Tokyo Vice

Tokyo Vice
a Western reporter on the police beat in Japan
Jake Adelstein

'Mr. Adelstein's book expertly melds classic writing about the police beat — replete with its public corpses, clean or rotten cops, smoky rooms and gangsters who eventually seek redemption — with a candid journalistic memoir that details this profession's moral and mental dilemmas. At the center is a complex protagonist — both jaded and emotionally deep — whose drive and positive impact win respect as he offers, perhaps, something as rare and fascinating as a black pearl, namely the most compelling insider's expose yet of Japan's opaque society.'
(Washington Times)

'Jake Edelstein's account of his time as a crime reporter for a major Tokyo newspaper reads like a novel … Fascinating glimpse of a strange world by a talented storyteller.'
Bill Perrett (The Age, non-fiction 'Pick of the Week')

'an audacious and fascinating account of crime and the symbiotic relationship between the police, gangland and politicians.'
(Herald Sun)

From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, here is a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.

At the age of 19, Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquillity. What he got was a life of crime … crime reporting, that is, at the prestigious Yomiuri Shimbun. For twelve years of eighty-hour work weeks, 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 with 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 transformation from an inexperienced cub reporter to a daring investigative journalist with a price on his head. With its vivid, visceral descriptions of crime in Japan and candid 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.

Author: Jake Adelstein 

Publisher: Scribe

Released Date: 2010

ISBN: 9781921640285