Tokyo Vice Redux

Okay, so maybe you know I read and liked Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein.  Maybe you even read it yourself and really enjoyed its unique insider/outsider perspective of the first American to work as a journalist for the Japanese language newspaper Yomiuri.  (Yeah, that one.) 

Did you know he did a spot at ANN's podcast?  He did.  It's pretty long, but I got a kick out of hearing his voice and learning how to pronounce his name.  It's definitely worth a listen if you liked his work in Tokyo Vice, which is also out in paperback now and is still worth a read.  Actually, might be time for a reread for me . . .

Hey, they like our light novels, too

I'm a fan of sci-fi writer John Scalzi, and so is Japan.  I got quite a kick out of him (and his fans) getting a kick out of the Japanese cover of one of his books that sort of straddles YA and adult sci-fi because it's the other side of the same story told in told in the definitely adult The Last Colony only this time from the POV of a teenage girl.  (It's actually vaguely similar to the parallel story with different POV thing in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.)

Yes, I'm a huge geek, but I find it sort of sociologically fascinating to see an American book I've read and enjoyed re-interpreted, re-covered, and re-marketed in another culture that I also happen to be fascinated by.  Something to think about, anyway.

Welcome to the NHK?

If you've never heard of it, Welcome to the NHK is an anime (based on a semi-autobiographical [?] novel) that centers on a young man who has withdrawn from society and lives with as little human contact as possible until a girl appears who says she can save him from his self-imposed exile.  Lots of adult content because adults can legally make their own stupid choices.  (NOTE: the first ending theme song may be one of the most disturbing I have ever seen.)

It's hard to watch Welcome to the NHK, especially after finishing Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father's Story of Love and Madness (Vintage), a memoir about mental illness as seen from the outside.  I recognize symptoms (paranoia, mania, depression), and the armchair sociologist in me starts flipping through scattered notes about hikikomori and increasing loneliness and social withdrawal as technology rises.

It's painful to watch Welcome to the NHK as a fan (who happens to be a somewhat shy, introverted person).  Sometimes, I feel the pull of being a hikkikomori.  I mean, seriously, if someone were paying your bills, and you didn't have to leave the comfort of your home, wouldn't you stay in? 


Especially if the alternative was working a crappy customer service job that puts you inescapably face-to-face with the decidedly less-fine aspects of humanity all the time?  Wouldn't you want to stay where you couldn't hurt and offend or be hurt and offended by others, where you wouldn't have to be angry or frustrated so frequently?  Where you wouldn't have to pick up after other people's inconsiderate leavings all the time?  Where you wouldn't have to smile while people are rude and dismissive and contemptuous to you, bully you, or hit on you (when they're not being infuriatingly slow, unhelpful, and forgetful, or assuming you have god-like powers)?  Where you wouldn't have to deal with an unqualified, incompetent boss immune to logic, reason, or any other method of discourse?  Where no one expected anything of you?  Where no one tried your patience?  Where the only person you could disappoint was you?  Where you were more in control of everything (everything having shrunk down to your apartment)?

Understanding that pull makes watching the show more difficult.

Tokyo Vice gave some good (and sad) examples of how mental illness is viewed and dealt with in Japan.  There's that whole wa concept (and fitting in and not standing out and the nail that sticks out getting hammered down and all that). 


Japan would be a painful place to withdraw from social contact, which makes me wonder how much more painful it is for those who do withdraw to maintain contact or try to reestablish it.  It gives me more sympathy for the seemingly hopeless, boneheaded protagonist of Welcome to the NHK.  He's still trying to re-connect even through that added pain.  He screws up so badly, but he's trying, so you can't help but pull for his eventual success.  You know his story is based on a real person's story (you think so, even if you might be wrong), and you want there to be a happy ending, to have been a happy ending.

I wonder if people in the U.S. who are writing all these books about the rise of loneliness and social withdrawal as technology makes living without people possible are looking to Japan to learn about what this kind of mass withdrawal can do to society.  I wonder if someone's written about it somewhere.  I wonder if all the anime fans who've seen the series or the manga fans who've read the manga adaptation or the original novel have thought about the sociological implications of this sort of thing in their lives in their countries in their fan communities.

I wonder if my sister would say I'm thinking too hard about this.  :)

Watching Welcome to the NHK is a struggle for many reasons.  I'll let you know if I think it was worth it in the end.

Why you might like Tokyo Vice

If you are an adult who is interested in Japan, you really should read Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein, the only American to work for the big Japanese language edition of the Yomiuri.  Follow him from his job hunt all the way through to the end of his time in Japan (burn-out, death threats from the yakuza, and an increased awareness of the evils of human trafficking alive and well in Japan).  Each chapter is a mostly self-contained tale about a particular person, story, or topic, and I enjoyed them all.

If you are a Japan-o-phile, you can:

• Find out what's fact and fiction in your anime and manga.   The funny thing is that a lot of the stuff you thought they were making up is actually the true stuff.  It's something of a shock.
• Learn about the culture from a gaijin point of view.  When you read manga or watch anime, you are seeing the culture from a Japanese perspective, through the lens/filter of Japanese minds.  This is probably part of what attracts you to manga and anime.  I personally love getting a different point of reference for shared events and customs.  For the most part, you never get to ask the questions that you as a non-native really want to ask.  Adelstein asks some of them.  The answers are surprising.
• Learn about aspects of the country you won't learn about in anime or manga.  Many manga readers and anime viewers bemoan the fact that there isn't much out there in legal English for mature adults.  Well, there's a lot in here. It will probably blow your mind, and it will most definitely make you think.

The book is well thought out, well put together, and just really well done.  A journalist's perspective as an outsider on the inside isn't new, per se, but this incarnation of it is engaging, entertaining, and informative.  If you're a foreign fan of Japan, this book will give you access to a world of stories you'd never otherwise have.

Check it out from your local library, and if you love it, please buy it.  I wish it had been twice as long . . .

Tokyo Vice

And now for something completely different! Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

If you're interested in Japan in general, you might want to check out Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein.  He's an American journalist who spent years in Japan on the crime beat.  Needless to say, this is kind of rare. 

Any nonfiction book that starts out with the yakuza threatening the author's life is bound to be dark and probably compelling.  Knowing that the author survives gives the book its own kind of tension.  Does he pursue the story?  How does he not get killed?  What led him there?  What led him to later combat human trafficking? 

I've been interested in the topic of the justice system and the Japanese underworld pretty much since I read my first manga touching on it maybe six years ago.  I must say that I am intrigued by the lens Adelstein provides the opportunity to look through in this case, and I'm looking forward to seeing what insights I gain through the course of the book.  I may check back in after I've read it.


Do you know of any good nonfiction books about aspects of Japanese culture?  Do recommend.