Tomohiko Suzuki

Tomohiko Suzuki is a former editor of a yakuza fan magazine who becomes Jake Adelstein’s collaborator on an anthology of forbidden news stories. By agreeing to write with Adelstein despite the risk of provoking the Goto-gumi, Suzuki helps bring the book into being—and bears much of the backlash that follows.

Background and Collaboration

Suzuki approached Adelstein with an invitation to contribute a chapter to an anthology for Takarajima Publishing House. Adelstein asked to write the chapter together with him, a request that would expose Suzuki, as well as Adelstein, to the Goto-gumi’s anger. Suzuki did not retreat from the proposal. He warned Adelstein that taking part would involve substantial risk, and Adelstein agreed to proceed.

Protection and Personal Connections

Suzuki told Adelstein that he would need a bodyguard and identified Teruo Mochizuki for the role. Mochizuki had left the yakuza the previous year, had a one-year-old son, and was without work; Suzuki considered him a suitable bodyguard and driver. He also knew that Adelstein already knew Mochizuki, who had been a close friend of Yasunobu Endo, the crime boss killed by Gen Sekine in the 1990s. Their friendship had crossed the boundaries between organized-crime groups. Suzuki’s choice of protection thus drew on personal connections within that world, even as the collaboration itself risked antagonizing one of its powerful organizations.

Backlash and Consequences

After the anthology appeared, Suzuki received the threatening phone calls that Adelstein did not have to handle directly. The book drew some notice, including a Shukan Jitsuwa article that portrayed Adelstein as a CIA agent or pawn, or as an ignorant American seeking publicity. The publication also encountered institutional resistance: Kodansha International withdrew the book after commissioning a risk assessment whose conclusion was unfavorable.

The book’s consequences extended beyond its reception. Around October 14, Goto was expelled from the Yamaguchi-gumi, and police told Adelstein that publication of Heisei Japan Taboo Compendium 2008 had been the tipping point. Several of Goto’s associates were also suspended, expelled, or permanently banished, while the Goto-gumi split into two crime families. The evidence does not assign Suzuki sole responsibility for those developments, but it places his decision to co-write the anthology within a publication that police identified as a decisive factor.