Hijacking Japan

by Christopher P. Hood

It was meant to be a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of Tōkyō. Nicola was working hard as an English teacher in Japan; she desperately needed a holiday. A long weekend with her boyfriend, Akira, and two other friends, Mai and Masashi, seemed ideal. The four of them would travel by Japan’s safest form of transport, the shinkansen (‘bullet train’), before boarding a ferry for the trip across to the quiet island of Sado. However, Nicola and her friends could never imagine that they would become caught up in a hijacking. Why would someone want to hijack this train? How would Nicola and her friends respond to being on a hijacked train? Would the police be able to catch those responsible? Hijacking Japan follows events in a real-time format during a dramatic day that threatens to bring the Japanese government to its knees.

476 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2017

About the author

I am an author of both fiction and non-fiction.

I have written three novels, Hijacking Japan, Tokyo 20/20 Vision and FOUR, and am currently working on a fourth, Officer Death Fall From Japan’s Floating Palace. All of the novels are primarily based in Japan, using my knowledge and experiences of living in and visiting Japan, and conducting research about aspects of Japanese society and culture for over 35 years, as a basis for being able to ensure there is a degree of realism about the plots and characters.

I am the author of five non-fiction books; Japan: The Basics (two editions), Osutaka: A Chronicle of Loss in the World’s Largest Single Plane Crash, Dealing With Disaster in Japan: Responses to the Flight JL123 Crash, Shinkansen: From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan, and Education Reform in Japan: Nakasone’s Legacy. I am currently writing two books related to Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Song by Song and Frankie Fans Say Welcome To Our World.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very different read, taking me into Japanese culture, but as one of the central characters, Nicola, was British, it enhanced the contrast to my culture through her eyes.
I found the story had many facets to it, including political corruption, murder, terrorism, hijacking, and the relationship between Nicola and her Japanese friends.
Nicola and her friends, are taking a few days break with her friends and particularly was looking forward to spending time with her shy boyfriend Akira. They were travelling on the shinkansen, more popularly known as the bullet train.
Also on the upper-level of the train, this was exclusively reserved for the Japanese foreign minister Mizuno.
The train was hijacked, as the title and book cover suggests, and the rest of the story did not disappoint, full of unexpected surprises.