Tokyo Vice
An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
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4.4 • 144 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NOW A MAX ORIGINAL SERIES. A riveting true-life tale of newspaper noir and Japanese organized crime from an American investigative journalist who "pulls the curtain back on ... [an] element of Japanese society that few Westerners ever see" (San Francisco Examiner).
Jake Adelstein is the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, where for twelve years he covered the dark side of Japan: extortion, murder, human trafficking, fiscal corruption, and of course, the yakuza. But when his final scoop exposed a scandal that reverberated all the way from the neon soaked streets of Tokyo to the polished Halls of the FBI and resulted in a death threat for him and his family, Adelstein decided to step down. Then, he fought back.
In Tokyo Vice he delivers an unprecedented look at Japanese culture and searing memoir about his rise from cub reporter to seasoned journalist with a price on his head.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young Japanese-schooled Jewish-American who worked as a journalist at Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun during the 1990s, debut author Adelstein began with a routine, but never dull, police beat; before long, he was notorious worldwide for engaging the dirtiest, top-most villains of Japan's organized criminal underworld, the yakuza. A pragmatic but sensitive character, Adelstein's worldview takes quite a beating during his tour of duty; thanks to his immersive reporting, readers suffer with him through the choice between personal safety and a chance to confront the evil inhabiting his city. He learns that "what matters is the purity of the information, not the person providing it," considers personal and societal theories behind Tokyo's illicit and semi-illicit pastimes like "host and hostess clubs," where citizens pay for the illusion of intimacy: "The rates are not unreasonable, but the cost in human terms are incredibly high." Adelstein also examines the investigative reporter's tendency to withdraw into cynicism ("when a reporter starts to cool down, it's very hard... ever to warm up again") but faithfully sidesteps that urge, producing a deeply thought-provoking book: equal parts cultural expos , true crime, and hard-boiled noir.
Customer Reviews
Brilliantly written!
What a riveting read. Really enjoyed this in depth look at the underworld in Japan. Living here in Osaka as a foreigner and reading the news everyday, I can only laugh at those reviewers who consider his book a work of fiction. I commend his work that must have been so hard on him and his family, mentally and physically, and I applaud his courage to expose these creatures of the underworld who cause nothing but pain and suffering. One of the best reads in a while. Thank you Jake!
Vice
A wonderful account,with western perspective, of becoming a journalist in Japan as a outsider. Great read. hard to put down,and easy to think about when not reading.