> 01:57:21.079 Oh. I love Ghosts in the Shell. That's such a great. 1996 01:57:21.319 --> 01:57:23.960 That's such a It's my absolute favorite one. I've watched 1997 01:57:24.159 --> 01:57:27.399 all seasons of it. Yeah, really bad one on Netflix. 1998 01:57:27.880 --> 01:57:30.680 Oh yes, that was terrible. It was terrible. We're going 1999 01:57:30.720 --> 01:57:35.399 to pretend that it didn't happen. But but standalone complex 2000 01:57:35.479 --> 01:57:38.920 was great. The the film, the nineteen ninety four or 2001 01:57:38.920 --> 01:57:42.640 five film awesome. Yeah. In the comic book the manga 2002 01:57:42.680 --> 01:57:43.439 is also awesome. 2003 01:57:44.560 --> 01:57:48.199 Yeah, Innocence like the second one. I think Innocence is 2004 01:57:48.640 --> 01:57:52.640 the film title in English is a little bit about 2005 01:57:52.680 --> 01:57:55.680 human trafficking as well. I mean, yeah, that that series 2006 01:57:55.720 --> 01:58:00.359 has done some really interesting topics and things. Oh, I 2007 01:58:00.399 --> 01:58:03.319 guess the last thing that we didn't talk about, is that, 2008 01:58:03.800 --> 01:58:10.079 you know, what separated the Jeopanese Jakuda from other mafia 2009 01:58:10.119 --> 01:58:13.520 groups is you know, is that they're because of their 2010 01:58:13.520 --> 01:58:18.119 public presence, they've always had more of a code of 2011 01:58:18.159 --> 01:58:23.439 honor than other groups. And and you know, and mostly 2012 01:58:23.520 --> 01:58:25.760 their sociopaths, but some of them might at least respect 2013 01:58:26.000 --> 01:58:28.880 to living up to the ideals that they profess. It's like, 2014 01:58:28.920 --> 01:58:32.720 you know, a tiny fraction of them, but that is 2015 01:58:32.760 --> 01:58:35.920 something that I think is unique about about the Japanese mafia. 2016 01:58:37.439 --> 01:58:41.199 And also some of them write really great poetry. I 2017 01:58:41.319 --> 01:58:43.960 like the poetry and the Acuda fan magazine sections is 2018 01:58:44.000 --> 01:58:47.159 really funny and sometimes quite poignant. Who would have guessed? 2019 01:58:47.760 --> 01:58:54.800 So there's some redeemable values there, some redeemable virus. So, guys, 2020 01:58:54.880 --> 01:58:57.079 I hope you will go and check out the books 2021 01:58:57.479 --> 01:59:05.840 Tokyo Noirakuza and Tokyovice, and the new book coming out Jake. 2022 01:59:05.760 --> 01:59:10.319 Is The Devil Takes a Bit Quiet awesome. 2023 01:59:10.359 --> 01:59:12.279 I'm looking forward to reading it. It sounds awesome. 2024 01:59:13.680 --> 01:59:15.640 Yeah, I will make sure we get you a copy. Yeah, 2025 01:59:15.720 --> 01:59:17.279 free of charge. It's very good. 2026 01:59:17.479 --> 01:59:22.239 Thank you so, Jake, thanks for doing this interview and 2027 01:59:22.880 --> 01:59:25.680 sharing your experiences with us. This has been awesome and 2028 01:59:26.119 --> 01:59:29.920 having read your work, you know, back fifteen years or 2029 01:59:29.960 --> 01:59:32.359 whatever it was, I mean, it's awesome for this doll 2030 01:59:32.439 --> 01:59:36.239 come together and for everyone else out there. Thanks for 2031 01:59:36.359 --> 01:59:38.720 joining us tonight and we'll see you next time. 2032 01:59:40.000 --> 01:59:41.000 Yeah, thank you very much. 2033 01:59:43.600 --> 01:59:45.319 Hey, guys, I want to tell all of you today 2034 01:59:45.479 --> 01:59:48.680 about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both 2035 01:59:48.760 --> 01:59:52.600 the team House podcast, the eyes On podcast, and the 2036 01:59:52.680 --> 01:59:56.119 high Side News outlet, which I run with Sean Naylor. 2037 01:59:56.960 --> 01:59:59.880 The newsletter is going to be once a week. It's 2038 02:00:00.000 --> 02:00:02.520 gonna come into your inbox and you're gonna get the 2039 02:00:02.520 --> 02:00:06.520 most current podcasts on eyes On and the Teamhouse and 2040 02:00:06.600 --> 02:00:10.600 whatever's topical or current on the high Side. 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