Tokyo Vice: HBO drama series starring Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe is based on Jake Adelstein’s controversial memoir
- Jake Adelstein’s 2009 memoir of his time as the first non-Japanese reporter at one of Japan’s newspapers has been adapted into a TV series starring Ansel Elgort
- The show paints an intricate picture of yakuza syndicates, police procedures and the newspaper; it is less plausible in its portrait of expats in the country
First published in 2009, Jake Adelstein’s memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan provides a fascinating first-person account of his time working as the first non-Japanese reporter at one of the country’s largest daily newspapers.
Set in 1999, the show sees Adelstein secure his position as a rookie reporter at the fictional Meicho Shimbun newspaper, and form an alliance with senior police officer Katagiri (Watanabe), who guides him through the complex relationships between Japan’s law enforcement authorities, the mainstream media and organised crime.
Originally intended to be a feature film starring Daniel Radcliffe and adapted by Adelstein and playwright J.T. Rogers, Tokyo Vice was later reworked as a television series, with veteran filmmaker Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice) coming on board as executive producer.
Mann also directs the show’s pilot episode, immediately grounding the drama in a densely populated urban environment, where foreigners are regularly treated with contempt, if not ignored outright. Adelstein’s achievement in securing a job at a Japanese newspaper was an unprecedented feat, and the show goes to great lengths to detail the extent to which the young American immerses himself in Japanese culture.