Tokyo Vice
An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
Ratings18
Average rating3.5
15
An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
Ratings18
Average rating3.5
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.From the Hardcover edition.
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I will be honest, I find many journalists are full of themselves and have some sort of a god complex. At some point I felt Adelstein is one of said journalists.
In the early 90s he moved to Japan, went to university and then ended up working for the biggest newspaper of the country. This was the part I enjoyed the most. A young guy, not really knowing what he was doing and having to deal with a culture he wasn't perfectly familiar with, ending up in hilarious and weird situations. At one point Jake gets caught up in a fistfight at a company party. I mean, I never expected Japanese journalists to be so wild.
Then, as his career progresses, he starts working on covering the vice division of the Tokyo police. Surprise surprise, it's all connected to the yakuza, who also don't like people meddling in their affairs. Things get dark and dangerous for Jake as he uncovers things that connect the yakuza even to the US.
I don't think you are meant to like Jake too much as a person. He has certain characteristics that can be admired, but he is also very limited in certain areas. His drive is insane. He also sounds like he is really in love with himself and a lot of the things he does is because he likes hearing his own voice. I don't think he is malicious, but he is not saintly.
One person I wish I could have met was Mr. Sekiguchi, a police officer who was a friend and mentor for Jake. I don't know how accurate his portrayal was, but I feel the way the author talked about him was the purest and most honest. I can appreciate that and he sounded like one hell of a person. Again, maybe it's Mr. Adelstein being extremely biased, but he was one of the shining stars of the book.
Now I will say something that may sound mean. One of the main points of the book is how multiple yakuza bosses got liver transplants at the UCLA. Tadamasa Goto was allowed to enter the US because he provided info on other yakuza members to the FBI (and also money). The others supposedly just donated money.
I refuse to believe the doctors and the administration of UCLA had no idea the sophisticated and extremely rich, heavily tattooed foreign men arriving with secrecy and personal protection were connected to illicit things. The yakuza is so iconic, even my backwater Eastern European self would have known these people were something bigger than just old dudes needing a liver real quick.
In that sense I don't know why those people should be held to a lower standard of responsibility when it comes to collaborating with the yakuza. In Japan they are in all sorts of business, from politics to entertainment. Yes. That's not good. But a university just taking money and then still pretending they are some high and mighty establishment for education and social progress sickens me.
Another interesting thing about this was how... certain things seemed to be part of Japanese culture that everyone knew were about you getting your way, but everyone still accepted them as a polite thing. By that I mean the way journalists went around being all buddy buddy with cops, to get info. Could you sit around accepting snacks from another person, spending time together on a regular basis when you knew it was to get things out of you? I don't know how I would handle that.
All in all, it was an interesting read, though to me mostly at the beginning. I don't know if I could buy Jake Adelstein as an honest knight in shining armor.
