Jake Adelstein

An American journalist offers a unique, firsthand look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up, recounting his time as a crime reporter covering the seedy side of Japanese society.

An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

Tokyo Vice

'Sacred, ferocious, and businesslike, Adelstein describes the Japanese mafia like nobody else' Roberto Saviano, on Tokyo Vice Makoto Saigo is half-American and half-Japanese in small-town Japan with a set of talents limited to playing guitar and picking fights. With rock stardom off the table, he turns toward the only place where you can start from the bottom and move up through sheer merit, loyalty, and brute force - the yakuza. Saigo, nicknamed "Tsunami", quickly realizes that even within the organization, opinions are as varied as they come, and a clash of philosophies can quickly become deadly. One screw-up can cost you your life, or at least a finger. The internal politics of the yakuza are dizzyingly complex, and between the ever-shifting web of alliances and the encroaching hand of the law that pushes them further and further underground, Saigo finds himself in the middle of a defining decades-long battle that will determine the future of the yakuza. Written with the insight of an expert on Japanese organized crime and the compassion of a longtime friend, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein presents a sprawling biography of a yakuza, through post-war desperation, to bubble-era optimism, to the present. Including a cast of memorable yakuza bosses - Coach, The Buddha, and more - this is a story about the rise and fall of a man, a country, and a dishonest but sometimes honorable way of life on the brink of being lost.

A Life in the Japanese Underworld

The Last Yakuza

Operation Tropical Storm

The Passenger – Giappone

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.

a Western reporter on the police beat in Japan

Jake Adelstein en a bien conscience : il ne s'en sortira pas vivant sans aide. Après avoir écrit un article sur Tadamasa Goto, il a tout le Yamaguchi-gumi à ses trousses. Partant du vieux principe selon lequel « les ennemis de mes ennemis sont mes amis », Jake Adelstein engage un ancien yakuza, Saigo, qui appartenait à la branche ennemie de Goto. En échange ? Jake doit écrire la biographie de son protecteur. À partir de la vie de cet homme qui a connu l'âge d'or des yakuzas, Jake Adelstein dresse une fresque épique de la mafia japonaise, des années 1960 à nos jours. C'est Le Parrain au pays du Soleil-Levant, cela commence sur fond de tatouages sophistiqués et se termine dans les milieux de la finance. Entre-temps, les yakuzas ont perdu leur sens de l'honneur.

Le Dernier des Yakuzas

Een onthullend boek over de Japanse onderwereld, een wereld met geheel eigen codes en regels, geschreven door een Amerikaanse topverslaggever die jarenlang in Japan woonde. Hoe herken je een lid van de yakuza? Welke codes gelden er? Hoe machtig is de Japanse maffia? In dit boek vertelt Jake Adelstein het allemaal, en meer. Op zijn negentiende vertrok Adelstein naar Japan. Hij begon als stagiair bij een van de grootste kranten van Japan, maar kwam al snel in vaste dienst en werkte twaalf jaar lang, tachtig uur in de week. In die jaren bracht Adelstein de onderkant van de Japanse maatschappij in beeld, een onderkant waar afpersing, moord, mensenhandel en corruptie net zulk gemeengoed zijn als sushi en sake. Maar Adelstein brandt zijn handen: wanneer hij te diep graaft in het leven van yakuza-baas Goto Tadamasa, zet die een prijs op het hoofd van Adelstein en diens familie. Dat is het moment waarop hij een stap terug moet doen om later terug te kunnen vechten.

Jake Adelstein

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