Tadamasa Goto's Liver Transplant Profiled: How Yakuza Boss Got New Liver At UCLA (VIDEO)

On Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a report by Lara Logan on the puzzling liver transplants received by Japan's top crime bosses at UCLA Medical Center. Between 2000 and 2004, four members of Japan's Yakuza, a "powerful organized crime syndicate," received liver transplants.

Despite a long list of patients in need, Tadamasa Goto, a man described as Japan's John Gotti, received a liver in just six weeks after cutting a deal with the FBI. Logan explains how a man who shouldn't have been allowed into the US received top-notch medical care--perhaps at the expense of innocent Americans.

During Logan's report, fascinating details Yakuza culture emerge.

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Comments

[jsijason]

Money talks.

[mapleaforever]

The poor walk.

[Balzac]

Also, the reporter may have been a bit too accusatory of the venerable Tadamasa Goto. It was probably the United States as an occupier who instilled in people's minds the idea that Yakuza were organized criminals. As far as I'm concerned, they're simply "organized power" in a traditional Japanese cultural context, which is worthy of institutional recognition and respect for privacy.

It seems like the reporter has married into a Japanese society, or else he'd probably take his family away from Japan. I'm guessing his wife is Japanese. If that is the case, maybe he can make amends with Tadamasa Goto to resolve this situation.

In exchange for not vilifying the Yakuza, who are bearers of ancient Japanese traditions, there should be reliable self-regulation so that people who should not have to be afraid of retribution are not afraid.

This reporter is perhaps a little bit naive. Maybe he was wrong in his assessment of he information volunteered by Tadamasa. Maybe there was a problem of managing expectations here as well.

Was a Yakuza boss really expected to sing arias like he's on American Idol in exchange for living a little longer? These guys are already well-acquainted with death and they're not going to abandon their tradition to avoid death. It was a little bit of a hatchet job. But he still deserves to live free from fear. What is the solution?

[jakeadelstein]

Balzac-san,
I realize that you are trying to be balanced but let me say one thing at least, "Yakuza, who are bearers of ancient Japanese traditions" only holds true if human trafficking, blackmail, extortion, child pornography, and occassionally murder are "ancient Japanese traditions." Goto's claim to fame was that his crew attacked the film director Itami Juzo, in 1992, for making a movie that lampooned the yakuza and showed them to be the thugs they generally are. Five of his gang members slashed him up in front of his house. Loan sharking is another big industry for the yakuza and occassionally they hound people to death. Goto is on trial still for piddling real estate charges which stem from the fact that the TMPD couldn't pin the murder of real estate agent on him and had to go for lesser charges. His gang has driven trucks into businesses that won't pay protection money and thrown molotav cocktails into the houses of civilians who won't do his bidding.. A quick purvey of the Japanese news for any year will show yakuza involved in child prostitution, assault, drugs and any number of other unsavory acts. See www.japansubculture.com for more on his charming group. Crime resources has a translation of the National Police Agency report on the group. Or read the relevant sections of TOKYO VICE. These people are generally speaking simply tribal sociopaths and the exceptions to that are not the norm.

[Balzac]

I agree with your assessment that gang-leaders are essentially "tribal sociopaths".

The problem is that gang leaders are everywhere, infiltrating many prominent positions in society. The power of these cultures of personality is raw and real.

The video of the Yakuza ceremony reveals that they are the keepers of ancient tradition in Japan. I have not seen such a large and traditional, formal gathering of Japanese leaders prior to that event.

Tadamasa Goto needs to be reasonable here as well. He's choosing for himself a path which could lead to his own ruin.

Unlike your secret informant, he must show his face when he says there's no hit on you. It should be stopped because you're a family man and so is Tadamasa Goto.

At this point, it would be disastrous for Tadamasa Goto if you were attacked. That means you should fear Tadamasa's rivals more than Tadamasa, because it would be a convenient way for the next leader to ascend by getting rid of you both. Maybe a strategic reconciliation is in order.

[Balzac]

Maybe the stage is set for an in-person meeting where you can be assured directly that you're not on his list.

You've blown the story up beyond the scope any crime boss could contain it with a hit. Considering the attack on the other reporter, I would have to wonder who was really behind that attack.

Did Tadamasa really call for that? Did he really do that to his own reputation? If so, maybe there isn't any chance for reconciliation.

But regardless of all of this, you've done so much reporting, you don't even know who to be afraid of. I can understand your plight, having written a lot of choice words myself.

At least you didn't try to make a visit before letting everyone know who you were going to meet and who might have a motive to get rid of you. I propose an in-person meeting to reconcile if you think that Tadamasa can be worthy of your own personal trust.

If not, it's left between him and law enforcement. And you might want to take your family to a place you can all live together in the sun.

[Balzac]

This was a case where the UCLA medical center did not manage expectations well for the patients waiting for organs. This is right at the heart of the discussion of private vs for-profit medicine. Apparently, like the rest of the country, UCLA doesn't have a consensus on the private vs public medical issue.

There needs to be two separate cues for organ transplants - the public cue which has most of the available organs. In this case, it should not be first-come, first-serve, but other factors should be considered. It's ethical calculus. What about age? A kid verses an adult, for example? Who is the higher-priority? Who has a better prognosis? It's very complex, but it's necessary to consider all of this.

The other cue would be more like an auction to the highest bidder. This could raise money to make the public service better. The most important part of this is not to accept organs from non-consenting donors. No mystery organ donations!

[jakeadelstein]

I agree that it is unacceptable for four yakuza members, people who have made their living on the suffering of others, were given livers while more deserving Americans died. I know people have sufferered at their hands personally. I find it inexcusable and a travesty. I strongly doubt that these four, including Takeshita Saburo, Goto's financer and a loan shark once arrested for threatening to slice off the face of a debtor's daughter---should have ever received medical treatment on our shores.
However, that is not the fault of the FBI. The FBI just gave a Goto a visa and in return for that, they got some viable intelligence. Not everything they wanted.
The National Police Agency of Japan has refused for years to give the federal agencies information on yakuza bosses--such as their names, their DOB, their front companies. Keep in mind that the NPA has a list of over 80,000. The FBI without knowing those names finds it very difficult to keep yakuza out of the country or track them and their businesses within the United States. While the yakuza are not as barbaric, in general, as street gangs, they aren't something you want to take root in your country. They have infested the Japanese financial world so badly that the National Police Agency, in their 2007 whitepaper on crime, stated, "the inroads that organized crime (yakuza) have made into the financial markets threatens the very economic foundations of this country."

[wadenelson1]

UCLA! UCLA! UCLA!!!!!

[LeroyJenkins]

From the Mafia families to the Bin Ladens, the FBI has always been there to lend a helping hand

[Telemachus]

Don't forget the Nazis after WW2. Or was that the CIA? America has so many patriotic agencies giving aid and comfort to our enemies, I can't keep up.

[LeroyJenkins]

that was the OSS but yeah the CIA continued the grand tradition

[mapleaforever]

...with help from the Vatican.

[Monterey]

WOW Really I don't believe it??!!Crime boss gets life saving transplant. Probably because he is such an upstanding member of society. And don't forget all of his spawn that we will be taking care of too. The wives the hookers ect ect UCLA not surprised at this one. Another fine upstanding American institution.

[iridium53]

Golly, it would seem that everyone should rent Cabaret.

Money makes the world go 'round.

[Morganster]

Meanwhile, my best friend, a September 11th Emergency Responder, who became critically ill as a result of doing rescue work at the World Trade Center, died at the age of 40 while awaiting a new liver.

[wadenelson1]

No big deal really. USA also treated Osama bin Ladin to a set of new kidneys.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bin_laden_treated_us_hospital.html

[HekmabaJuzimax]

"...the French newspaper asserted CIA-bin Laden links stretched back years, and appeared to suggest bin Laden gave the agency information regarding future terrorist strikes."

OR, the agency gave bin Laden information on how to carry out a future attack, which they had been planning for many years. In exchange, they gave him kidneys from a law abiding citizen.

[FrTown]

OR, they planned and executed everything and asked his kindness to lend his name to the whole operation and take the fall.

[FrTown]

That's because OBL is a See Eye Aye employee

[KataVideo]

Good report, although I think some of it came from KInji Fukasaku movies.. That bit of "ancient rituals" is something of a "mysterious, inscrutable asian" cliche. The Yakuza as we know it today only goes back to the 1940's and 50's. Any "rituals" that the old guys practice today were appropriated from 20th century Shinto. Only the old guys still have massive tattoos, and there's practically no finger-chopping going on since the 80's.
But otherwise, good report.

[kareemachan]

No, the yakuza have been around longer than that.

'Despite uncertainty about the single origin of Yakuza organizations, most modern Yakuza derive from two classifications which emerged in the mid-Edo Period: tekiya, those who primarily peddled illicit, stolen or shoddy goods; bakuto, those who were involved in or participated in gambling.' ( Edo Period was from 1603 to 1868.)

[1differentdrummer]

Was this professional courtesy from the Bush crime syndicate to the Yakuza?

[IssuesInFocus]

When I saw this on "60 minutes" last night I was sick to my stomach.
Now we understand how terrorists and others of his ilk come into the country and later are able to create havoc. Money is used to put a criminal before the needs of hard working American citizens. Each day I question our value system I have long held as my guiding light, but increasingly I see clearly that everything is moving in the opposite direction-- right is wrong... and everything wrong is acceptable. No wonder the younger generation are so cynical-- there is nothing in the social/political order that speaks to "decency/ doing the right thing."
The joke, we talk about showing the rest of world how to live. Yet courtesy and what that means never, begins at HOME.

[totaldisbelief]

your eyes are opening ,Grasshopper.

[Clownbaby]

Even foreign criminals know that the health care system isn't as bad as regressives make it out to be. A system that needs serious, free market reform, but not terrible. Why didn't he go to Europe for this procedure?

[Kiri sute gomen]

Maybe they have ethics?

[Veri]

If you have the money... you go to the head of the line. If you don't? Die.

[pipetoe]

That will never change...

[1differentdrummer]

There the Yakuza would have been kept out by law enforcement.

[JOHNROGER909]

This is the free market at work. The market has no morals. If you are a rich kil.ler or ch.ild mol.ester, you go to the front of the line.

[stanblack]

Disturbing, but, is anyone surprised our health care system awards those with tons of cash? Not I. This guy essentially bribed the executioner on the day of his execution. We should all be so lucky. Medicare for all now.

[PSM42]

What Me Worry? - Japanese Crime Lord Buys New Liver

He is not alone apparently.

MEMPHIS: WHERE STEVE JOBS GOES TO EAT HIS FELLOW AMERICANS, by Tal Sutsa - DISPATCH / AUGUST 24, 2009 - The Exiled - http://exiledonline.com/memphis-where-the-oligarchs-eat-their-fellow-americans/