Yakuza Inc.: Foreign Investment Meets Organized Crime in Japan

Evening Panel Discussion
6:30 – 8 pm

Read the Event Summary.

Japan’s yakuza gangs are among the most publicly visible organized crime syndicates in the world. Until recently, however, yakuza gangsters and foreigners rarely crossed paths. But with the bursting of the economic bubble and the flood of foreign investment into Japan, many American investors have recently found themselves confronted with the specter of the yakuza, who have deep connections to Japan’s real estate and financial markets.

A panel of experts, including Gillian Tett, former Tokyo Bureau Chief of the Financial Times, Robert Whiting, author of Tokyo Underworld, Raisuke Miyawaki, former Director of Japan’s National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division and Curtis Milhaupt, Fuyo Professor of Law, School of Law, and Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies, Columbia University, discuss the impact of organized crime on foreign business investment in Japan and on Japan’s efforts to restructure its economy.