Episode 31 - Tokyo Vice: A Jewish Journalist Against the Yakuza with Jake Adelstein

Two Nice Jewish Boys

Eytan and Naor

Society & Culture

1.7 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2017

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To many of us, Japan is still a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Mysterious of all is the Yakuza, Japan's notorious crime organization, which has been growing and spreading dread for decades. When Jake Adelstein, a nice Jewish boy from Minnesota, decided to leave everything behind and follow his passion and fascination to Japan, he didn't know much about the Yakuza either. But soon enough, he learned more than he'd ever imagined he would. Pursuing a career as a Tokyo investigative crime reporter, he wrote in Japanese for one of the country's most prestigious newspapers. Jake visited Israel recently for the first time, as a guest of Penn Publishing, who just printed his 2010 book Tokyo Vice. The book tells the mind boggling real-life incidents that took place throughout Jake's impressive and dramatic career. 2NJB sat with him to talk Japan, Yakuza, and journalism.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Live from Tel Aviv, two nice Jewish boys, Aitzid Weinstein and Na'Or Minigur.
0:10.0	Hello Ita.
0:13.0	Hey, Na'Or.
0:15.0	Founded way back in the 17th century, the Japanese crime syndicate, the Yakuakuza boasts over 100,000 members.
0:23.6	The Yakuza are infamous for their extremely rigorous code of conduct, as well as for their ruthless
0:29.8	brutality.
0:31.7	It's hard to imagine how a young, nice Jewish reporter would navigate and network his way
0:37.4	through such a vast and dangerous
0:39.0	criminal organization.
0:41.6	But this is precisely what Jake Adelstein, author of the great book Tokyo Vice, has done,
0:48.6	often put in his life on the line to do so.
0:51.9	And he's here with us to talk about it. With us, two nice Jewish boys.
0:56.8	Hello, Jake.
0:57.4	Hi, it's a pleasure to have you.
0:59.2	It's a pleasure to, I was going to have
1:01.3	to have you on my show.
1:02.2	Like, I've already taken over.
1:04.1	Isn't that pushy?
1:04.8	Isn't that pushy?
1:05.8	You can have it.
1:06.8	You can have it.
1:07.9	How are you?
	...

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