The Heat Detector

Short panchi paama (kinky-permed) hair, mustache, goatee, sideburns, a bright red, shiny satin jacket with a gold embroidered dragon, matching red polyester jersey pants and sandalsthis is classic yakuza garb. If you are unlucky enough to come across someone like this in Shinjuku's back alleys, the best advice is to avoid eye contact, hold your breath and keep walking.

But Masakazu Takei, who assumes the sartorial swagger of a Japanese gangster, is not someone to be feared. He is founder and president of Little More, a company that not only publishes hit novels, magazines and art and...