Lost In Translation

Tokyo Vice

I have to say that I really enjoyed Jake Adelstein’s memoir about crime reporting in Japan, Tokyo Vice, for a number of reasons. To start with it provides an insider’s view of what it’s like to be a reporter and how the journalism machine in Japan operates. This insider’s view reminds me of Masao Miyamoto’s descriptions of being a government employee in The Straitjacket Society. It seems both jobs require arcane knowledge earned through experience and insider mentoring, long hours, bullying, and a very unhealthy lifestyle that is heavy on smoking and drinking. In addition, Adelestein started out in the Saitama news bureau office in Urawa and I started out living in Japan in Eastern Saitama and know or have been to many of the places where he reports crime and murders take place. Adelstein also has a lot of insight into the particulars of Japanese culture and society, from mizushobai (sex industry which includes hostess and host clubs) to yakuza and police. His explanations of how the police operate and the ambiguity of the law when regarding issues like prostitution, sex trafficking, and child pornography make it troublesome to enforce. It wasn’t until Japan started getting national attention as a haven for sex trafficking that they created laws to stop it. This s a common occurrence being spurred to change by international pressure-it’s much easier to carry on with status quo. Family law that encourages child abduction is likely to continue until enough foreign pressure has been applied on the Japanese government. Furthermore, he spends a chapter on the significance of instruction manuals in Japanese society explaining there are manuals for everything from sex to suicide, at least the ratio is 3 to 1 in the top 10 sellers on Amazon Japan. I also found it interesting that he was at the forefront of crime trends that I remember reading about as they emerged over the years: host clubs that targeted teenage girls that ran up thousands of dollars of bills. Then there was the loan sharking trends that drove many to suicide with the sky-high interest rates-these spawned the “it’s me” scam where people called old people and claimed to be relative by saying “it’s me” and having them transfer money to their bank account. I think it has a kind of hardboiled style to the narration and a fairly quick pace. I look forward to reading his subsequent books he has planned on other aspects of crime and Japanese society.

Getting Any?

Getting Any? (1995) is Takeshi Kitano’s fourth film and has largely been considered a failure by his critics for good reason. It is a straight up sketch comedy with little plot. It is a big departure from his previous films up to this point, which is probably the point. It is more similar to the kinds of things Beat Takeshi does on TV. I think there were some funny set pieces in the first segment, but the comedy is very hit or miss and runs dry throughout. I was surprised that it was so well received by the customer critic on Aamzon.  

Transactions In A Foreign Currency

After reading Under The 82^nd Airborne by Deborah Eisenberg, I realized that I found another impressive American short story writer. This was confirmed by her first collection of short stories Transactions In A Foreign Currency. Eisenberg, the recent recipient of a Mac Arthur Genius Grant, has a very precise style and excels in writing dialogue and creating stories that derive from relationships between people that ring true. I was expecting these stories to take place in Central America like those in Under The 82^nd Airborne, but only the final story “Broken Glass,” was set there. The rest take place in different places, but several of them are New York stories. I look forward to reading the only other collection that I haven’t read yet, All Around Atlantis. Hopefully the new grant will give her time to greatly expand her limited oeuvre-the other short story collection Twilight of the SuperHeroes wasn’t as impressive as the two earlier collections I read. 

Rum, Sodomy, & The Lash

The 33 1/3 series has taken on the classic Pogues album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash by Jeffery T. Roesgen. There have been many different approaches in this series-some that are traditional critical discussions others are more artistic. For example, Joe Pernice wrote a very entertaining novella about The Smith’s album Meat Is Murder. Colin Meloy, of the Decembrists, wrote a compelling personal memoir about The Replacements’ seminal album Let It Be. Roesgen tried to combine the two styles by writing a short story using historical references form sources of the painting used as the cover art about a disastrous sea voyage to Africa that ended in cannibalism and tragedy. I found myself skipping the narrative and reading the discussions of the songs from the album that were referenced by a number of sources and gave a lot of insight into the conception of the album. I think it would have been better id the author had focused on that and left the story of the ship, The Medusa out of it completely.

Yanaka

I visited the Yanaka area of Tokyo near Nippori station earlier today. It was my first time and it was a bit of a revelation. I was going to go to an art exhibition, but it was closed since it was a holiday (ironically culture day) I may go back tomorrow.

I think this is a pretty cool photo...

Can you see the buddah?

A Scene From The Sea

A Scene From The Sea (1992) is Takeshi Kitano’s third film and a large departure from his previous two violent films. It is a simple love story about a deaf man and his girlfriend. He finds a surfboard and learns to surf and it becomes an all-consuming activity getting in the way of work and his relationship. I found the slow pacing off-putting. Of course the camera angles and long shots that punctuate the film show Kitano’s artistry, but it seems more like a misstep to me than a triumph.

Jake Adelstein: Author of Tokyo Vice

Jake Adelstein has a fascinating looking new book out called Tokyo Vice about his years reporting about crime for The Daily Yomiuri. Recently he wrote this interesting piece for the The Washington Post.

There's an exerpt from his book in the latest Metropolis.

There's also a good interview over at The Tokyo Reporter:

TOKYO (TR) – The extortion, racketeering, prostitution and gambling rings associated with Japan’s yakuza criminal organizations have been written up in books and glorified in films too numerous to count. Yet a substantial first-hand peek inside this insidious underworld by a foreign journalist — not straitjacketed by Japan’s rigid press system — has not existed.

Enter reporter Jake Adelstein, a 40-year-old Jewish-American and the author of the recently released memoir “Tokyo Vice,” an account of his 12-year stint of working the crime beat for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper.

Following the successful completion of the paper’s entry exam in 1993, Adelstein began covering Japan’s seamier side. Written in a fast-paced, acerbic and sometimes humorous style, “Tokyo Vice” recounts his investigations into serial rape, child pornography, murder and his greatest scoop: providing details on how four gangsters were able to travel to the U.S. to receive liver transplants. “Erase the story or be erased,” was the subsequent threat from the particulars involved. “Your family too.” Substantial repercussions linger to this day.

Indeed, many of the characters filling out the book’s 352 pages are, as expected, tattooed and pinkie-less hoods, but more crucially readers will be given an insight into understanding the way the Japanese police operate, what the press is willing to report upon and how a foreigner is able to blend into this bizarre and chaotic world.

The Tokyo Reporter sat down with Adelstein, who splits his time between Tokyo and the U.S., to discuss his compelling new book and the world of crime in Japan today.

I am going to buy his book at Good Day Books so that I can attend his talk there on December 6 next month.