Data Driven
Happy Halloween! The Japanese bring their own twists to October 31
Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993 and writing for The Daily Beast since 2011. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He co-hosted and co-wrote the award-winning podcast about missing people in Japan, The Evaporated: Gone With The Gods. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintage) which is a series on (HBO) Max and also The Last Yakuza: Life and Death In The Japanese Underworld (2023).
HUNTED
Three men have been nabbed for running an alleged extortion ring in Japan. Their targets? Suspected “upskirt photographers.”
DISOBEYING ORDERS
The homicide department was getting nowhere on the disappearance of Lucie Blackman until a rebel squad went off-script and uncovered a vital clue.
‘HUGE SHAME’
The founding father of J-pop molested young talents for years. When the BBC revealed his crimes in an explosive documentary, Japan’s mainstream media didn’t want to know.
MYSTERY
A discarded cigarette butt may hold the key to assassination of fast-food boss. Was it ordered by jailed Yakuza boss who attacked his nurse post-op?
opinion
DISHONEST ABE
The slain former prime minister was responsible for turning Japan into a nation that doesn’t know how to tell the truth.
‘YAMAGAMI GIRLS’
In a twisted turn of events, the man who killed the former Japanese prime minister is being fawned over as a folk hero by scores of supporters across the country.
MOONIE MADNESS
The shooting of ex-PM Shinzo Abe has blown open secret ties between Japan’s ruling party and the mass-marrying Moonies.
opinion
ONE PARTY MAN
His authoritarian legacy will live on for decades to come, and in retaining power, he even trumped Trump.
ASSASSINATION
The suspect was allegedly waiting for Abe to give a campaign speech ahead of Japanese elections before pulling out the improvised weapon and shooting him dead.