Whiting's research into the ties binding Japan's leading politicians to yakuza bosses gained him entrée into the Higashi Nakano wing of Tokyo's largest criminal gang, the Sumiyoshi-kai, where he became an "informal advisor." .
He worked for Encyclopædia Britannica Japan as an editor until 1972, until in his words, he "got bored of being a gaijin" and moved to New York City, where he wrote his first book, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat.