Martina Baradel is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University. She is a sociologist specialising in organised crime, with a particular focus on the Japanese yakuza and the relationship between criminal organisations, the state, and society.

Her research examines Japanese organised crime, in particular the yakuza, exploring how criminal groups establish authority, govern illicit markets, and adapt to changing legal, political, and economic environments. Her work investigates the role of the yakuza in contemporary Japanese society, the norms, rituals, and practices that shape the organisation and identity of its syndicates, and the consequences of increasingly restrictive legislation and exclusionary policies for criminal organisations in Japan.

She is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant for CrimCross, a five-year research project examining how organised criminal groups overcome cultural, linguistic, and legal barriers when expanding into foreign territories. Focusing on the yakuza’s interactions with criminal groups in East and Southeast Asia, the project investigates how criminal organisations establish connections across borders, communicate across cultural and linguistic boundaries, and adapt to unfamiliar legal and social environments.

Baradel is the author of "21st-Century Yakuza: Death of Japanese Organised Crime" (Oxford University Press, 2026) and several academic articles on the yakuza. She has also published books for a wider audience, including "Yakuza Blues" (Rizzoli, 2025), currently being translated into several languages, and "Sette Donne Fuori Posto" (forthcoming, ADD Editore). Her work and expertise have been featured in The Guardian, BBC, Netflix, ARTE, South China Morning Post, The Washington Times, The World, New York Magazine, CNA, Chora Media, and ProSieben.

Research interests: Yakuza, organised crime, Japan