The Outsider

In 1954, nine years after the pacific war, Nick Lowell is the only non-Japanese inmate in an Osaka prison. Most of his fellow inmates are yakuza criminals, recognizable by their irezumi tattoos. Nick saves a yakuza named Kiyoshi from being hanged to death; the Shiromatsu, a yakuza clan to which Kiyoshi belongs, repays his debt by arranging Nick's release. He is also offered a job: Anthony Panetti, an American businessman with a deep hatred for the Japanese, has refused to negotiate a deal with the Shiromatsu but has agreed to a deal with a different clan, the Seizu, because they sent an American negotiator. Nick goes to speak with him, but ends up violently beating Panetti on the head with a typewriter just a minute into the conversation instead, assuring Kiyoshi that he'll reconsider.