“Go anywhere but don’t get near Kabukicho, there will be gang war there!”
A warning from an old friend made me check the news. According to report, the biggest mafia group in Tokyo is having faction turf war and escalating to a point that road brawl might occur.
But that Halloween night, I was scheduled to go to Kabukicho, not knowing what that area in Shinjuku at all.
After a dinner, I was heading back to hotel through the alley of the hood when my eyes saw a huge African descent guy as big as The Rock handing out flyers in the middle of the street. A tall slender Japanese guy with blond mullet made it clear what service they were offering with his single word question repeated to every guy passing bye: “Sex?” he asked with both hands mimicking pistols.
Behind the blinding neon sign on the narrow roads of Kabukicho was these sleazy sex industry of Japan which targets foreigners. The are has lost its charm and by the time I was there, it probably reduced into what some travellers wrote on TripAdvisor: tourist trap.
I guess no foreigners, aside from those making a living there, understand Kabukicho better than Jake Adelstein. A western guy, gaijin, working for the biggest newspaper in Japan: Yomiuri Shimbun.
He uncover human trafficking, exploitation, and the organized crime playing under the shade, even had a friend who was working there probably brutally murdered in helping him investigate mafia hidden operation. All which he wrote in the book Tokyo Vice.
I first read Tokyo Vice review in TIME magazine. Immediately searching for this book, but with no avail. Until I found a copy in Kinokuniya book store in Singapore. I was even more fascinated that this US citizen smoke Gudang Garam cigarettes. At least, for me, there’s a sense of proximity to add to the fact that both of us were journalist.
I am familiar with what he wrote about milking information from sources, role playing, protecting sources. If he works with vice and homicide, I was into weapons trade and dirty politics. But am not going into details.
I can’t really say I enjoy reading the book, because the facts he mention was at times gruesome and making me want to spill my guts out. Yes there’s a dark part of our society that make you disgusted of the world and even worse, no matter how hard you work, how diligently you write, at some point you realise, you just can’t change a thing.
But if you aspire to be a journo or if you are still working as one, or once live this line of career, this book is for you. Or if you fancy Japanese culture, this book is also for you.
This book, Tokyo Vice, is the reason why I like to read nonfiction genre. Because there is no greater striking unbelievable story than reality.
Title: Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
On amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Vintage-ebook/dp/B002RYXA0Y
