Book Review: Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders Who Shaped Modern Japan

Reading “Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies” by Robert Whiting

Entertaining stories of the foreigners who helped shape modern Japan

By DC Palter

Published in Japonica Publication

Robert Whiting is always fun to read. The author of You Gotta Have Wa and Tokyo Junkie, Whiting has been writing about Japan since arriving in the country in 1962.

Whiting is the preeminent English-language writer and commentator on Japanese baseball, and has also written extensively about the yakuza in Tokyo Underworld and the Japanese-language book, Tokyo Outsiders.

That makes Whiting uniquely suited for Tuttle’s new release: Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies — the Outsiders Who Shaped Modern Japan.

The book is a grab-bag of stories covering everything from occupation-era black market profiteers to CIA operatives supporting right-wing politicians to the leaders of Nissan and Olympus who crashed into Japanese corporate culture.

But it also covers zainichi Korean-Japanese battling against discrimination including the baseball slugger and manager, Sadaharu Oh, and the founding family of the largest taxi company in the country.

There are more stories of baseball with the American, Bobby Valentine, who led the Chiba Lotte Marines to a championship, and plenty of foreign hostesses including an Australian named Maggie who built a successful nightclub in Roppongi and an Englishwoman named Lucie Blackman who was murdered by a client.

And let’s not forget North Korean cryptocurrency thieves and the Frenchman, Mark Karpelès, whose Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange briefly made Tokyo the center of the cryptocurrency world before imploding in a massive hack and losing billions of customers’ yen.

Then top it all off with the complex web of the Unification Church, which wove Korean religion, politics, and government spies, with the Japanese LDP, the American Republican party, and the deep involvement of the CIA. The story of the Unification Church comes to a head with the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe by a troubled man whose mother had donated all the family’s money to the church.

The book contains a series of interesting and entertaining stories running from the post-war era to the present day. It enlightens the history of the occupation and rebuilding of Japan, shines a light on the inner workings of the Roppongi nightclubs of the bubble years, and brings us into the current era where Japanese companies want to appear globalized while still maintaining the comfy, club-like corporate operations of yesteryear.

Some of the stories are shocking and Whiting knows how to tell a good tale. Many are so crazy that they’re hard to believe, but Whiting knows the history better than anyone. The book is enjoyable to read and flows quickly from one anecdote to the next.

What is missing is any real theme to the madness other than a collection of stories that Whiting wanted to tell. At first, it seemed to be focused on the Western gaijin who came to Japan, but the book also includes chapters on zainichi Korean-Japanese who were born in the country.

Then it seemed to be about the Japanese underworld, but later chapters dove into baseball, corporate scandals, and religion. I thought the theme was about the baleful influence of outsiders, but it features stories of foreigners who saved lives, supported orphanages, and collected Japanese cultural artifacts.

The title is Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies, but to that should be added drug dealers, murderers, baseball players, and saints, as well as hostesses, CEOs, taxi drivers, and religious cults.

Many of the stories have been covered more extensively elsewhere, including in Whiting’s own books. Personally, I was most interested in the early chapters covering the post-war period when colorful American black marketeers collaborated with the yakuza and the CIA helped build the LDP with far-right politicians and war criminals, a history I only knew in passing. Later chapters covering recent events such as the corporate scandals of Nissan and Olympus felt like a recap of information I already knew.

Despite the grab-bag nature of the collection, the book is fun to read while shining a flashlight deep into the basement below modern Japanese history infested with criminals and fraudsters.

Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies — the Outsiders Who Shaped Modern Japan is published by Tuttle and available on Amazon.

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Autographed copies of Robert Whiting’s books are available for purchase. These include You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld, The Meaning of Ichiro, Tokyo Junkie, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat. If you are interested in purchasing a book, please send an email to: robertwhitingsjapan@gmail.com