...M. William Steele Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists: The Violent Politics of Modern Japan, 1860–1960 . By Eiko Maruko Siniawer . Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press , 2008 . xi , 270 pp. $39.95 (cloth). Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2010 2010...

...George A. De Vos Yakuza . By David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro . New York : Macmillan , 1987 . 336 pp. $8.95(paper). Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1989 1989 394 T H E J O U R N A L OF A S I A N STUDIES distracting, cannot spoil the fun of reading Kaneko's...

... University Yakuza. By DAVID E. KAPLAN and ALEC D U B R O . New York: Macmillan, 1987. 336 pp. $8.95 (paper). This volume is state-of-the-art investigative reporting. Scholars in a field such as Japanese studies, whether anthropologists, political scientists, or historians, are understandably leery of eager...

... the "authentic traditional custom." Jacob Raz's article conflates Yakuza (organized crime groups) with peddlers too simply, discussing these overlapping groups as if completely synonymous. Juvenile delinquents are likewise discussed as if they are simply "pre-Yakuza" despite indications that the majority...

..., amphetamine addicts, day laborers, habitual gamblers, ethnic Koreans ( Zainichi ), gangsters (Yakuza), and descendants of hereditary outcastes ( Burakumin )” (p. 2). Armstrong retools genba— the “actual sites” of cultural production as articulated by Ian Condry in his seminal work on hip-hop in Japan...

... Japanese school but became immediately impressed with a Japanese principal who was, in his view, "an educator, very interested in educating Koreans" (p. 26). Inspired by his principal, Hong went on to Japan for further education and worked for yakuza, a Japanese underground organization, in order to make...

... Koreans" (p. 26). Inspired by his principal, Hong went on to Japan for further education and worked for yakuza, a Japanese underground organization, in order to make money for school. Hong still shows a deep gratitude to his yakuza boss, a Japanese, who supported his education. Even while in Japan...

... and plays were turned into seventy-six films in the 1930s. Focusing on the film version of Hasegawa's Mabuta no hana (Mother Under the Eyelids), a story about a wandering yakuza's search for the mother who abandoned him when he was a child, he suggests that the repetitive circularity of Chutaro's wanderings...

... successes in achieving the world's highest literacy rate, longest life expectancy, and dynamic economic growth. Quickly, the documentary segues to the underside. Images of Sanyo district, where unemployed men scramble for the few yakuza-controlled day jobs, are depressingly similar to American and European...

... Warrior (e.g., Musashi Miyamoto), the Yakuza Hero (for example, characters played by actors Ken Takakura and Koji Tsuruta), the Wanderer (Zatoichi and Tora-san, among others), and the Vengeful Spirit (of various ghost stories). He also analyzes idiosyncratic relationships such as the All-Suffering Female...

... the conclusion of the vibrant protest culture of 1960s Japan. The first two chapters analyze popular media, including yakuza films and the boxing comic Tomorrow's Jō , that resonated with the participants of the leftist student movement. The protagonists represented an oppositional politics and attempt...

... to introducing such archetypes as the Loyal Retainer and the Tormented Lord (represented by the forty-seven ronin and Lord Asano of the Chushingura story), the Chaste Warrior (e.g., Musashi Miyamoto), the Yakuza Hero (for example, characters played by actors Ken Takakura and Koji Tsuruta), the Wanderer (Zatoichi...

... clinics (both public and private), restaurants and bars, coin laundries, small construction firm BOOK REVIEWS JAPAN 875 offices (here is the bottom of the subcontracting system), and Yakuza establishments, but no movie theaters and no hostess bars. Chapter 2, "Lives," is a series of firstperson narratives...

... to inflect discussions of racial and cultural identity both within Japan and the West. The remaining three chapters explore the institutional effects of economic globalization. Wolfgang Herbert's essay on organized crime and the law details the Yakuza's circumvention of new legislation by engaging in new...

... legislation, which, according to the film, marks a significant departure from the previous cooperative working relationships between the police and yakuza. Also noted are the rise of new 1342 FILM AND VIDEO REVIEWS 1343 parties led by younger Liberal Democratic Party politicians who challenge the existing...

... comparisons between the Green Gang and the Mafia in Sicily, American mobsters, gangs in colonial Jakarta, and Japanese yakuza. Martin's study is thus a major addition to our understanding of Republican China and, given recent developments, might be useful in interpreting today's China. This publication neatly...

... pointing to Japan's successes in achieving the world's highest literacy rate, longest life expectancy, and dynamic economic growth. Quickly, the documentary segues to the underside. Images of Sanyo district, where unemployed men scramble for the few yakuza-controlled day jobs, are depressingly similar...

... to hanzai ” [Hiropon abuse and crime]. In “Hiropon,” special issue, Ifu 9 ( 2 ): 17 – 20 . Kaplan David E. , and Alex Dubro . 2003 . Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld . Berkeley : University of California Press . Kasamatsu Akira , and Ritsuno Ryū . 1950 . “ Kakusei amine...

... details the Yakuza's circumvention of new legislation by engaging in new businesses occasioned by economic globalization (debt collection and smuggling illegal immigrants) from other Asian countries. Andreas Riessland weaves an engaging ethnographic account of his location as a researcher unknowingly...

... BOOK REVIEWS JAPAN 875 offices (here is the bottom of the subcontracting system), and Yakuza establishments, but no movie theaters and no hostess bars. Chapter 2, "Lives," is a series of firstperson narratives reconstructed out of Fowler's interactions with day laborers, union members and sympathizers...