Nexus - 1504 - New Times Magazine-pages

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BF: Well, two ways. I took a two-month intensive course at BF: And I remembered. There was a guy, for example, who the University of British Columbia before coming, and then I wrote about how the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect was importing arrived in Japan. I spent three days at a Japanese school and I amphetamines from North Korea and selling them to the Goto said: "This is useless." I got a job as a bartender in a bar run by Gang. He disappeared after writing a few articles like that. a gangster. It was from 9 pm to 5 am. It was the sort of place KC: Has he ever been found? where they had fights and sometimes people come in naked— BF: No. Ohno. A whole bunch of 'em disappeared. And a kind of the lowest level of Japan you could find, basically. But lot of the Japanese journalists told me: "The only reason you're the good thing about the bartending job for learning the language still alive is because you're a white guy. If we tried to write that is that drunks keep saying the same thing over and over again, so same kind of stuff, we'd be dead." So I knew there were some eventually you pick it up! dangerous people. By the way, this gangster guy, when I told KC: So do you write Japanese at all? Can you read it? him about the liver transplant thing, finally said: "Look, I won't BF: I've written, I think, over a dozen books in Japanese, be able to talk to you again if you write that story." And I many of them best-sellers. thought: "Okay. This guy is a very senior source and he has KC: Oh, right. Are your books available in English? given me a lot of valuable information and I don't want to lose BF: No. No. I deliberately switched to Japanese a few years this connection over one story." So I decided not to write the ago, after I left Forbes, because I knew that I was dealing with story, but it was a very, kind of, bad atmosphere. something dangerous and I didn't quite understand what it was. I remember being Japanese gangsters, Chechen warned, for example, by Makiko Tanaka, bodyguards the former Foreign Minister, and the BF: Then I flew off to Sakhalin, in Who was taken down in the Lockheed |, PR@FE WAS @QUY, | ei the oil and gas now, to doa story scandal. She told us: "Hey, if you start for example, who The local representative of this gang was looking into this stuff, you're going to get waiting for me and he took me around. I killed." So I knew that there was something wrote about how the was taken to a giant casino with about 400 very dangerous but I didn't know exactly Aum Shinrikyo Chechens standing outside. It was like what it was. So I kind of went underground inl something in the movies. They all had guns, and started writing in Japanese. religious sect was you know, and they were hired by the Bill Ryan (BR): What was the stuff that importing Japanese gang as bodyguards for their you were starting to get into which you were A casinos. warned about? amphetamines KC: Chechens? from North Korea and selling them to the Goto Gang. He disappeared after writing a few articles like that." BF: When I was at Forbes I had already written several stories about the Yakuza, the gangsters, and I got lots of death threats as a result. The Moscow Bureau Chief for Forbes, Paul Klebnikov, was shot 10 times outside of his house and taken to the hospital and put into the elevator. The elevator stopped for eight minutes. That's where he died. KC: Wow! What year was this? BF: Five or six years ago, I think. And around that time, some people from the Osaka newspaper and CBS television came to me and said that the BF: Chechens, yeah. Working for Japanese gangsters. There's a lot of stuff going on that you just don't see on the surface. In Asia, you'll find that there's no real line between gangsters and government. It's all a continuum. So you can almost think of these gangsters as... KC: Well, some would say that's true, you know [Kerry laughs], in the US and Russia, and... BF: Sure. In the US...parts of the CIA are basically organised crime in what they're doing. In large part they're honest people trying to defend their head of the Goto crime syndicate was in UCLA Berkeley country, but there are groups in there, as we all know...they University Hospital, getting a liver transplant. Now, this raised a smuggle drugs and do all sorts of criminal stuff. lot of interesting questions. What is a known gangster and So I'm sitting in this "club", and this guy is sitting beside me. criminal doing getting a visa to the US? And why is a 70-year- He's not like the one I knew in Tokyo, who was like a high-level old guy like that getting bumped to the top of a long waiting list businessman. This guy is a little thug, dangerous, not a nice guy. for liver transplants? So I start thinking: "Well, maybe he's And he's very, very tense. I say: "Listen, I wanna go home." He doing some work for the CIA or something." I was going to says: "No, no, you can't. You're going to be killed or something, write this up in Forbes. right?" And I realised I was being set up. I was being set up for Before that, I called up a very senior gangster source I knew a hit! So I think quickly. I point to these two oil men and say: and told him about this. And he said: "Hey, if you write that, "You're gonna have to worry about yourself. See those guys? you're going to get turned into fish paste." "What? I don't They're CIA and they're guarding me. Plus, I have a file that will respond to threats," I said, and you never threaten. I said: "I'ma go public if anything happens to me, that names names and puts well-known journalist. If you kill me, it'll cause a lot of trouble." you all in jail." It was total bluff, okay? I didn't have any such "We won't kill you, we'll just disappear you. Say goodnight to file, and these guys were just oil men, but, you know, what could your girlfriend, and that's it. You'll never be seen again." And ldo? then he named a couple of journalists who disappeared. And the guy just gets up like a rocket with the phone. And I KC: Oh, man. pick up my phone and I call the gang boss and say: "I'm not here BF: And I remembered. There was a guy, for example, who wrote about how the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect was importing amphetamines from North Korea and selling them to the Goto Gang. He disappeared after writing a few articles like that. KC: Has he ever been found? BF: No. Ohno. A whole bunch of 'em disappeared. And a lot of the Japanese journalists told me: "The only reason you're still alive is because you're a white guy. If we tried to write that same kind of stuff, we'd be dead." So I knew there were some dangerous people. By the way, this gangster guy, when I told him about the liver transplant thing, finally said: "Look, I won't be able to talk to you again if you write that story." And I thought: "Okay. This guy is a very senior source and he has given me a lot of valuable information and I don't want to lose this connection over one story." So I decided not to write the story, but it was a very, kind of, bad atmosphere. "There was a guy, for example, who wrote about how the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect was importing amphetamines from North Korea and selling them to the Goto Gang. He disappeared after writing a few articles like that." 12 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2008 www.nexusmagazine.com