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Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders Who Shaped Modern Japan
"Bob Whiting came to the city as a stranger in a strange land in 1962 and stayed for five decades--he knows the dark alleys, the good whisky bars, the crooked politicians and the crooks, the baseball players, the bookies…better than anyone alive." --Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice
Critically acclaimed author and longtime Japan resident Robert Whiting turns his attention to the fascinating stories of foreigners who made waves and achieved notoriety in post-World War II Japan.
In this rare insider's look at Japan through the eyes of foreigners, this book covers a fascinating swathe of Japanese history, from the immediate postwar period up to the 2022 assassination of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The fourteen fascinating stories of the gamblers, dreamers, and other chancers who made their mark in modern Japan include US servicemen running Vegas-style gambling dens; baseball managers Like Bobby Valentine; hostesses, bar managers and wannabe yakuza gangsters; religious fanatics such as Members of the Moonies, and businessmen like disgraced Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.
Critically acclaimed author and longtime Japan resident Robert Whiting turns his attention to the fascinating stories of foreigners who made waves and achieved notoriety in post-World War II Japan.
In this rare insider's look at Japan through the eyes of foreigners, this book covers a fascinating swathe of Japanese history, from the immediate postwar period up to the 2022 assassination of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The fourteen fascinating stories of the gamblers, dreamers, and other chancers who made their mark in modern Japan include US servicemen running Vegas-style gambling dens; baseball managers Like Bobby Valentine; hostesses, bar managers and wannabe yakuza gangsters; religious fanatics such as Members of the Moonies, and businessmen like disgraced Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.
- GenresJapanHistoryNonfiction
384 pages, Paperback
Published May 28, 2024
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102 people want to read
About the author
Robert Whiting
35 books56 followersRobert Whiting is a best-selling author and journalist who has written several successful books on contemporary Japanese culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W...
Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 17, 2024
Robert Whiting will probably always be associated with his books analyzing Japanese baseball and culture in The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa and other titles. But he has also enjoyed success writing about the history of foreigners in Japan with Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan about Nick Zappetti and himself in Tokyo Junkie. The former was said to have been in film development for many years while Whiting was planning on expanding a sequel that was first published in Japanese while he added to the planned English version, which was realized in the 50,000 words and 15 chapters of the fascinating Gamblers, Fraudsters, and Spies: The Outsiders Who Shaped Modern Japan finally published in 2024.
The early chapters in the book give a colorful overview of life in Japan post WWII during the Occupation, where it was something of a free for all for black marketeers. In “The Cannon Agency,” Whiting gives a history of the black-operations group that was said to have involved in kidnapping, drug smuggling, and shoot outs in the streets. And the American government was backing nationalistic war criminals such as Nobusuke Kishi, Hiroshi Abe’s grandfather and former Prime Minister of Japan. They were also backing yakuza to break up student protests against the signing of the Ampo treaty. The Girard incident, from “The Girard And Quackenbush Killings,” was something I had not read about before. William S. Girard, a 21-year-old enlisted soldier from Ottawa, Illinois shot Naka Sakai, a mother of six, in the back with an empty grenade casing from a rocket launcher out of boredom when locals were collecting shell casings from a firing range that he was guarding for trade as scrap in 1957. This almost caused an international incident as the general public was stunned and confused at the light sentence Girard received for manslaughter, which later it was revealed that he US government made a secret deal with the Japanese government to get a lesser offense instead of murder.
Whiting cut his teeth writing about baseball in Japan, so it should come as no surprise that two of his stand out chapters are on baseball figures. The first “The Sadaharu Oh Story,’ about Japan’s Babe Ruth, who was continually overlooked by the general public due to his status as Taiwanese national born to Taiwanese parents in Japan despite having never lived there. He played second fiddle to pure-blooded Shigeo Nagashima, despite out hitting and outplaying him year after year and breaking Babe Ruth’s home run records. The other chapter, “Valentine’s Way,” tells the story of how Bobby Valentine was brought over to innovate and sue the “American way” to make the struggling Chiba Lotte Marines winners. In his first year in 1995 they finished in second place and was unceremoniously fired for his effort. Later he was brought back in 2004, in 2005 they won their first pennant and their first Championship. Then in 2009 he was fired with two years remaining on his contract after a smear campaign by the team. Valentine was immensely popular with the fan base and 112,000 fans signed a petition to keep him on as manager.
Whiting also devoted another chapter to an innovative foreigner who was also run out of Japan after achieving great success, Carlos Ghosn. He was brought over to Japan revitalize Nissan which was losing millions of dollars a year when he was hired. He turned it around and made it profitable and later was also named head of Renault when it was acquired by Nissan in 2005, becoming the first person ever to do so. When the Japanese managers decided they wanted to get rid of him the Japanese government worked with them to make trumped up charges to get him removed as head of the corporation. He eventually escaped Japan by hiding in a audio equipment box.
Whiting, now in his sixth decade in Japan, has written an eclectic and entertaining book about the postwar history of foreigners who helped shape modern Japan. It is something of a capstone to an influential and long distinguished writing career in Japan.
The early chapters in the book give a colorful overview of life in Japan post WWII during the Occupation, where it was something of a free for all for black marketeers. In “The Cannon Agency,” Whiting gives a history of the black-operations group that was said to have involved in kidnapping, drug smuggling, and shoot outs in the streets. And the American government was backing nationalistic war criminals such as Nobusuke Kishi, Hiroshi Abe’s grandfather and former Prime Minister of Japan. They were also backing yakuza to break up student protests against the signing of the Ampo treaty. The Girard incident, from “The Girard And Quackenbush Killings,” was something I had not read about before. William S. Girard, a 21-year-old enlisted soldier from Ottawa, Illinois shot Naka Sakai, a mother of six, in the back with an empty grenade casing from a rocket launcher out of boredom when locals were collecting shell casings from a firing range that he was guarding for trade as scrap in 1957. This almost caused an international incident as the general public was stunned and confused at the light sentence Girard received for manslaughter, which later it was revealed that he US government made a secret deal with the Japanese government to get a lesser offense instead of murder.
Whiting cut his teeth writing about baseball in Japan, so it should come as no surprise that two of his stand out chapters are on baseball figures. The first “The Sadaharu Oh Story,’ about Japan’s Babe Ruth, who was continually overlooked by the general public due to his status as Taiwanese national born to Taiwanese parents in Japan despite having never lived there. He played second fiddle to pure-blooded Shigeo Nagashima, despite out hitting and outplaying him year after year and breaking Babe Ruth’s home run records. The other chapter, “Valentine’s Way,” tells the story of how Bobby Valentine was brought over to innovate and sue the “American way” to make the struggling Chiba Lotte Marines winners. In his first year in 1995 they finished in second place and was unceremoniously fired for his effort. Later he was brought back in 2004, in 2005 they won their first pennant and their first Championship. Then in 2009 he was fired with two years remaining on his contract after a smear campaign by the team. Valentine was immensely popular with the fan base and 112,000 fans signed a petition to keep him on as manager.
Whiting also devoted another chapter to an innovative foreigner who was also run out of Japan after achieving great success, Carlos Ghosn. He was brought over to Japan revitalize Nissan which was losing millions of dollars a year when he was hired. He turned it around and made it profitable and later was also named head of Renault when it was acquired by Nissan in 2005, becoming the first person ever to do so. When the Japanese managers decided they wanted to get rid of him the Japanese government worked with them to make trumped up charges to get him removed as head of the corporation. He eventually escaped Japan by hiding in a audio equipment box.
Whiting, now in his sixth decade in Japan, has written an eclectic and entertaining book about the postwar history of foreigners who helped shape modern Japan. It is something of a capstone to an influential and long distinguished writing career in Japan.
June 17, 2024
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.
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.
March 3, 2025
“Gamblers, fraudsters, dreamers, and spies” is a book about fifteen foreigners, who had a great impact on shaping Japan since the Second World War. As the book’s title indicates, these were extraordinary folks, who left their mark – good, bad, and sometimes, ugly – on modern Japan.
Like Whiting’s other books, this is a fun read told by someone who loves Japan and has made it his home for over 60 years. Unlike the characters found in his book, he has managed to hang on there when many others were forced to leave.
The Japanese tend to view foreigners as something to tolerate, learn from, and then ultimately kick out when they’ve “overstepped” their apparent bounds, or are no longer found useful.
This is how Japan remains "pure" and insulated from outside influences.
I lived in Japan on three separate occasions and it was made very clear to me by a few more assertive individuals that there was a "Best Before Date" stamped in my passport. In fact, one group of Japanese did their best to ensure I couldn't gain entry to the country, when I was recruited from outside to be the CEO of their organisation. I just applied for a spousal visa to gain entry, because my wife was Japanese. I guess they didn't know that at the time or perhaps I would have faced bigger obstacles.
What I liked most about the book were the “behind the scenes” stories of these interesting foreigners. Most were big personalities who took advantage of the incredible challenges and opportunities that Japan went through following defeat in WWII, rebuilding with the help of America, fighting off communist insurgents in East Asia – China, Korea, and within Japan itself, and driving the Economic boom from 1964 during the Tokyo Olympics till the dizzying heights that the Nikkei achieved in the late 1980s.
Whiting introduces his readers to men like Jack Canon who was responsible for The Canon Agency, a black-operations group involved in kidnapping, drug smuggling, and midnight shootouts. I wasn’t aware of any of this.
I was most interested in the more recent cases of Shinzu Abe’s assassination, because of his connection with Korea’s Unification Church and the “Moonies”. Abe-san lived across the fence from us in Yoyogi Koen at his mother’s place when we were in Tokyo – for some time. We were his neighbor for a short time after he stepped down as Prime Minister.
Also interesting was the story of the rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi Motors. This interested me greatly for I work with TBWA\ within Nissan’s Headquarters – and many times traveled the same elevators with the Japanese and French managers running Nissan at the time.
The book also had a good number of photographic plates in its centre, I always appreciate.
As for negatives in the book, there really are none. That said, it is not an exhaustive study of foreigners in Japan and does not get into the quantitative aspects of how foreigners have influenced this interesting country. Rather it’s just an entertaining history and more of a memoire of Robert Whiting – the baseball loving American – who has adopted Japan as his home.
A very good read. I recommend it.
Like Whiting’s other books, this is a fun read told by someone who loves Japan and has made it his home for over 60 years. Unlike the characters found in his book, he has managed to hang on there when many others were forced to leave.
The Japanese tend to view foreigners as something to tolerate, learn from, and then ultimately kick out when they’ve “overstepped” their apparent bounds, or are no longer found useful.
This is how Japan remains "pure" and insulated from outside influences.
I lived in Japan on three separate occasions and it was made very clear to me by a few more assertive individuals that there was a "Best Before Date" stamped in my passport. In fact, one group of Japanese did their best to ensure I couldn't gain entry to the country, when I was recruited from outside to be the CEO of their organisation. I just applied for a spousal visa to gain entry, because my wife was Japanese. I guess they didn't know that at the time or perhaps I would have faced bigger obstacles.
What I liked most about the book were the “behind the scenes” stories of these interesting foreigners. Most were big personalities who took advantage of the incredible challenges and opportunities that Japan went through following defeat in WWII, rebuilding with the help of America, fighting off communist insurgents in East Asia – China, Korea, and within Japan itself, and driving the Economic boom from 1964 during the Tokyo Olympics till the dizzying heights that the Nikkei achieved in the late 1980s.
Whiting introduces his readers to men like Jack Canon who was responsible for The Canon Agency, a black-operations group involved in kidnapping, drug smuggling, and midnight shootouts. I wasn’t aware of any of this.
I was most interested in the more recent cases of Shinzu Abe’s assassination, because of his connection with Korea’s Unification Church and the “Moonies”. Abe-san lived across the fence from us in Yoyogi Koen at his mother’s place when we were in Tokyo – for some time. We were his neighbor for a short time after he stepped down as Prime Minister.
Also interesting was the story of the rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi Motors. This interested me greatly for I work with TBWA\ within Nissan’s Headquarters – and many times traveled the same elevators with the Japanese and French managers running Nissan at the time.
The book also had a good number of photographic plates in its centre, I always appreciate.
As for negatives in the book, there really are none. That said, it is not an exhaustive study of foreigners in Japan and does not get into the quantitative aspects of how foreigners have influenced this interesting country. Rather it’s just an entertaining history and more of a memoire of Robert Whiting – the baseball loving American – who has adopted Japan as his home.
A very good read. I recommend it.
August 17, 2025
Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies is a great and really well researched book, which goes into several underground and delinquent aspects of Japanese society post-nuclear bombing, using this lens to tell a history of post-world war Japan in an interesting manner.
The delinquency of Japan permeates and is capitalized on by the CIA, and it shows a side of Japan which many don't know - a Japan which is like anywhere else in the world.
The book, however, stands out not for the subject matter but for its intensive research. The number of interviews, accounts from people, newspapers, and other sources used to write this book is amazing.
Add to that is the fresh perspective of Japanese society given here, the book is written with a certain sense of humour which comes to accept Japan as it is. It's a very nihilistically funny book, in many ways.
Despite it being a heavy read, it's a very entertaining read, and it gives an underbelly view of Japanese history post nuclear bombings that many may not have of Japan.
It's a unique book, and a meta book for games like Yakuza series etc - it tells us where the influences come from.
The last chapter about the influence of Soka Gakkai in India is also a warning shot about the same organization's large presence in countries like India, and their subversion activities conducted on behalf of the CIA and their involvement with narcotics and criminals.
10/10
The delinquency of Japan permeates and is capitalized on by the CIA, and it shows a side of Japan which many don't know - a Japan which is like anywhere else in the world.
The book, however, stands out not for the subject matter but for its intensive research. The number of interviews, accounts from people, newspapers, and other sources used to write this book is amazing.
Add to that is the fresh perspective of Japanese society given here, the book is written with a certain sense of humour which comes to accept Japan as it is. It's a very nihilistically funny book, in many ways.
Despite it being a heavy read, it's a very entertaining read, and it gives an underbelly view of Japanese history post nuclear bombings that many may not have of Japan.
It's a unique book, and a meta book for games like Yakuza series etc - it tells us where the influences come from.
The last chapter about the influence of Soka Gakkai in India is also a warning shot about the same organization's large presence in countries like India, and their subversion activities conducted on behalf of the CIA and their involvement with narcotics and criminals.
10/10
August 29, 2025
While this book is a fun read for anyone interested in Japan, mention should be made that it is replete with errors of fact: E.g., that General Doolittle was associated with the China-based Flying Tigers. He was not. That the CIA was smuggling money from Manila into Japan via P.T. boat to back political parties in Japan. Total nonsense: all that would be necessary would be to send the money in the diplomatic bag. That Syngman Rhee was anti-American! While he was not literally “put into power” by the Americans through direct installation, he was strongly supported and favored by the US occupation authorities as the best candidate to lead the conservative factions in Korea. This support helped him become head of the Korean government in 1945 and later president after South Korea’s first presidential election in 1950. Despite these errors, overall I found it a fun read and would recommend it but with the provision that any reader be very careful about quoting anything they read there as fact. His best chapter was the one on baseball in Japan and the treatment of American managers Japanese teams hired.
June 17, 2025
What a fascinating read! Truly captivating real stories of post ww2 Japan and how the American military acted in such savagery and disregard to the Japanese and considered them less human. Yet, some have done good by the population and helped them eat during the famine
It also spoke about the shady characters and cia operatives and anti communist operatives and folks that made a dime of the situation in Japan and those who didn’t
It also spoke about the shady characters and cia operatives and anti communist operatives and folks that made a dime of the situation in Japan and those who didn’t
January 4, 2026
Was I originally enticed by the word gamblers? Yes. But this was actually a very enjoyable read. Hits all of my favorite subjects, but even the ones on taxis or baseball were entertaining too. Glad I picked it up would be interested in more of his work
April 26, 2025
A different way to deep dive into Japan. Its history is not always as rosy as it is often publicly portrayed. I learned many interesting facts!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews