The Yakuza is a film written by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne and directed by Sydney Pollack, which examines Japan as seen from western eyes.

A big step forward from previous American films based in Japan, most notably Marlon Brando's The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) which cast Brando in "yellowface" as the Japanese character "Sakini" and Sayonara (1957), featuring Ricardo Montalban as the Japanese character "Nakamura".

Warner Bros paid Paul and his brother Leonard the then-record sum of $325,000.00 USD for their debut story, which would provide Paul his break into Hollywood and go on to pen the Scorsese classics Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980). Robert Aldrich was originally pegged to direct but Robert Mitchum, who had worked with Aldrich on the dismal The Angry Hills (1959), had him replaced by Pollack.