Yakuza Diary: Doing Time in the Japanese Underworld, by Christopher Seymour (Atlantic Monthly Press, $22.00). A harrowing, hilarious look at the Japanese mob as seen through the eyes of an intrepid gaijin journalist.

BC: How did you, an American journalist, infiltrate the Japanese mob?

CS: Initially, I needed a yakuza to pose for a photo with his shirt off to show off his body tattoos. The owner of the nightclub where my Japanese girlfriend worked knew some yakuza and offered me a choice between a yakuza solider or a real yakuza boss. I took the boss, thereby canceling any shirtless photos, but it gave me a chance to hang out with a real "oyabun", a 'father' of many yakuza "kobun", 'children' or soldiers.

This boss led to many more Tokyo yakuza, but the way I met the top godfather figure of Kyoto was via a gift. In a TV special critical of the yakuza, I watched the calm and cool Kyoto boss stroke practice putts across his office carpet. I sent him a gift pack of golf balls, along with a letter requesting total access to his gang. When he said yes, it meant all 4,000 men had to be nice to me!

BC: Were you ever frightened for your life?

CS: Anytime someone--friend or foe--pulls out a gun it can be scary. One evening I was driving around with some of the younger guys from a major Kyoto gang. By way of initiating a new member, we went out drinking before cruising around the ancient city shooting pistols off in every direction. No doubt about it, I was scared as bullets whistled past my car, bullets intended for targets way down the street. It's just that these kids don't know how to shoot very well.

I was scared when I was with some older yakuza who were beating up an old guy who was late with a payment on a gambling debt. Two big yakuza were kicking the older man as he rolled on the ground. As the boss called for a baseball bat to be used on the debtor, I got scared and a little nauseous to be part of such an ugly situation.

BC: How do you think the Yakuza feel about the book?

CS: My Japanese assistant has received some threatening phone calls from misinformed yakuza who thought I was after them. But for the most part, I believe the average yakuza would be impressed by the way I captured how they really work and spend their free time. The real yakuza like living an easy, relatively lazy lifestyle, as compared with the famous Japanese "salaryman". They try to avoid violence because it's hard to get away with such crimes in Japan and Japanese prisons are downright Medieval compared to the US.

BC: Which character is your favorite?

CS: My favorite yakuza was a young boss named Hara from Kyoto. Although he was powerful, his ego wasn't so big that he couldn't appreciate my interest in the younger members of his gang. Although, in a yakuza context, new guys are all "chimpira" --little pricks--Hara arranged for me to watch the breaking in of a new recruit. Also, Hara was the rarest type of Japanese man in that he wore saddle shoes. He could laugh at himself and never took yakuza life seriously. At one point he said to me, "I'm basically a lazy person, as are most yakuza. Don't believe anyone who tells you differently!"

BC: How do the Yakuza compare to the American Mafia?

CS: In a country with half of the US population, Japan has 100,000 gangsters, compared with roughly 2,000 "made" American Mafiosi. Unlike Japanese professional baseball, the yakuza is not a pale imitation of the American mob. The yakuza is an organic part of Japanese culture with a 400 year-old history and unique rites, like the severing of one's own finger-tips to atone for mistakes. Full-body tattoos, which can take a year to apply, are considered a must for every man joining the yakuza ranks.

BC: What's your next project?

CS: My next project will either be a look at America's burgeoning heroin culture, or an expose of the world-wide slave trade.

BC: Thanks for your time.

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