Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Yakuza: A 400-Year History of the Japanese Underworld

Yakuza: A 400-Year History of the Japanese Underworld

Rankin, Andrew

Hardcover

Japanese HistoryTrue Crime

Publisher Price: $32.00

PREORDER - Expected ship date September 15, 2026

ISBN10: 1541607678
ISBN13: 9781541607675
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: Sep 15 2026
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.25
Height: 1.51 Width: 5.84 Depth: 9.62
Language: English
The definitive history of Japanese organized crime, from its origins in samurai-era black markets and gambling rings to the shadowy syndicates of the present. The best book in English on this fascinating and misunderstood subject. ―Richard Lloyd Parry, author of People Who Eat Darkness

Japan's gangster groups, known collectively as the yakuza, are among the oldest underworld societies in the world. With military-style organization and a code of absolute obedience, they have run Japan's black markets for centuries. They have remained strikingly conspicuous in Japanese society and as a cultural force beyond Japan, with movies and video games celebrating their exploits globally.

Andrew Rankin offers the first comprehensive history of the yakuza, from their emergence out of seventeenth-century samurai gang culture to the present day. Though their activities have always encompassed illegal gambling and sex trafficking, the yakuza have also aggressively maintained business interests in private security, the construction industry, the entertainment industry, and debt collection. Yakuza bosses acquired a degree of legitimacy by styling themselves as peacekeepers maintaining order at society's bottom end. Yet that legitimacy has come into doubt in recent years as Japan's contracting economy has pushed the yakuza into increasingly predatory criminal activities.

Featuring a lively cast of extortionists, smugglers, hit men, and corporate crime lords, Yakuza is a fascinating tour of Japan's sprawling mob syndicates and the cultural traditions with which they are so deeply intertwined.

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