Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

About this book

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 Japans most infamous yakuza bossand the threat of death for him and his familyAdelstein 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 reporterwho made rookie mistakes like getting into a martial-arts battle with a senior editorto 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.