Jake Adelstein
Jake Adelstein (born March 28, 1969) is an American[1] journalist, crime writer, and blogger who has spent most of his career in Japan. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.
Jake Adelstein | |
---|---|
Born | Joshua Lawrence Adelstein March 28, 1969 Columbia, Missouri, U.S. |
Occupation | Journalist, investigator, writer, researcher, risk analyst, editor, blogger |
Nationality | American |
Genre | True crime, non-fiction, journalism |
Notable works | Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan |
Children | 2 |
Website | |
www.japansubculture.com |
Career
Adelstein grew up in Missouri and moved to Japan at age 19 to study Japanese literature at Sophia University.[2] In 1993, Adelstein became the first non-Japanese staff writer at the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper, where he worked for 12 years.[3]
After leaving the Yomiuri, Adelstein published an exposé of how an alleged crime boss, Tadamasa Goto, made a deal with the FBI to gain entry to the United States for a liver transplant at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2009, Adelstein published a memoir about his career as a reporter in Japan, Tokyo Vice, in which he accused Goto of threatening to kill him over the story.[4]
Adelstein was subsequently a reporter for a United States Department of State investigation into human trafficking in Japan, and now writes for the Daily Beast, Vice News, The Japan Times and other publications. He is a board member and advisor to the Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims (formerly Polaris Project Japan).
On April 19, 2011, Adelstein filed a lawsuit against National Geographic Television, which had hired him to help make a documentary about the yakuza, citing ethical problems with their behavior in Japan.[5][6] Adelstein withdrew the lawsuit a month later, after reaching a settlement.[7]
Works
- Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan. New York City: Pantheon Books. 2009. ISBN 0-307-37879-9. OCLC 699874898.
- The Last Yakuza: A Life in the Japanese Underworld. New York City: Pantheon Books. 2016.
- Pay the Devil in Bitcoin: The Creation of a Cryptocurrency and How Half a Billion Dollars of It Vanished from Japan. New York City: Pantheon Books. 2017.
References
- Jake Adelstein, "Yakuza, strippers, drugs, an undercover Japanese-Jew FBI special agent? Pulp non-fiction.", Twitter, June 26, 2015.
- Hessler, Peter. "All Due Respect" Profile, The New Yorker, January 9, 2012.
- Mark Willacy, "Exposing Japan's Insidious Underbelly", ABC News, October 20, 2009; accessed November 20, 2010.
- Jake Adelstein, "This Mob Is Big in Japan", The Washington Post, May 11, 2008, Accessed November 20, 2010
- Eriq Gardner (May 10, 2011). "NatGeo Delays Japanese Mafia Show at Center of Lawsuit (Updated)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
- Superior Court of the District of Columbia. (http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/05/06/Yakuza.pdf), April 19, 2011.
- Superior Court of the District of Columbia. (http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/05/06/Notice%20of%20Dismissal%20with%20Prejudice.pdf), May 4, 2011.
Further reading
- Hessler, Peter (9 January 2012). "All Due Respect". The New Yorker, Volume LXXXVII, No. 43, pp. 50–59.
External links
- Japan Subculture Research Center (Official site)
- Jake Adelstein on Twitter
- Profile, Goodreads.com; accessed September 22, 2014.
- Jake Adelstein on LinkedIn