Tokyo Vice

An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

By: Jake Adelstein

Narrated by: Jake Adelstein

Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2009 Jake Adelstein (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Groundbreaking reporting on the yakuza. . . . Adelstein shares juicy, salty, and occasionally funny anecdotes, but many are frightening. . . . Adelstein doesn’t lack for self-confidence . . . but beneath the bravado are a big heart and a relentless drive for justice.”--The Boston Globe

“Gripping. . . . [Adelstein’s] vividly detailed account of investigations into the shadowy side of Japan shows him to be more enterprising, determined and crazy than most. . . . In some of the freshest pages of the book, our unlikely hero tells us about his initiation into the seamy, tough-guy Japan beneath the public courtesies,. . . . Adelstein builds his stories with as much surprise and grit as any Al Pacino or Mark Wahlberg movie, blurring the lines between the cops, the crooks and even the journalists. . . . Tokyo Vice is often so snappy and quotable that it sounds as if it were a treatment for a Scorsese movie set in Queens. Yet the facts beneath the noirish lines are assembled with what looks to be ferocious diligence and resourcefulness. For even as he is getting slapped around by thugs and placed under police protection, Adelstein never loses his gift for crisp storytelling and an unexpectedly earnest eagerness to try to rescue the damned.”—Pico Iyer, Time

"A journalist's memoir unlike any I've ever read."--Dave Davies, Fresh Air

Memoir, crime story and travelogue in one package

Perhaps I am predisposed toward this author because I am also a Jewish guy from Missouri. However, I have nowhere near the temerity that the author has, who became so fluent in Japanese that he became a reporter in Japan and ultimately winds up taking on the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia.
This book has the elements of a confessional memoir, with crime stories woven within, and an in-depth look at Japanese life and culture, all in one package. On the latter, it centers mostly on the seamier side of Japanese life and culture in its criminal and sex trade arenas.
Unlike another review I recall that did not like the author reading the text, I found it a very authentic reading that added something a professional reader may not have accomplished.
It is a riveting read and I highly recommend it.

Like the Japan I see

Many Japanese consider Japan to be the safest country in the world. This myth is apparently part of the social consciousness. Yet as Adelstein shows, the reason for this is the police activity itself is narrowly defined and police powers very limited. This gives the impression that Japan has a low crime rate. Other reviewers said that the narration was a problem. This made me think twice about purchasing this title. Don't! The narration is fine and the are only a few places in the 9 hours where the author speaks at speed but I would not have preferred a voice actor.

Adelstein's achievements as a reporter in the context of Japan are noteworthy in themselves. But he has achieved much more than just reporting as this work will tell. I also found some useful clips on Youtube to look at with the author.

I gave it five stars as it is a great true story, well told, but has social impact that really makes this an ongoing tale.

Fascinating Story Poorly Narrated by Author

I give this book 5 stars for content, but the author's amateurish narration only gets 1-2. On the plus side, I found this true story told by a skillful (and admittedly somewhat foolhardy) American working as a first time reporter in Japan engrossing. The author takes you inside the workings of Japanese journalism, culture, and the operations of yakuza organized crime syndicates. Mr Adelstein is often brutally honest about himself. His brave reporting of Yakuza exploitation in the face of personal risk is a public service. I found the content of the book both educational and dramatically engaging in the way one would hope from this kind of expose. Unfortunately, the author is a much better writer than narrator of spoken word audio. In my past, I produced hundreds books on tape for national publishers. I learned the hard way that authors, unless they also happen to be actors or professional broadcasters, seldom are any good at reading their own material because narrating and writing are two entirely different skills. Mr. Adelstein's reedy, sotto vocce narration style is just plain amateurish and sometimes hard to understand, especially at "faster" speed on my Ipod. He often falls into a repetitively droning rising and falling cadence that has little to do with the dramatic content of each sentence. He does not enunciate very clearly and occasionally swallows words. This book would have been much more enjoyable if it had been read by an experienced professional narrator who could really bring out the dramatic sense of the work. I suspect the audio publisher figured they could save time and money in the recording studio because the author would know the correct pronunciation of Japanese names and expressions. It was not worth the trade off. The result is barely adequate -- just acceptable enough to get me through the book. I did not listen to the sample recording under the Audible listing. I suggest you do so before downloading this book.

Great book that reveals the underground of Japan

This book is a full of surprises and wonders even for a Japanese like me, exposing the details of all the hidden aspects of Japanese underground cultures like sex industries, organized crimes, foreign workers, and so many others. These things you only hear from rumors, low profile weekly magazines or yellow evening news papers. Now they are all uncovered by a former prestigious Yomiuri reporter Jake Adelstein, who I would like to call "Henna gaijin (a weird foreigner)" with a sense of great respect as he dared to stick into the things that most Japaneses try to avoid even mentioning.
I have lived in/near Tokyo in most of 90's and 00's, and am kind of familiar with most of the news stories covered in this book through TVs and newspapers. But, I learned they are totally different from inside. For example, in the case with Saitama dog-lover serial murders, the connection between the breeder and an organized crime group was barely mentioned on Japanese TVs and major newspapers. Other things as well.
The narration by the author gives vividness to the scenes and to the tone of the voices of the people in the book. Although it is not of professional, I found I am kind of fond of it.
Great work, no doubt.

Wow...Most Annoying Voice Ever

This guy cannot talk properly, speaks too fast and voice seems to croak / crack every other sentence.

Get the book instead, not this audio version.

Excellent, gripping and introspective

Jake Adelstein has written and narrated a tremendous book detailing his time as a newspaper crime reporter and freelance crime journalist in Japan. He is probably one of the most knowledgeable Westerners on topics like the Yakuza and Japanese red-light districts, and to listen to a book which 1) expounds in great detail on such interesting subjects and 2) is quite entertaining is a sheer pleasure.

The author's narration is also excellent, not at all "over the top" as I have had to suffer through with many other audiobooks. In the end, it is Adelstein's honesty (both about his own inner thoughts and actions and the identities and places featured) that caused me to rate this book 5+ stars.

Out of 20 books in my Audible library, a handful deserve 5 stars. Only three deserve 5+ (the others are Snowball and The Greatest Trade Ever) because I was compelled to listen for 1+ hours/day.

One of the best news/true crime experiences

Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice is one of the best non-fiction pieces on the life of a foreign reporter working the Tokyo crime beat in the 1990s-2000s. As a bonus, he also happens to be a great narrator, delivering the book in a conversational tone that makes it easy to follow and comprehend Japanese vocabulary. For fans of "People Who Eat Darkness" this offers another perspective on the Lucy Blackmon case from someone who was on the ground covering it when it happened. A fascinating journey. Hopefully, Adelstein will do more narration.

Engrossing

A highly enjoyable audiobook. The author really captures what it's like being an American reporter at a Japanese newspaper. The stories Adelstein writes about are always fascinating, scary and heartbreaking. A terrific read. My one complaint would be that the author sometimes reads the text too quickly and isn't really trained in voicing audiobooks. Once you get used to his cadence, though, it's just fine.

half org. sociology, half crime story

Tokyo Vice starts off as a dry, but fascinating organizational study of the Japanese media and work culture, appealing to any amateur sociologist. Slowly it ramps up to a shocking survey of Japan's seedier side: Yakuza crime, murder, and human trafficking. Mr. Adelstein's vivid portrayal both drew me closer to, and alienated me from, the Tokyo I thought I knew. His reading is compelling. Though he isn't a professional it was a treat to hear the real emotion in his voice as he discussed the events that happened to him as his life was endangered by the type of reporting he was conducting. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Japan, crime reporting, and the Yakuza mythos.

Good take on the darker sides of Japanese culture

I was a gaijin living in Tokyo just as the author was starting his remarkable and improbable run as the first foreign reporter at the Yomiuri Shinbum. It’s a great and unflinching take on the many aspects of Japan that get overlooked. For anyone interested in really understanding Japan, the observations of a crime reporter are a great way to delve into that.

The only criticism is the author is not a good reader of his book. He speaks way too fast and his diction slurs at times that in parts I slowed the recording down to 0.9x speed!