东京罪恶 (2009)

《东京罪恶：一个美籍记者的日本警方采访实录》（英语：Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan）是一本由杰克·阿德尔斯坦所写的2009年回忆录。阿德尔斯坦居住在东京多年，是全日本最大的报纸之一《读卖新闻》的第一位非日本籍记者。该书由兰登书屋和Pantheon Books出版。HBO把该书改编成2022年电视剧《东京罪恶》。该回忆录中描述的故事的真实性受到质疑。

简介

该回忆录涵盖了阿德尔斯坦在东京的职业生涯，从1993年他被雇用为《读卖新闻》的新来记者开始。作为一名学员，他描述了被一位年长的警探收为手下。阿德尔斯坦最初被分配到“寒酸”的埼玉市，回忆录讲述他接下来12年成为该报员工的经历，描述了80小时的工作周、人与人之间的困难关系，以及犯罪记者和警察之间的互动情况。具体案例包括寻找杀害露西·布莱克曼（Lucie Blackman）的凶手，回忆录中还详细描述了他在发表关于揭露后藤忠政的故事后所受到的死亡威胁。

改编电视剧

2019年6月，宣布该回忆录改编成电视剧。电视剧共有8集，由安索·艾格特饰演杰克·阿德尔斯坦，是一名为了揭露腐败而将自己插入到东京罪恶警察队中的美国记者。渡边谦亦有演出。

Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan is a 2009 memoir by Jake Adelstein of his years living in Tokyo as the first non-Japanese reporter working for one of Japan's largest newspapers, the Yomiuri Shimbun. It was published by Random House and Pantheon Books. Max adapted the memoir into a 2022 television series. An investigation by The Hollywood Reporter questioned whether certain events in the book happened as stated.

Synopsis

The account covers Adelstein's career in Tokyo, starting in 1993 when he was hired as a rookie reporter for Yomiuri Shimbun. As a cadet, He describes how in Japan journalists are hired for newspapers straight after graduating from university and how he applied to the Yomiuri Shimbun on 12 July 1992 in his fourth year of university. He describes being taken under the wing of Sekiguchi, an older detective. Adelstein was initially assigned to "tacky" Saitama, and the memoir covers his next 12 years as a staffer for the paper, describing 80-hour work weeks, relationship difficulties, and the interactions between crime reporters and the police. Specific cases involve the search for the killer of Lucie Blackman, and the memoir also details death threats after he published an expose on Tadamasa Goto. He also uncovered that Saitama Prefecture was altering scientific data on dioxin contamination.

Adelstein wrote that the yakuza are considered a "necessary evil" and as a "second police force" that upholds public order. He also wrote that the yakuza have "deep if murky" links to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Sekiguchi told Adelstein that the yakuza did not use that term to describe themselves, and instead call themselves gokudo, a portmanteau of goku (extreme) and do (the path). He described himself as a failure at a host club, writing that Japanese women wanted "an attractive Japanese man, not a goofy Jewish-American in an expensive suit". About the Blackman case, he wrote "how did this man get away with allegedly raping woman after woman for more more than a decade, and why didn't the police catch him sooner?"

He described the Japanese attitude towards World War Two as "apparently not knowing history means never having to say you're sorry". He wrote that the best way to get a scoop was to blackmail the investigating detective. He described how he took a photograph of a drawing of a suspect in a police station surreptitiously, which he used to blackmail a detective to give him a scoop about a thief.

History

Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan is a 2009 memoir by Jake Adelstein of his years living in Tokyo as the first non-Japanese reporter working for one of Japan's largest newspapers. He initially had a deal to release the book in Japan. However, after Adelstein wrote an expose for the Washington Post concerning the FBI granting visas to yakuza members, Adelstein sought police protection in 2009 and left the country.

Adelstein wrote in 2013 that: "The book is translated into Japanese but no publisher will touch it. It steps on too many toes." He described how in September 2008, the Japanese publisher "got cold feet and backed out." Stated Adelstein, "a risk assessment was done and the conclusion at the time was that publishing the book could result in unpleasant things like arson, dump trucks being smashed into the (publisher's) building, and the kidnapping of the publisher's employees and other acts of violence... I don't blame them for opting out." He wrote that the English version and Japanese version, which he wrote without a translator, are essentially the same, but with sources "more obscured" in the Japanese version. After trying and failing to have the book published in Japan, it was published by Random House and Pantheon Books. Kirkus Reviews called it "Not just a hard-boiled true-crime thriller, but an engrossing, troubling look at crime and human exploitation in Japan."