Rating: 
Summary: Great Title, Decent Book
Review: From the title the reader might think that this is a real shoot-em-up thriller filled with drugs, prostitutes and other sins beyond the pale in polite Japanese society.Actually the book is somewhat slow and has a slightly callous feel, as the writer is recounting the somewhat-sad tales of an old man who was once a misguided youth drawn into the underworld economy - mostly before World War II. Japan enthusiasts and cultural anthropologists should take note of this book, but those interested in reading about the more extreme modern-day yakuza should read one of three books: 1)Speed Tribes
2)Tokyo Underworld
3) Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld
Rating: 
Summary: Greatly enjoyable
Review: I greatly enjoyed this book: it is candid and fascinating. The life of a pre-WWII gangster in Tokyo centered around gambling operations, which the doctor/author introduces to the reader through the biography of one hardened patient from a different era. Yakuza of today have far less couth than the book's subject, which contrast makes the story that much more compelling. I particularly like the subject's disregard for a life of privileged ease, instead embracing the adventurous life offered by the Japanese underworld. Apparently Bob Dylan cited the book on an album; Bob aside, the book is tremendously fun to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I haven't purchased this book yet but I intend to. As a Dylan fan and one who has thoroughly enjoyed Dylan's recent album, Love & THEFT (extremely appropriately named), I recommend this book and the Dylan album as Dylan apparently has read the book himself and used dozens of lines from it in this album's lyrics. The book has not sold well up to this point and its interest is growing since being linked to Dylan. .... As Dylan generally gets a lot of his material from literature and the Bible, which is great, I think it's worth noting that for anyone to come up with anything new to the planet is pretty rare. As Dylan himself alluded to in the liner notes of Bringing It All Back Home... 'all the great things have already been said.'
Rating: 
Summary: A rare glimpse at Yakuza life.
Review: I thought this was an interesting peek into a shadow world that few non-members live to tell about. The interview style of writing keeps the story moving and allows the author to interject his own insights. There are a few areas where the translation was editted and anecdotes are glossed over, but they don't detract from the overall enjoyment of this work. I recommend it for anyone interested in seeing what life in the old-time Japanese mafia was like. I enjoyed this book so much, that I passed it along to my Dad. If you like Japan and its culture, you'll like this book. Gambatte!
Rating:
Summary: yakuza j'accuse
Review: Okay, Okay, so the reviews below probably have said it all for me rendering this opinion moot but for the fact that I wanted to boost the star rating of this charming little book: A book that will have you wishing it was twice as long before you are half way through it. This is ostensibly the autobiography of a dying, retired yakuza boss as told to his attending physician. An interesting contrivance but not essential to the story at hand which is random, expertly told vignettes describing the life of a really extraordinary character whose life happens to revolve around the Japanese underworld. Extraordinary I say because this was a boy born into a family comprising the then nascent Japanese middle class: the future "sarariman," who nevertheless is so high spirited that he turns his back on what promises to be a life of relative ease (if only through dint of hardwork) for one of adventure. Extraordinary because the fellow is six feet tall in a world where the average man's height is 5' 4"; extraordinary because he is a fellow who is not afraid to buck the rules of a hidebound society, even those of the underground world which embraces him after he has left mainstream society; extraordinary because he has the kind of personality that causes his superiors to become devoted to him and his inferiors to buckle under to his rule when it is time for him to lead, and finally extraordinary because the fellow has the uncanny ability to recite events in a page turning manner.
This Yakuza's confession is a look at Japan during its transition into the industrial age; a time when the country's view of itself as the land of the rising sun was just begining to take on the sinister overtones that led to the second world war. So, while the primary objective is to describe the life of a Yakuza foot soldier and then boss, it also describes and encompasses the lot of contemporary common man who was caught between the exploitative daibatsu labor market that promised nothing more than a subsistance life and the repressive and whimsical powers of the governmental organs whose purpose seems to have been to keep order for the same. This Yakuza describes a world in which the common man, unprotected by the powers of the land seeks security instead in the context of a web of interconnecting social obligations which protect and sustain him in return for his undying loyalty.
Japan has a wonderful tradition of humorous and outrageous autobiographies by such roguish characters that is unknown in Western literature and this book is a really, truly wonderful addition to that venerable line.
I recommend this book as not only a quick, light, easy and fun read but also a beautiful pyscho-cultural study of late Meiji era Japan, warts and all.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Fact...
Review: On a scale of 1-10 I will give this book a -5. To mention this book as a proposed additional purchase to the "The fast times and hard life of an American gangster in Japan" is an insult to the later. Anyone beyond grade 5 will not find anything educational if the intent is to learn and enhance your horizons and perspectives on Japanese life and/or culture.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting tale of an early century japanese gambler
Review: The book is a soft read; it keeps you interested only if you enjoy reading of real life Japan, which I do. Not one of the best flowing tales with a lot of holes (probably due to the translation of the extended interview the book is based on.) Story does not delve deeply into the "world" of the yakuza but tries to show it on the surface through the story of one of its fringe members. Human interest vice violence
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story.
Review: The story is very deep and emotional, and the writing is of a wonderful style. I enjoyed this book for the look into the past of Nippon-shoto's criminal organizations, and for the grace with which the author tackled difficult issues. The life of the hero is both interesting, and strangely depressing. He seems to show a lot of regret for his actions - and yet no effort was made in his confessing to cover them up. The title fits quite well, also - it is just that, the confessions of a true Yakuza. While today, people think of pop culture portrayals of Yakuza as gunslinging, tourist-murdering hooligans, this sheds light on what Yakuza are traditionally.
-Kana
Rating:
Summary: Unusual account!
Review: This book painted a totally different, from how it is traditionally in movies and books, picture of yakuza world, at least how it was before World War II. I understand that things changed since but I didn't know that originally yakuza was all about gambling. The book consists of the memories of old yakuza that do not necessarily represent logically completed story but rather various pieces, hystorical and personal, that together show the atmosphere in Japan at that time period. Quite unique book.
Rating:
Summary: Historically interesting & insightful
Review: This is a really good book that sheds light on life in Japan in the days before World War Two. It tells the fascinating story of a hardened Yakuza gangster looking back and recounting his life from a philosophical perspective. A striking thing is just how applicable the central character's life is to today's world. This book is easy to read, and quite fascinating so I'd recommend it to others.
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