Japan + Journalism...Sheer Jenius

Just wrapped up "Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan" by Jake Adelstein which I blew through during the past three days. What a whopper of the true-life adventure of the intrepid gaijin reporter who broke through the no-foreign-reporter glass ceiling at the Yomiuri Shinbun in the 1990s.

Being an ex-reporter myself (just boring city-council stuff and fluffy features...), and having experience living in the same country, it was a fascinating roller coaster of a read that follows the author's steps to build sources and networks in order to get the ultimate scoop on a widely acknowledged yet largely taboo cancer that plagues any nation: Organized Crime.

Armed with a familiarity of both Japanese culture and journalism tenets, the book was a fascinating read, yet it does not preclude knowledge of these areas. Adelstein spins an increasingly complicated yarn that will hook readers from any background.

Organized crime in Japan? Yakuza, of course. I'll just say this about my time spent there: You know one when you see one. It's not something that is everyday fodder for conversation, and I can honestly say I have never approached the topic with even my closest Japanese friends because I was never sure if that would be "culturally appropriate." It would be like those pals asking me to detail the latest tiff between the Crips and the Bloods.