Latest news with #JakeAdelstein
South China Morning Post
10-04-2025
- South China Morning Post
Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi declares end to 10-year yakuza feud in Kobe, as gang numbers decline
Japan 's largest organised crime syndicate has declared a unilateral end to a bloody internal feud that spanned a decade and left at least 90 dead, a move experts say underscores the steady decline of the once-feared yakuza underworld. Advertisement Senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi on Monday took the highly unusual step of visiting police in Hyogo prefecture to announce the end of hostilities with its splinter factions, and requested the lifting of their 'designated violent conflict group' classification, which had restricted their operations since 2015. The rare visit marked a symbolic end to the gang war triggered by a major split within the Yamaguchi-gumi, which has long been headquartered in Kobe and remains the country's largest crime syndicate. Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan and a noted expert on Japan's underworld, said the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi – the main breakaway faction – had been 'decimated' by infighting and a wave of defections from disillusioned gangsters. 'This has been coming for some time as the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi lost ground and the fight became very one-sided,' Adelstein told This Week in Asia. Advertisement 'It got to the point where they had no power to push back,' he said.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bookshelf: What we're reading in April
Since most day-to-day operations in journalism are far from glamorous, it's fun to dig into stories where reporters are leading more exciting lives. Enter Jake Adelstein and "Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan." Described as "newspaper noir," this memoir charts Adelstein's journey from cub reporter to an investigative journalist with a price on his head. The native Missourian moved to Japan to study Japanese literature and ended up landing a job as the first non-Japanese staff writer at the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's leading newspapers. As part of the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, he covered the crime beat with stories ranging from extortion and financial wrongdoing to human trafficking and murder. His investigations also lead him to the yakuza, and it is the story about a particular crime boss that leads to his biggest story and the threat to his life. The book's title may seem familiar since it was turned into a Max original series in 2022, which lasted two seasons. Of course, this is a books column so before you dig into the show, pick up the book and enjoy a vicarious adventure into reporting. Readers looking for even more danger can turn to "The Night of Baba Yaga" by Japanese author Akira Otani. Publisher Soho Crime may have put it best in its description of the book as "'Kill Bill' meets 'The Handmaiden' meets 'Thelma and Louise.'" This is Otani's first book available in English, masterfully handled by International Booker–shortlisted translator Sam Bett. You can't help but be drawn in from the opening line: "The white sedan, reeking of blood and cigarettes, shot west into the setting sun." The book centers on an unlikely duo: a fierce mixed-race fighter and the sheltered daughter of a crime boss whom she protects. After a run-in with a group of "white shirts" (henchmen), Yoriko Shindo is told she can live only if she becomes the bodyguard and driver for Shoko Naiki. Facing violence and death from all sides, the two inspire in each other the dream of living freely beyond the rule of the yakuza. Because we're all readers here in this column, I feel comfortable confiding that, despite my best efforts, my efforts to keep up with the growing list of suggested books is falling short. In this case, it's great to throw a few slim volumes into the mix. A new addition is Ling Ma's "Bliss Montage." Ma's debut novel was the 2018 "Severance," a prescient pre-pandemic tale about the societal aftermath following a deadly fever outbreak. The writer followed this up with a number of short stories, some first published in The Atlantic, The New Yorker and Playboy (where she was briefly a copy editor). Many of those stories made their way into "Montage," which takes readers on a variety of journeys, from the mysterious office of a college professor to a Los Angeles home that a woman shares with her 100 ex-boyfriends and her husband, who only speaks in dollar signs. Each one conjures a unique place with engaging prose that keeps your interest. And with some stories only 10 or 20 pages, the collection of short stories offers plenty of options depending on the time you have to read.
South China Morning Post
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: from HKILF and new books to Zuma's alumni
Published: 11:00am, 22 Feb 2025 In what I expect isn't an uncommon story for media types – or anyone picking up a print magazine honestly – I was an avid reader as a child. Shockingly, compulsory education didn't beat it out of me. In fact, summer reading lists and 19th century literature courses were welcome havens from the indignity of precalculus, physics and econ. (Perhaps to my detriment, but that's another story.) For me, it was entering the workforce. Even in a profession of words, time to just read for pleasure evaporated. And that was before the deluge of social media with its memes, short-form video and infinite scrolling. I wish I didn't have to make time and space for reading, but that's the reality. So the arrival of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival (HKILF) next weekend is, in a way, luxurious. A whole week all about books. I even got a reading assignment – you'll find me deep in the pages of Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Noir (2024) and Asako Yuzuki's Butter (2024) before their dinner on March 3. This isn't exactly a Lit Fest themed issue, but with all the great writers coming to town, it was impossible for them not to show up in the stories that follow. Our cover, bringing the world of books into a traditional kaifong stall, is illustrated by Hong Kong artist Kaitlin Chan, who will be speaking at the festival. The 'culture wars', as they are, feel like they are at a fever pitch across the world. In this context, Jo Lusby explores the role of sensitivity readers in publishing. It's an interesting proposition – should historical works be edited to fit the time? Marked with a trigger warning? What's the line between sensitivity and censorship? She speaks with authors joining next week's literary festival to understand how they grappled with these issues in their own work. Fionnuala McHugh plunges into a new book on Hong Kong's Japanese residents in the late 1800s. Inspired by Hong Kong Cemetery's Japanese section, Meiji Graves in Happy Valley (2024), by Yoshiko Nakano and Georgina Challen, who will be leading a walk as part of the HKILF, uncovers the untold stories of those who were laid to rest there.
