'Sacred, ferocious, and businesslike, Adelstein describes the Japanese mafia like nobody else.' Roberto Saviano, on Tokyo Vice
When acclaimed journalist Jake Adelstein hires a former Yakuza boss, known as the 'Tsunami', to be his driver and bodyguard, he soon finds himself swept into the violent heart of Tokyo's organised crime syndicates.
From gambling rackets and ritualised killings, to the forbidden pleasures of 'soapland', Adelstein's unlikely friendship with the 'Tsunami' gains him unprecedented access to the Yakuza - now under threat after years of tacit acceptance from Japanese society. But in a culture that prizes loyalty and honour above all else, how far can they go in their quest for truth about Tokyo's criminal underworld?
A riveting history of the Japanese mafia, featuring an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, The Last Yakuza is an electrifying - but ultimately uplifting - story of one man's life of crime.

Jake Adelstein, a Japanese-schooled Jewish-American, worked for 12 years as a journalist on Japan's largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbun. In 2005, he became chief investigator for a US State Department sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. Now a writer and consultant in Japan and the US, Jake and his family remain under death threats from one of Japan's most notorious crime bosses. He is the author of Tokyo Vice (2010), which inspired the 2022 HBO television series of the same name.