The Devil Takes Bitcoin: Uncovering the Intersection of Japan, Crime, and Cryptocurrency

Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993, writing in Japanese and English. He authored Tokyo Vice (now an HBO series), The Last Yakuza (2023), and Tokyo Noir (2024). He co-hosted the award-winning podcast The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods. A recognized expert on Japan’s organized crime, he’s reported for The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, Tempura, and VICE. He is also a low-ranking Zen Buddhist priest, trying hard to be kinder and occasionally exorcising hungry ghosts. Adelstein frequently appears as a commentator on Japanese crime and culture, working as a writer and consultant. William W. Grimes is Professor of International Relations & Political Science at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He is the author of Unmaking the Japanese Miracle (Cornell University Press, 2001) and Currency and Contest in East Asia (Cornell University Press, 2009), which was awarded the 2010 Masayoshi Ohira Prize for outstanding book on the Pacific Basin and Honorable Mention for the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Book Award in 2009. He has published articles, book chapters, monographs, and commentary on East Asian financial regionalism, the impacts of financial globalization in Japan, Japanese monetary policy making, US-Japan relations, and related topics.

When 3:00 pm - 4:45 pm on 8 November 2025
Building Boston University Rajen Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA