Exploring Japan’s underbelly through its yakuza operations, Tokyo Vice complements HBO Max’s catalogue by bringing in the right amount of crime, drama, and suspense. Jake Adelstein becomes our guide and eyes into this very grimy world.
Given the mysterious nature of the yakuza, it’s obvious to wonder how much of this series is based on real-life, if at all.
Well, Tokyo Vice is based on Jake Adelstein’s 2009 memoir of the same name. The show has replaced certain real-life names with fictional ones and follows only selective storylines. However, the authenticity of the memoir itself is also contested. Let’s dive a little deeper.
Jake Adelstein’s Contested Memoir
Before we get into how much of the book the show adapts, let’s talk about the book itself. The memoir covers 12 years of Adelstein’s life in Japan where he started off as the first non-Japanese person to work at a renowned Japanese newspaper.
The length and breadth of it cover office culture, relationships between crime reporters and the police, as well as some notable cases that Adelstein worked on. One of these is an exposé on Tadamasa Goto, which is explored in the show.
However, after the show’s release, The Hollywood Reporter wrote an article based on insider testimonies that questioned the authenticity of Adelstein’s memoir—especially the bits about fighting and going undercover.
At the moment, the debate is left in a stalemate with neither party fully being able to prove their stance.
Tokyo Vice Takes “Inspiration” from Adelstein’s Novel
After THR’s allegations against the memoir, executive producer John Lesher was quick to distance the show from the book. He stated that there were many things “embellished and created that had nothing to do with, let’s call it ‘the real Jake Adelstein story.”
Of course, we have established that on the flip side, there are a lot of the book’s elements that the show does recreate—the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper is swapped for Meicho Shimbum, Adelstein’s mentor Sekiguchi becomes Katagiri on the show etc.
The biggest similarity is that the obtuse opening scene (which many viewers have now deduced) actually begins with the Tadamasa Goto exposé that made the real-life Adelstein very famous. In the show, Goto is portrayed through the character of Tozawa.
Since the memoir does cover a lot of cases, the show picks what is fitting for the narrative and then adds in some twists and turns to make the story different enough from Adelstein’s real-life tale.
About Tokyo Vice
Tokyo Vice is an HBO crime drama series created by J.T. Rogers based on Jake Alderstein’s 2009 book of the same name.
It follows a fictionalized Alderstein, who becomes the first Western-born journalist to work at a renowned Japanese newspaper. Here, he teams up with a veteran detective to uncover the crimes of the yakuza.
The cast includes Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, among others.
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