Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Unabridged)
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club: a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.
At nineteen, Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquility. What he got was a life of crime . . . crime reporting, that is, at the prestigious Yomiuri Shinbun. For twelve years of eighty-hour workweeks, he covered the seedy side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking, and corruption are as familiar as ramen noodles and sake. But when his final scoop brought him face to face with Japan’s most infamous yakuza boss—and the threat of death for him and his family—Adelstein decided to step down . . . momentarily. Then, he fought back.
In Tokyo Vice, Adelstein tells the riveting, often humorous tale of his journey from an inexperienced cub reporter—who made rookie mistakes like getting into a martial-arts battle with a senior editor—to a daring, investigative journalist with a price on his head. With its vivid, visceral descriptions of crime in Japan and an exploration of the world of modern-day yakuza that even few Japanese ever see, Tokyo Vice is a fascination, and an education, from first to last.
Customer Reviews
A High 4, Close 5
It was a good listen. Adelstein narrates it and his voice was pleasant to listen to. The stories are both independent and interconnected and the narrator does a good job keeping the reader on track. Learned so much about elements of Japanese culture that are unknown to an outsider. The only issue I had was that there were moments I got a little lost making the connections the author does, but the book gets you back soon enough, so I guess there isn’t really anything wrong with that.