The joys of having people wanting to kill you and other thoughts: ABC interview (Australia)
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on The Police Beat In Japan was released in Australia this month with a wonderfully bizarre cover–dead fish in an icebox. The title was also changed from An American Reporter to A Western Reporter On The Police Beat In Japan. I imagine the Hebrew edition, if it comes out in [...]
Thank You For The Kind Letters About TOKYO VICE (from Jake)
I’ve been heartened by a huge number of letters I’ve received in the last three weeks from people who read the book and were moved by it, inspired by it, appalled by it, and/or who felt they were wiser for reading it. I’ve tried to answer every letter I’ve gotten. If I haven’t answered yours, [...]
TOKYO VICE Reviewed In Japanese — Bloombergが東京ヴァイス （東京の性悪・米国人事件記者の警察回り体験記）を日本語で書評
Rocky Swift, a journalist at Bloomberg Tokyo, has posted a review of Tokyo Vice in both Japanese and English: 【書評】米国人元新聞記者がえぐり出す日本の闇社会 元読売新聞記者のジェイク・アデルスタイン氏の近著「トーキョー・バイス」は、居直ったヤクザから始末するぞと静かな脅しを掛かけられた著者が、たばこの煙をもくもくと上げながら取材戦略を練るシーンで始まる。 同書はアデルスタイン氏が警視庁記者クラブメンバーで唯一の米国人記者として連続殺人事件などを追いかけた12年間の取材の追想録で、ヤクザの中でも特に暴力的な勢力をかぎまわって窮地に陥るに至った経緯が描かれている。 「トーキョー･バイス」 に収められたのは、後藤忠正氏という病んだヤクザのボスと手下の３人がどうやって米当局のお膳立てで米国での肝臓移植手術にこぎつけたかを探ったアデルス タイン氏の調査報道の記録。今回の出版は結果的に、アデルスタイン氏の知名度を高め殺害を難しくしたため、この本は著者の救い主とも言える。 アデルスタイン氏は「ヤクザをムカつかせるようになる」前は上智大学の学生だった。ミズーリ州生まれの同氏はテレビ局や球団なども持つ日本の大手メディアの読売新聞の入社試験を気まぐれで受けたという。
NPR animates yakuza girlfriends, serial killers, and other exciting things
After Jake’s interview on NPR earlier this month, Thomas Dreisbach and other interns put their skills to work in editing a segment about Jake’s time covering the case of Gen Sekine, animal breeder turned serial killer in Saitama. It’s a fun, quick-and-dirty summary of “The Saitama Dog Lover Serial Disappearances, Part 1 & 2″ (pages [...]
2 Channel Devotes A Thread to Jake and Tokyo Vice
In one of the mind baffling things to happen of late, the popular Japanese internet BBS and forum, 2 channel, devoted a thread to me and the book. I suppose that I have fans in Japan and it also appears that I have a lot of people, some of them yakuza, who strongly dislike me. [...]