His friends joke it is a miracle Jake Adelstein made it to 55. The former newspaper crime reporter and expert on Japan’s notorious crime gangs, called the yakuza, lived for years under Tokyo police protection. He survived death threats, beatings, health scares and years of hard drinking and smoking with the cops and crime bosses inhabiting Tokyo’s seedy underworld.

While he is wary of romanticising crime figures, Adelstein says he is actually writing about family loyalty, friendship and a group of people bound by a code of honour. And this is what fascinates audiences.