The Public Eye: Jake Adelstein - Tokyo Vice

Jake Adelstein is the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, and with TOKYO VICE: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Pantheon Books/October 13, 2009/$26.00), we have his firsthand, revelatory
look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.

At nineteen, Jake went to Japan in search of peace and tranquility. But he quickly worked his way from student to crime reporter for the prestigious Japanese-language Yomiuri Shinbun. For twelve years of 80-hour work weeks, he covered the seedy side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking, and corruption are more prevalent than we would imagine, given that Japan is one of the safest countries in the world to live. When his final scoop brought him face to face with one of Japan’s most infamous yazuka bosses—and with it the threat of death for him and his family—Adelstein decided to step down from the newspaper. But he did fight back, and
got that story told.

TOKYO VICE tells a riveting, often humorous tale of Adelstein’s journey 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 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.