Tokyo Vice’s Behind-The-Scenes Drama: Was Jake an Actual Police Insider in Real-Life?

The second season of the drama about the struggle of an expatriate journalist with the Yakuza, Tokyo Vice, has recently debuted on Max.

The first season was released in 2022 and immediately found its audience. The first episode of the neo-noir about the everyday life of real journalists was directed by Michael Mann himself, one of the creators of the cult 1980s TV series Miami Vice.

What is Tokyo Vice About?

The show is set in the late 1990s. Ambitious Jake Adelstein, who has moved from Missouri to Tokyo, takes an exam and gets an offer to become a crime reporter for a prestigious local newspaper.

The guy accustomed to free speech is expected to follow the rules and not cross a clearly defined line. But Jake does just the opposite: he writes about what is not supposed to be said out loud – about the atrocities of the Yakuza. While investigating fraud and internal gang wars, the journalist meets detective Hiroto Katagiri.

The Show Is Based on Jake Adelstein’s Life

This story may sound too dramatic and exciting to be true, but Tokyo Vice is based on real events described in journalist Jake Adelstein’s book Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.

He lived in Japan for more than ten years, and while writing for a local newspaper, worked with the police and studied the underworld of Tokyo in the late 90s.

His biggest investigation involved a Yakuza boss. He became an FBI informant – all to get an American visa and fly to the US for a liver transplant. As a result of the published article, Adelstein began to receive threats. This story became the focus of the first season of Tokyo Vice.

The series skips the boring part of Adelstein's life in Japan and jumps right to the moment he passes the entrance exam and gets a job at the newspaper, where he becomes the first foreign journalist.

The Veracity of The Show’s Source Material Is Questioned

But it was not only in the show itself where the stakes were high. Shortly after the first season ended, The Hollywood Reporter published a devastating article questioning the stories Jake Adelstein told in his book.

THR's sources questioned the veracity of the journalist's words, noting that his descriptions of events were too detailed, but vivid quotes came mainly from anonymous witnesses, police officers and the Yakuza members.

Adelstein denied THR's allegations, noting that his investigations have been repeatedly verified by other publications, and that he himself has more than once revealed the identities of anonymous informants – but only after their deaths, so that their lives would no longer be threatened.

Adelstein Still Lives in Japan

You might think that after such a dangerous story, Adelstein would have left Japan. But he still lives in Tokyo and writes for The Daily Beast, Asia Times, Vice News, and The Japan Times. He currently serves on the board of Polaris Project Japan, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of human trafficking.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Japan Subculture Research Center