Toppamono: Outlaw. Radical. Suspect. My Life in Japan's Underworld

US: Kotan, 2005. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Shot, stabbed, and beaten, Miyazaki Manabu somehow emerged intact from his first fifty years to put his astonishing life story down on paper. Born the son of a yakuza boss in 1945, he grew up in a household of gang members an d social misfits before his conversion to Marxism launched him into the vio lent world of 1960s student radicalism. After dropping out of university an d spending a brief sojourn in South America, he became a reporter on a fast -rising weekly magazine. Called back home to Kyoto to take over the family demolition business, he was plunged into a maelstrom of bankruptcy and debt , forcing him to raise funds however he could. Along the way, he became the chief suspect in one of Japan's most sensational criminal cases----still u nsolved----before getting caught up in the crazy years of Japan's bubble ec onomy, when land speculators tipped their favorite bar hostesses millions o f yen and Dom Perignon flowed like water. More than just one man's incredib le story, unflinchingly told, Toppamono is a sophisticated analysis of Japa n's postwar half-century that will astound and enlighten. Devastatingly cri tical of banks and bureaucrats, questioning of Japan's understanding of dem ocracy, and cogent on the role played by the yakuza in Japanese society, th is underground best-seller, first published in 1996, will keep you enthrall ed until the very last page. toppamono n: a person with a devil-may-care attitude, who pushes ahead regardless.