Meicho Shimbun Newspaper

Jake and the other new recruits of the newspaper on their first day.

The Meicho Shimbun Newspaper is one of the largest, prestigious newspapers in Japan and the newspaper Jake Adelstein begins working at prior to his investigations of the Japanese Yakuza. The Meicho Shimbun Newspaper is well-renowned for its extremely difficult entrance exam for employees. Jake studied for weeks for the exam and eventually passed despite leaving out numerous questions.

Description

The Meicho Shimbun has a difficult entrance exam that consists of questions about the Japan in general. In Jake's case, he studied the Geography of Japan as well as the weather and language. There is also an element of writing and translation in the exam. Initially, when Jake approached the newspaper to complete the entrance exam, the clerk questioned if he was sure given the exam was in Japanese.

The newspaper itself is very hierarchical with a solid structure. They have a structured outline for how stories should be written, with Emi joking that there is almost never a section to explain why something happened. Furthermore, the newspaper (as well as others in Japan), are reluctant to write stories about murder unless it is explicitly stated to be so by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Adelstein's story on a murder is rebuked, citing that murder never happens in Japan. Instead, it is man-slaughter or some other type of homicide.

At the newspaper, Jake works under his supervisor, Emi, who checks and proof-reads all of his articles before they make it to print. On some occasions, he is told to completely rewrite the story before it goes to print.

Trivia

• Employees of the paper are very against foreign (especially English) people working at the paper. On numerous occasions, Jake is rebuked for working at the paper and called names because he is foreign.
• Whilst the newspaper isn't real outside of Tokyo Vice, it seems to be influenced by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest newspaper in the world by circulation. The real-life Jake Adelstein wrote here for 12 years and was in fact, the first foreigner to do so.