Today I finished Tokyo Vice, recommended by Mark Yuasa on the Omnigamers Club Podcast.

Tokyo Vice is a memoir by Jake Adelstein. As a young adult, he moved to Japan and managed to land a job at the prestigious Yomiuri Shinbun, the first gaijin (foreigner) to do so. The book covers over a decade of his experience reporting on the police beat, and eventually covering the Vice squad, bringing him face to face with Japan’s human trafficking and prostitution rings.

One of the main reasons I choose to read memoirs, is to get a glimpse of lives and experiences that are wholly different from my own, and Tokyo Vice fills that requirement wonderfully. Adelstein tells wild stories that I (thankfully) have never come across in my own life. I can’t help but respect Adelstein for having the courage to move to Japan and live in a culture so different from the one he was born and raised in.

The stories he shares often highlight his own incompetence, either real, or acted out. Adelstein uses his foreigner-ness to get away with plenty of acts that other people would be punished for, such as crossing police tape after a massive shooting.

As Mark mentioned in his podcast, there are some criticisms, accusing Adelstein of embellishing his stories, but I don’t think that matters to me very much. I didn’t read Tokyo Vice expecting an objective reporting of facts, this is his story to tell, and he can tell it how he wants. I appreciate that throughout the book, Adelstein rarely made himself out to be a big damn hero, smarter and stronger than everyone else. Instead, a lot of his stories focus on how lucky he was, or how often he made blunders.

I’m reminded that Frank McCourt’s book, Angela’s Ashes, also was the subject to a fair amount of criticisms from the residents of Limerick, saying his book was not an accurate portrayal of life in the city. On some level, I assume those slinging criticisms are stung when someone speaks badly about something they adore. In the case of Tokyo Vice, and the events Adelstein depicts, I am wholly ignorant. Sure, I’ve watched a lot of anime, and I knew of some of the words and places Adelstein references, like Yakuza and Ikebukuro, but I have no real understanding about the places or the culture surrounding it. I do know a lot of people have very fond memories and ideas about Japan and its culture, and Adelstein’s stories about the sex trade and how women are exploited, run afoul of their love for the country as a whole, especially when he calls Japan the king of the sex traffic trade. I may be completely off base in my assumption, but hey, I’m just an ignorant dude with a keyboard. 

I found it utterly infuriating when Adelstein tries talking to the police about the women who were being trafficked in Japan. The cops can’t or won’t take action, because if any of the women come forward, they have to be arrested, as they are often in Japan on a tourist visa, or otherwise in the country illegally, so, they must be deported. By imprisoning and deporting the victims, they are unable to build a reliable case against those harming others. A vicious circle that requires laws to change, and while the cops aren’t the ones writing the laws, it is frustrating when the letter of the law runs afoul against the spirit of the justice system and prevents victims from receiving any kind of help. Now, Tokyo Vice was originally published in 2009, so it’s entirely possible that things have changed in the past 15 years, perhaps my next reading assignment will be to see how things have changed, I see Adelstein published Tokyo Noir in 2004, perhaps that book will answer my questions.

I will say that I’m becoming increasingly less keen on Authors reading their own books. Adelstein did a good job narrating his story, and having his voice deliver his tale is a unique and intimate experience, but there were a few moments where I felt like his cadence was off, or a joke didn’t land quite right. I had a similar experience when I listened to Deryck Whibley from Sum 41 read his book, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell. Juxtapose Whibley and Adelstein’s books against Bill Gates’ recent book, Source Code, read by Wil Wheaton. Gates’ book was much less interesting, and dare I say, pretty boring, but Wil’s voice acting and reading was much more enjoyable.

Tokyo Vice was a compelling book. While I don’t usually seek out cop or crime stories (unless it’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine), I thoroughly enjoyed Adelstein’s story, and it made me appreciate those who do the work to bring these stories to the light. For every Lucie Blackman, whose disappearance makes the news, there are hundreds more that just simply don’t. Without people to shake the cages of the establishment, who knows what kind of filth would be swept under the carpet, even more than what is already overlooked. While Tokyo Vice doesn’t offer a neat resolution or profound philosophical takeaway, that absence feels honest to the world Adelstein describes, messy, unresolved, and often frustrating. Tokyo Vice is a series of glimpses into the shadows, each story shedding light on people and systems we’d often rather pretend don’t actually exist. I walked away with a deeper respect for those who keep shining that light, even when the job offers little glory and even less closure.

I’ll also include a link to Jake’s website, Japan Subculture if you’re interested in the stories he continues to tell
https://www.japansubculture.com/