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Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys . . . and Baseball
Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.
Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.
A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, "the greatest city in the world," Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.
Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.
A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, "the greatest city in the world," Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 20, 2021
53 people are currently reading
762 people want to read
About the author
Robert Whiting
35 books55 followersRobert Whiting is a best-selling author and journalist who has written several successful books on contemporary Japanese culture
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
May 22, 2023
Thank you, Eileen, for telling me of this marvelous book!
I’m going to tell you why I enjoyed it so much.
The author captures the “Japanese psyche” accurately through people he knew personally. Readers are given stories about incidents he has experienced firsthand. They grab your interest, are easy to relate to and ring true. We get both the good and the bad—the picture drawn ends up being balanced.
What stands out loud and clear, in relation to the Japanese character, is that a person should not stick out. One should blend in. Individualism is not favored. It’s instead group harmony that is to be prioritized--always and without exception. Think of it this way—a nail that sticks out, must be hammered in. Confrontation is frowned upon. Sarcasm and irony are often misunderstood. How do I know all of this to be true? I’ve had Japanese friends and have travelled in the country. These aspects of the Japanese character are not hard to discover; they hit you over the head.
The author’s attitude appeals to me. He writes with humor, and he doesn’t lecture. Although fully informed he speaks as an equal. He doesn’t put on airs.
Readers learn both about Japan and about the author. Whiting was born in the States. In California in 1943 to be more precise. He came from a lower middleclass family. He arrived in Japan with the air force in 1962. He was nineteen. This was two years before the 1964 Olympics which transformed Tokyo dramatically. We then follow the author’s, Japan’s and Tokyo’s trajectory for sixty years. Two Olympics, the Hippie years, the moon landing, the deaths of JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the economic bubble followed by the recession are all covered and other topics too! Viewing world history through a dual Japanese and American prism is eye-opening!
Whiting worked as a freelance journalist. Thorough In his research and thus sure of his facts, he dared to speak out and confront opposing views. Over the years he came to know not only renown public figures but also those from the seamier side of life. Whiting shows himself to be not only a talented writer but also an open, curious, hardworking and intelligent human being. We view how he matures, morphs from being a young, inexperienced youth into a knowledgeable adult worthy of respect. By the book’s end, the author has become a person I admire. I give credence to that which he says.
A wide range of topics are covered—everything from sports to politics, economics, the underworld, the arts and literature. What Whiting has learned is passes on to us, his readers.
The audiobook is extremely well read by Stefan Rudnicki. He speaks clearly and strongly. Few narrators so well capture subtle humor as Rudnicki does. Humor is important. I value this in that it makes the listening experience more enjoyable! Five stars for the narration.
In reading this book, you’ll earn a lot about Japan from an individual that straddles both the American and Japanese culture. I highly recommend it.
I’m going to tell you why I enjoyed it so much.
The author captures the “Japanese psyche” accurately through people he knew personally. Readers are given stories about incidents he has experienced firsthand. They grab your interest, are easy to relate to and ring true. We get both the good and the bad—the picture drawn ends up being balanced.
What stands out loud and clear, in relation to the Japanese character, is that a person should not stick out. One should blend in. Individualism is not favored. It’s instead group harmony that is to be prioritized--always and without exception. Think of it this way—a nail that sticks out, must be hammered in. Confrontation is frowned upon. Sarcasm and irony are often misunderstood. How do I know all of this to be true? I’ve had Japanese friends and have travelled in the country. These aspects of the Japanese character are not hard to discover; they hit you over the head.
The author’s attitude appeals to me. He writes with humor, and he doesn’t lecture. Although fully informed he speaks as an equal. He doesn’t put on airs.
Readers learn both about Japan and about the author. Whiting was born in the States. In California in 1943 to be more precise. He came from a lower middleclass family. He arrived in Japan with the air force in 1962. He was nineteen. This was two years before the 1964 Olympics which transformed Tokyo dramatically. We then follow the author’s, Japan’s and Tokyo’s trajectory for sixty years. Two Olympics, the Hippie years, the moon landing, the deaths of JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the economic bubble followed by the recession are all covered and other topics too! Viewing world history through a dual Japanese and American prism is eye-opening!
Whiting worked as a freelance journalist. Thorough In his research and thus sure of his facts, he dared to speak out and confront opposing views. Over the years he came to know not only renown public figures but also those from the seamier side of life. Whiting shows himself to be not only a talented writer but also an open, curious, hardworking and intelligent human being. We view how he matures, morphs from being a young, inexperienced youth into a knowledgeable adult worthy of respect. By the book’s end, the author has become a person I admire. I give credence to that which he says.
A wide range of topics are covered—everything from sports to politics, economics, the underworld, the arts and literature. What Whiting has learned is passes on to us, his readers.
The audiobook is extremely well read by Stefan Rudnicki. He speaks clearly and strongly. Few narrators so well capture subtle humor as Rudnicki does. Humor is important. I value this in that it makes the listening experience more enjoyable! Five stars for the narration.
In reading this book, you’ll earn a lot about Japan from an individual that straddles both the American and Japanese culture. I highly recommend it.
March 10, 2021
2.5 stars, really. Tokyo Junkie is a memoir of the author's time in Tokyo with a large part of it being devoted to baseball and the criminal world. I found the parts about life in Tokyo in his earliest days to be the most interesting and more of a story of Tokyo than his later years.
Some will find this memoir offensive as it is very much the tale of a white man in Japan at a time when such men were unusual and as such had way more privilege than they deserved. Whiting is very honest about how he comported himself in such an atmosphere.
The memoir reads smoothly, but as a reader, I wanted to know more about Tokyo than the author.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.
Some will find this memoir offensive as it is very much the tale of a white man in Japan at a time when such men were unusual and as such had way more privilege than they deserved. Whiting is very honest about how he comported himself in such an atmosphere.
The memoir reads smoothly, but as a reader, I wanted to know more about Tokyo than the author.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.
September 18, 2021
Tokyo Junkie blew me away. Whiting is a consummate storyteller, and the stories he has to tell are unlike anything I’ve come across in all my reading about Japan. The fact that this is a memoir makes it all the more readable and memorable. I envy his experiences in Japan (well, many of them, anyway), not to mention his abilities as a writer. Highly recommended.
April 6, 2021
Upcoming Release (Stone Bridge Press, April 20, 2021)
Review for Books on Asia by Mark Schumacher
Since the 1977 release of his first book The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, author Robert Whiting has remained the “go to” guy for entertaining and educating and enlightening books about Japan. His many English books and articles, once translated into Japanese, have hit the bestseller lists in Japan. Whiting resonates on both sides of the Pacific.
This book is Whiting’s memoir of his adventures (often riotous) as a longtime Japan resident. It is a definitive, detailed, and authoritative book: an “ensemble of curiosities with enough facts to fill two books.” That quote, by the way, is from the N.Y. Times book review of Chrysanthemum and the Bat. It still accurately describes Whiting’s style of writing.
Tokyo Junkie‘s 60-year trajectory carefully and entertainingly details the rebuilding of Tokyo (and Japan) from a destroyed postwar backwater reeking of urine, into a global economic powerhouse reeking of graft, bribery and scandal. It references slogans, cartoons, poems, propaganda films, secret reports, sports columns, and a wealth of other documents of the time. It is also a roller-coaster ride into the underbelly of Japan and into the underworld of Whiting’s own life in Tokyo during those decades.
Drunkenness and debauchery and chicanery play a big part in Whiting’s riveting narrative, but the book’s larger message of “renewal” (both Japan’s & Whiting’s) and the “goodness” of Japan’s common people, is crafted with great skill. His wife Machiko plays a big part in Whiting’s “recovery.”
Writes Whiting: “My story is part Alice in Wonderland, part Bright Lights, Big City, and part Forrest Gump, among other things. It is a coming-of-age tale as well as an account of a decades-long journey into the heart of a city undergoing one of the most remarkable and sustained metamorphoses ever seen. It is also something of a love story, with all the irrational sentimentality that term entails. Tokyo and I have had our differences, our ups and downs—I once left for what I thought was good, so tired of being a gaijin (foreigner) that I thought I would die if I stayed any longer—but as our relationship reaches the end and I look back, I must say that all in all it was the right place to spend all these years. It is not too much to say that I am what I am today because of the city of Tokyo. It was here that I learned the art of living, discovered the importance of perseverance, grew to appreciate the value of harmonious relations as much as individual rights, and came to rethink what it means to be an American as well as a member of the larger human race.”
Later in the book, Whiting describes his own metamorphoses: “I had developed bizarre social skills, to use the term loosely. I knew how to talk to my fellow Tokyoites but found I was becoming less conversant with Americans. I peppered my speech with Japanese words used all the time in daily conversation—sugoi, shoganai, maitta (wow, can’t be helped, I give up)—without realizing what I was doing. Moreover, I had unconsciously adopted Japanese mannerisms: bowing when talking on the phone, sucking wind as Japanese do when trying to think of something to say, pouring beer for dinner partners.”
Whiting and I have been friends since the mid-1990s, when we both lived in Kamakura. He was perpetually stuck inside a Japanese newspaper or magazine, researching his latest book. When I visited to fix or backup his Microsoft computer (I was his PC tech), I asked him how long it took him to write a book. He said: “About five years.”
Like Japanese baseball, Whiting’s approach to writing is a lot of hard training and practice and research, over and over and over. He had a routine of reading the Japanese newspapers and magazines and journals, with a toothpick in his mouth, which replaced the thousands of cigarettes he had smoked and beers he had drunk in earlier times. He had come down to earth. He had become one of us again, a famous man without pretension. I like him for that.
This book is Whiting’s love letter to Japan, to Tokyo, to the overall kindness of Japanese people and Japan’s endearing culture, which allowed him to arrive as a hated foreign conqueror and later to return as a friend. Writes Whiting: “I first came to the city over five decades ago in 1962 as a raw nineteen-year-old GI from small-town America. I spent over three years working for the CIA and the NSA, secretly spying on the communist regimes in Russia and China.”
In his book’s conclusion, he writes: “The product of the city’s continuing renewals and rebirths has redefined what it means to be Japanese. Along the way it redefined me as well.”
Tokyo Junkie is a likeable, breezy, well-written memoir, packed intensely with detail and eye-opening information about Japan, about the foibles of its author, and about bitter WWII enemies becoming steadfast friends in the following decades.
***
Mark Schumacher is a longtime Japan resident based in Kamakura. He is an independent scholar of Japanese Buddhist statuary, and author of the popular A-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japan’s Buddhist & Shinto Deities (online since 1995).
Visit Books on Asia at http://www.booksonasia.net
https://booksonasia.net/2021/04/02/re...
Review for Books on Asia by Mark Schumacher
Since the 1977 release of his first book The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, author Robert Whiting has remained the “go to” guy for entertaining and educating and enlightening books about Japan. His many English books and articles, once translated into Japanese, have hit the bestseller lists in Japan. Whiting resonates on both sides of the Pacific.
This book is Whiting’s memoir of his adventures (often riotous) as a longtime Japan resident. It is a definitive, detailed, and authoritative book: an “ensemble of curiosities with enough facts to fill two books.” That quote, by the way, is from the N.Y. Times book review of Chrysanthemum and the Bat. It still accurately describes Whiting’s style of writing.
Tokyo Junkie‘s 60-year trajectory carefully and entertainingly details the rebuilding of Tokyo (and Japan) from a destroyed postwar backwater reeking of urine, into a global economic powerhouse reeking of graft, bribery and scandal. It references slogans, cartoons, poems, propaganda films, secret reports, sports columns, and a wealth of other documents of the time. It is also a roller-coaster ride into the underbelly of Japan and into the underworld of Whiting’s own life in Tokyo during those decades.
Drunkenness and debauchery and chicanery play a big part in Whiting’s riveting narrative, but the book’s larger message of “renewal” (both Japan’s & Whiting’s) and the “goodness” of Japan’s common people, is crafted with great skill. His wife Machiko plays a big part in Whiting’s “recovery.”
Writes Whiting: “My story is part Alice in Wonderland, part Bright Lights, Big City, and part Forrest Gump, among other things. It is a coming-of-age tale as well as an account of a decades-long journey into the heart of a city undergoing one of the most remarkable and sustained metamorphoses ever seen. It is also something of a love story, with all the irrational sentimentality that term entails. Tokyo and I have had our differences, our ups and downs—I once left for what I thought was good, so tired of being a gaijin (foreigner) that I thought I would die if I stayed any longer—but as our relationship reaches the end and I look back, I must say that all in all it was the right place to spend all these years. It is not too much to say that I am what I am today because of the city of Tokyo. It was here that I learned the art of living, discovered the importance of perseverance, grew to appreciate the value of harmonious relations as much as individual rights, and came to rethink what it means to be an American as well as a member of the larger human race.”
Later in the book, Whiting describes his own metamorphoses: “I had developed bizarre social skills, to use the term loosely. I knew how to talk to my fellow Tokyoites but found I was becoming less conversant with Americans. I peppered my speech with Japanese words used all the time in daily conversation—sugoi, shoganai, maitta (wow, can’t be helped, I give up)—without realizing what I was doing. Moreover, I had unconsciously adopted Japanese mannerisms: bowing when talking on the phone, sucking wind as Japanese do when trying to think of something to say, pouring beer for dinner partners.”
Whiting and I have been friends since the mid-1990s, when we both lived in Kamakura. He was perpetually stuck inside a Japanese newspaper or magazine, researching his latest book. When I visited to fix or backup his Microsoft computer (I was his PC tech), I asked him how long it took him to write a book. He said: “About five years.”
Like Japanese baseball, Whiting’s approach to writing is a lot of hard training and practice and research, over and over and over. He had a routine of reading the Japanese newspapers and magazines and journals, with a toothpick in his mouth, which replaced the thousands of cigarettes he had smoked and beers he had drunk in earlier times. He had come down to earth. He had become one of us again, a famous man without pretension. I like him for that.
This book is Whiting’s love letter to Japan, to Tokyo, to the overall kindness of Japanese people and Japan’s endearing culture, which allowed him to arrive as a hated foreign conqueror and later to return as a friend. Writes Whiting: “I first came to the city over five decades ago in 1962 as a raw nineteen-year-old GI from small-town America. I spent over three years working for the CIA and the NSA, secretly spying on the communist regimes in Russia and China.”
In his book’s conclusion, he writes: “The product of the city’s continuing renewals and rebirths has redefined what it means to be Japanese. Along the way it redefined me as well.”
Tokyo Junkie is a likeable, breezy, well-written memoir, packed intensely with detail and eye-opening information about Japan, about the foibles of its author, and about bitter WWII enemies becoming steadfast friends in the following decades.
***
Mark Schumacher is a longtime Japan resident based in Kamakura. He is an independent scholar of Japanese Buddhist statuary, and author of the popular A-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japan’s Buddhist & Shinto Deities (online since 1995).
Visit Books on Asia at http://www.booksonasia.net
https://booksonasia.net/2021/04/02/re...
October 8, 2021
Robert Whiting is a talented and fascinating writer addicted to Japan. His memoir begins in 1962 when Japan was transforming itself on a monumental scale in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. The pages in-between cover a plethora of captivating subjects relating to the capital and the colourful characters who live there, as well as Whiting's own experiences in the Land of the Rising Sun. His final thoughts dwell on the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the effects of Covid-19 on the Japanese people and the thousands of businesses that thrive on the streets and alleyways in Tokyo.
Whiting is a humble man, saying more than once he believes he lacks an understanding of the finer points of Japanese culture, for example tea ceremony, but this book proves he has an all-encompassing understanding of society, culture, sport and politics in Japan.
Whiting admits he finds himself drawn towards the “low end” of Tokyo when he’s not thinking of or writing about his favourite sport, baseball. He has always been intrigued by the sordid underbelly of city life and the seedy people who live, work and play there like the yakuza, gamblers and hostesses. He likes to write about all sorts of illegitimate or quasi-criminal and fraudulent activities that lay just below the surface of polite society in Tokyo but Whiting’s love of Tokyo and the people who live there is ever-present in this book. He mentions everyone who has touched his heart and helped him when he needed it most.
One minute Whiting is explaining sumo wrestling is a difficult sport with a long tradition and on the next page he’ll share a story about a romantic date like his involvement with a young girl called Chako, the daughter of an izakaya owner. But it’s his love for his wife Machiko that leaves the greatest impression. He writes about her with the utmost respect and fondness.
Whiting is a captivating writer. His style is void of unnecessary adverbs and superlative adjectives and he is direct, candid and sincere on every page. His descriptions of Tokyo make the reader want to move to this enticing capital or at least visit the city for an extended period. “I like the incredible energy, the activity, the politeness, the orderliness, the cleanliness, the efficiency, the trains that always arrive on time, the mix of neon lights, the charm, and the uniqueness of it all.” (pg. 77)
This book is like a multi-faceted diamond with each prism refracting a unique light on each subject at hand. In the past decade, many Westerners have visited Japan and it has become one of the world’s most popular destinations. Tokyo is now home to more than 500,000 foreigners. Many people strive to understand the real Japan. They give up realising there are so many layers to the culture and levels in society and it would take years to fully comprehend. In less than 400 pages, Whiting’s memoir provides the answers to the many questions that need answering in order to understand the Japanese and their customs. This is possible because he opened his heart to the Japanese people and their culture many years ago when he was stationed in Japan, unlike most of his fellow soldiers. This is a brilliant memoir, I highly recommend it, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Whiting’s books in the future.
Whiting is a humble man, saying more than once he believes he lacks an understanding of the finer points of Japanese culture, for example tea ceremony, but this book proves he has an all-encompassing understanding of society, culture, sport and politics in Japan.
Whiting admits he finds himself drawn towards the “low end” of Tokyo when he’s not thinking of or writing about his favourite sport, baseball. He has always been intrigued by the sordid underbelly of city life and the seedy people who live, work and play there like the yakuza, gamblers and hostesses. He likes to write about all sorts of illegitimate or quasi-criminal and fraudulent activities that lay just below the surface of polite society in Tokyo but Whiting’s love of Tokyo and the people who live there is ever-present in this book. He mentions everyone who has touched his heart and helped him when he needed it most.
One minute Whiting is explaining sumo wrestling is a difficult sport with a long tradition and on the next page he’ll share a story about a romantic date like his involvement with a young girl called Chako, the daughter of an izakaya owner. But it’s his love for his wife Machiko that leaves the greatest impression. He writes about her with the utmost respect and fondness.
Whiting is a captivating writer. His style is void of unnecessary adverbs and superlative adjectives and he is direct, candid and sincere on every page. His descriptions of Tokyo make the reader want to move to this enticing capital or at least visit the city for an extended period. “I like the incredible energy, the activity, the politeness, the orderliness, the cleanliness, the efficiency, the trains that always arrive on time, the mix of neon lights, the charm, and the uniqueness of it all.” (pg. 77)
This book is like a multi-faceted diamond with each prism refracting a unique light on each subject at hand. In the past decade, many Westerners have visited Japan and it has become one of the world’s most popular destinations. Tokyo is now home to more than 500,000 foreigners. Many people strive to understand the real Japan. They give up realising there are so many layers to the culture and levels in society and it would take years to fully comprehend. In less than 400 pages, Whiting’s memoir provides the answers to the many questions that need answering in order to understand the Japanese and their customs. This is possible because he opened his heart to the Japanese people and their culture many years ago when he was stationed in Japan, unlike most of his fellow soldiers. This is a brilliant memoir, I highly recommend it, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Whiting’s books in the future.
December 10, 2021
Having lived in Tokyo from 2010-2015, I was very intrigued by the description of Robert Whiting's memoir Tokyo Junkie and was delighted to receive a copy from NetGalley and Stone Bridge Press so that I could provide an honest review.
Whiting writes with an insider's knowledge and the perspective of having lived in Japan for over 60 years. I loved reading about how the country has changed and how the arc of history has impacted cultural institutions such as baseball, yakuza and Japanese politics and using the 1964 and 2020(1) Olympic Games as book ends was an effective way to frame the time period of the personal recollections. Just as interesting as these large topics Whiting tackles, are the stories of his everyday life and the characters with whom he has crossed paths. What an interesting life lived by a man who was obviously open to embracing the adventure. The respect and love that Whiting feels for the country and its people are evident and makes this an absolute joy to read for anyone interested in Japan, who have traveled Japan or the many of us who were so lucky to have lived there. I am eagerly awaiting the publishing date of Tokyo Junkie as I have a long list of those I know will enjoy it and can't wait to get a copy for myself.
Whiting writes with an insider's knowledge and the perspective of having lived in Japan for over 60 years. I loved reading about how the country has changed and how the arc of history has impacted cultural institutions such as baseball, yakuza and Japanese politics and using the 1964 and 2020(1) Olympic Games as book ends was an effective way to frame the time period of the personal recollections. Just as interesting as these large topics Whiting tackles, are the stories of his everyday life and the characters with whom he has crossed paths. What an interesting life lived by a man who was obviously open to embracing the adventure. The respect and love that Whiting feels for the country and its people are evident and makes this an absolute joy to read for anyone interested in Japan, who have traveled Japan or the many of us who were so lucky to have lived there. I am eagerly awaiting the publishing date of Tokyo Junkie as I have a long list of those I know will enjoy it and can't wait to get a copy for myself.
November 12, 2021
(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
Author Robert Whitling’s account of his experiences living and working in Japan’s capital city turned out to be a surprisingly engaging read that is a combination of memoir, history, and love letter to Tokyo. I was both wholly absorbed within its pages and also to keep myself from constantly pausing to look up everything from specific temples and other local historical sites of note, to various aspects of Japan’s criminal underworld, and even Liberal Democratic Party scandals. Even when he's focusing on very specific topics like American athletes playing in Tokyo's professional baseball teams, Whitling’s deep connection and adoration for the city help make it come vividly alive across all the decades he lived and worked there. And as a result, Tokyo Junkie felt like it managed to be a book, a plane ticket halfway across the world, and a time machine all at once, leaving me both feeling like I just went for a grand journey, yet also feeling like I have a new location to add to my post-pandemic travel list.
Author Robert Whitling’s account of his experiences living and working in Japan’s capital city turned out to be a surprisingly engaging read that is a combination of memoir, history, and love letter to Tokyo. I was both wholly absorbed within its pages and also to keep myself from constantly pausing to look up everything from specific temples and other local historical sites of note, to various aspects of Japan’s criminal underworld, and even Liberal Democratic Party scandals. Even when he's focusing on very specific topics like American athletes playing in Tokyo's professional baseball teams, Whitling’s deep connection and adoration for the city help make it come vividly alive across all the decades he lived and worked there. And as a result, Tokyo Junkie felt like it managed to be a book, a plane ticket halfway across the world, and a time machine all at once, leaving me both feeling like I just went for a grand journey, yet also feeling like I have a new location to add to my post-pandemic travel list.
June 19, 2024
Skipinau skyrius apie beisbolą ;)
May 18, 2021
Robert Whiting’s Tokyo Junkie covers the author’s ties to Japan’s megacity over a period of more than half a century, including his relationships and notable encounters with all sorts of people and his work on several popular books and articles about Japanese culture, sport, and politics since the 60s. Whiting doesn’t pull punches, and he gives us an honest sizing up of many Tokyo layers and key figures and events, from the construction boom leading up to the 1964 Summer Olympics to the doings of yakuza syndicates and behind-the-scenes workings of the Yomiuri Giants, to foreign ballplayers in Japan, press freedoms (or lack thereof), government screw-ups and shady deals, wrestling, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and plenty more, with his personal experiences and Tokyo itself taking turns at center stage.
When I heard Whiting was releasing a memoir, I was eager to read it (plus surprised he’d beaten me to the punch, as I’d recently finished writing the first draft of a novel I’d titled Tokyo Junkie.) When I moved here in the mid-90s, a “gaijin-house”-mate passed on to me what was then a selection of current required reading in English on various things Japanese, most of which had been written by “foreigners” who’d dug deep into topics across a spectrum of focus areas. Among these were Alex Kerr’s Lost Japan, Ian Buruma’s The Missionary and the Libertine and, of course, Robert Whiting’s You Gotta Have Wa. And they were instrumental in shaping my views and helped to make sense of a place and culture which from every direction confounded me to varying degrees. I still have (and prize) some of these books (I somehow lost the above Buruma, regrettably; if anyone has a first edition they’re willing to abandon, do let me know).
I also enjoyed Whiting’s Tokyo Underworld (1999). It’s arguably the most compelling book about the city’s seamier sides. Alongside Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice (2009) perhaps. And some choice bits in Tokyo Junkie are Whiting’s recollections of Nicola Zappetti interviews and the author’s accounts of brushes with the yakuza. Occasionally (maybe unavoidably) repetitive but consistently absorbing and informative, it’s a book you can either barrel through or sip at, with its countless, roughly two- to three-page chapter sections. I’ve shelved Tokyo Junkie next to Ian Buruma’s memoir, A Tokyo Romance (2018), and I’d recommend it to anyone familiar with Whiting’s work and/or enchanted by (or addicted to) Tokyo.
When I heard Whiting was releasing a memoir, I was eager to read it (plus surprised he’d beaten me to the punch, as I’d recently finished writing the first draft of a novel I’d titled Tokyo Junkie.) When I moved here in the mid-90s, a “gaijin-house”-mate passed on to me what was then a selection of current required reading in English on various things Japanese, most of which had been written by “foreigners” who’d dug deep into topics across a spectrum of focus areas. Among these were Alex Kerr’s Lost Japan, Ian Buruma’s The Missionary and the Libertine and, of course, Robert Whiting’s You Gotta Have Wa. And they were instrumental in shaping my views and helped to make sense of a place and culture which from every direction confounded me to varying degrees. I still have (and prize) some of these books (I somehow lost the above Buruma, regrettably; if anyone has a first edition they’re willing to abandon, do let me know).
I also enjoyed Whiting’s Tokyo Underworld (1999). It’s arguably the most compelling book about the city’s seamier sides. Alongside Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice (2009) perhaps. And some choice bits in Tokyo Junkie are Whiting’s recollections of Nicola Zappetti interviews and the author’s accounts of brushes with the yakuza. Occasionally (maybe unavoidably) repetitive but consistently absorbing and informative, it’s a book you can either barrel through or sip at, with its countless, roughly two- to three-page chapter sections. I’ve shelved Tokyo Junkie next to Ian Buruma’s memoir, A Tokyo Romance (2018), and I’d recommend it to anyone familiar with Whiting’s work and/or enchanted by (or addicted to) Tokyo.
July 8, 2021
Robert Whiting is a guy I, quite frankly, wanted to meet. A few years ago, my then-employer was looking at bringing him in as a guest speaker, and I was tasked with picking up You Gotta Have Wa and Chrysanthemum and the Bat: Baseball Samurai Style in preparation. I finished both with great interest before turning them over to my colleague, despite having little knowledge of Japanese baseball outside of "The Curse of the Colonel," popular Osaka lore. As I read, I thought, "Wow, what an incredibly interesting life he's led." The detailed account of his time working with Japanese athletes - unheard-of, in the days before those players were permitted to try for the big leagues - impressed me.
When I saw Tokyo Junkie pop up during its pre-sale period this year, I decided to add it to my reading list, as well as pick up Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan, hoping for a closer look at Tokyo life in the showa era, and neither title disappointed. Tokyo Junkie is an incredibly well-remembered account of the author's life and the changing cityscape since his arrival in Japan just prior to the '64 Olympics, outlined in such vivid detail that there was plenty to learn for an urban history buff like myself. As I was also in Japan during many of the events described in the book, including the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was fascinating to see them from someone else's point of view.
The style of Tokyo Junkie feels personal, and for those who've read his other work, ties in just enough details of his previous books to keep the repeat reader engaged without rehashing too much (and made me want to re-read You Gotta Have Wa, heh). It also moves at a satisfying clip from the 1960s to present-day, lingering just long enough on the most interesting points from the eras between. An enjoyable read, and a book I'll certainly go back to again whenever I need a dose of Tokyo nostalgia.
When I saw Tokyo Junkie pop up during its pre-sale period this year, I decided to add it to my reading list, as well as pick up Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan, hoping for a closer look at Tokyo life in the showa era, and neither title disappointed. Tokyo Junkie is an incredibly well-remembered account of the author's life and the changing cityscape since his arrival in Japan just prior to the '64 Olympics, outlined in such vivid detail that there was plenty to learn for an urban history buff like myself. As I was also in Japan during many of the events described in the book, including the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was fascinating to see them from someone else's point of view.
The style of Tokyo Junkie feels personal, and for those who've read his other work, ties in just enough details of his previous books to keep the repeat reader engaged without rehashing too much (and made me want to re-read You Gotta Have Wa, heh). It also moves at a satisfying clip from the 1960s to present-day, lingering just long enough on the most interesting points from the eras between. An enjoyable read, and a book I'll certainly go back to again whenever I need a dose of Tokyo nostalgia.
May 5, 2021
Tokyo is the river that runs through this book, which for large tracts reads like a memoir and at other turns reads like a broad overview of things Japanese. I’ve only been to Tokyo once, for about a two week stay, but it’s impossible to miss the almost alien level of distinctiveness of the city. It’s the largest city in the world, but in many ways feels like a small town. The subways shut down at midnight, creating an alter ego to the city, aptly depicted in Haruki Murakami novels.
Whiting’s Tokyo journey begins with his time posted there in the military, a time which happens to correspond with the city being readied for the 1964 Olympics, through the present day COVID Pandemic challenges (which happens to correspond with the 2020 Tokyo Summer games being delayed -- and it remains to be seen whether these games will ever happen given the fact that the COVID virus is not taking our plans for vaccine-driven herd immunity sitting down.)
As Whiting’s book is part memoir, it gives particular scrutiny to the subjects of his earlier books, in as much as those topics touch upon life in Tokyo. One of these subjects, the more extensively discussed, is baseball and the very different way the game is played and reported upon in Japan. The other key subject is organized crime and the legendary Yakuza. Crime in Japan is a captivating topic because it is both invisible and infamously brutal. I enjoyed the view through these niche lenses because (particularly) the latter is not so conspicuous, but is riveting stuff. [When I was in Japan, I was taken to a bathhouse (not considered strange in Japan as it sounds to an American.) Before we went, I was told that if I had big tattoos, I couldn’t go; and, if I had a small tattoo, I’d need to use a washcloth to keep it covered the whole time. This is apparently because reputable establishments don’t want the taint of Yakuza on their premises. So, this is how much they keep things on the down-low.]
Whiting led various lives in Tokyo, he was an airman, a student, a salaryman, an unofficial advisor to a Yakuza gang, a journalist, and a nonfiction writer. These allowed him to see the changing city from a number of varied perspectives, offering much deeper insight than the run-of-the-mill expat.
In addition to the modern history of Tokyo, Japanese baseball, Yakuza, and Whiting’s various lives in the city, the book makes a lot of fascinating dives into a range of Tokyo topics, such as: sumo wrestling, the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, the city’s distant history, salaryman drinking habits, the demographic crisis (i.e. its aging population has been approaching the point of too many retirees per working taxpayer,) etc. The book offers a no-holds-barred look at the good, the bad, and the ugly underside of the city. It at once praises the city’s politeness, cleanliness, and smooth-running order and rebukes its dark side – dirty politics, toxic workplaces, xenophobia, etc.
I enjoyed this book tremendously. It offered great insight into Tokyo, Japanese culture, as well as many niche areas that I probably would never taken the time to investigate, otherwise. If you are interested in learning about Tokyo, particularly modern Tokyo, this is an excellent read.
Whiting’s Tokyo journey begins with his time posted there in the military, a time which happens to correspond with the city being readied for the 1964 Olympics, through the present day COVID Pandemic challenges (which happens to correspond with the 2020 Tokyo Summer games being delayed -- and it remains to be seen whether these games will ever happen given the fact that the COVID virus is not taking our plans for vaccine-driven herd immunity sitting down.)
As Whiting’s book is part memoir, it gives particular scrutiny to the subjects of his earlier books, in as much as those topics touch upon life in Tokyo. One of these subjects, the more extensively discussed, is baseball and the very different way the game is played and reported upon in Japan. The other key subject is organized crime and the legendary Yakuza. Crime in Japan is a captivating topic because it is both invisible and infamously brutal. I enjoyed the view through these niche lenses because (particularly) the latter is not so conspicuous, but is riveting stuff. [When I was in Japan, I was taken to a bathhouse (not considered strange in Japan as it sounds to an American.) Before we went, I was told that if I had big tattoos, I couldn’t go; and, if I had a small tattoo, I’d need to use a washcloth to keep it covered the whole time. This is apparently because reputable establishments don’t want the taint of Yakuza on their premises. So, this is how much they keep things on the down-low.]
Whiting led various lives in Tokyo, he was an airman, a student, a salaryman, an unofficial advisor to a Yakuza gang, a journalist, and a nonfiction writer. These allowed him to see the changing city from a number of varied perspectives, offering much deeper insight than the run-of-the-mill expat.
In addition to the modern history of Tokyo, Japanese baseball, Yakuza, and Whiting’s various lives in the city, the book makes a lot of fascinating dives into a range of Tokyo topics, such as: sumo wrestling, the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, the city’s distant history, salaryman drinking habits, the demographic crisis (i.e. its aging population has been approaching the point of too many retirees per working taxpayer,) etc. The book offers a no-holds-barred look at the good, the bad, and the ugly underside of the city. It at once praises the city’s politeness, cleanliness, and smooth-running order and rebukes its dark side – dirty politics, toxic workplaces, xenophobia, etc.
I enjoyed this book tremendously. It offered great insight into Tokyo, Japanese culture, as well as many niche areas that I probably would never taken the time to investigate, otherwise. If you are interested in learning about Tokyo, particularly modern Tokyo, this is an excellent read.
March 31, 2021
It’s Robert Whiting at his finest in Tokyo Junkie, which is essentially a memoir largely focused on Whiting’s life in Japan and on Japanese culture, particularly as it relates (or sometimes doesnt) to the way we see the world as Americans.
I’ve been on an All Things Japan kick lately and thus this book came at a perfect time for me. I’m also a huge fan of Whiting’s baseball writing, and there’s plenty of baseball-related content in Tokyo Junkie too.
That said, this one probably isn’t for everyone. There is a LOT of detail on things like Mori architecture and Japanese government corruption. Great if you like these things, a lot to digest if you don’t.
The book is also probably longer than it needs to be and contains a lot of personal “this one time I met this one guy” type vignettes that I greatly enjoyed but that may feel tedious for some readers who aren’t looking for a full immersion experience on this subject.
For me, Whiting is a can’t miss anytime he has a new book out, and this one hit the mark as usual. And while I’ll always love his baseball musings the most, there’s loads of fascinating material in Tokyo Junkie that runs the gamut on life in Japan that delights in equal measure.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
I’ve been on an All Things Japan kick lately and thus this book came at a perfect time for me. I’m also a huge fan of Whiting’s baseball writing, and there’s plenty of baseball-related content in Tokyo Junkie too.
That said, this one probably isn’t for everyone. There is a LOT of detail on things like Mori architecture and Japanese government corruption. Great if you like these things, a lot to digest if you don’t.
The book is also probably longer than it needs to be and contains a lot of personal “this one time I met this one guy” type vignettes that I greatly enjoyed but that may feel tedious for some readers who aren’t looking for a full immersion experience on this subject.
For me, Whiting is a can’t miss anytime he has a new book out, and this one hit the mark as usual. And while I’ll always love his baseball musings the most, there’s loads of fascinating material in Tokyo Junkie that runs the gamut on life in Japan that delights in equal measure.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
April 16, 2021
As someone who has lived in Japan for a few years out of every decade since the ‘80’s, Robert Whiting’s book Tokyo Junkie brought back a lot of memories. Even his stories from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s brought to mind stories my father, uncle, and brother told of the times they were stationed in Japan right after the war, and again in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Mr. Whiting has had a front row seat to the resurrection of a nation from the ashes of defeat to becoming to second largest economy in the world. If some of his stories seem outrageous, trust me-they aren’t. Japan, and especially Tokyo has been able to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix, and continues to do so. It is my favorite city in the world, and every time I return it seems something big has changed, but it’s still so familiar. In his stories, Whiting takes you through time, when Tokyo was still rebuilding, when Americans walking the streets were rare, and living there didn’t cost a fortune, to today when many citizen have to take out multi-generational mortgages just to buy an apartment.
If you’ve spent time in this glorious city, you’ll recognize these stories. I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times. Mr. Whiting understands the Japanese and unapologetically upsets the “wa” as only a gaijin can.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Mr. Whiting has had a front row seat to the resurrection of a nation from the ashes of defeat to becoming to second largest economy in the world. If some of his stories seem outrageous, trust me-they aren’t. Japan, and especially Tokyo has been able to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix, and continues to do so. It is my favorite city in the world, and every time I return it seems something big has changed, but it’s still so familiar. In his stories, Whiting takes you through time, when Tokyo was still rebuilding, when Americans walking the streets were rare, and living there didn’t cost a fortune, to today when many citizen have to take out multi-generational mortgages just to buy an apartment.
If you’ve spent time in this glorious city, you’ll recognize these stories. I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times. Mr. Whiting understands the Japanese and unapologetically upsets the “wa” as only a gaijin can.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
April 28, 2025
I don't know why I thought this was a history book about Tokyo, like a 'biography' or so. It turns out, even though it doesn't cover every bit of the history, it was a very interesting and entertaining way to talk about Japan. Mr. Whiting's storytelling is just brilliant. I loved how he intertwined his experience and adventures in Tokyo, like a memoir, and Japan's history since WWII, and used this combination to talk about Japanese culture, manners, and 'social rules'.
In terms of culture, coming from a Japanese family, most of the manners I already knew (and did myself), but it was fascinating how many interesting stories he could tell about Japanese culture through Yakuza (the biggest gang in Japan) and baseball. I don't even know and like gangs and baseball, but it was fascinating. I think he has a talent for getting in trouble and writing about these adventures. I'm looking forward to reading more of his books, especially 'Tokyo Underworld'.
In terms of culture, coming from a Japanese family, most of the manners I already knew (and did myself), but it was fascinating how many interesting stories he could tell about Japanese culture through Yakuza (the biggest gang in Japan) and baseball. I don't even know and like gangs and baseball, but it was fascinating. I think he has a talent for getting in trouble and writing about these adventures. I'm looking forward to reading more of his books, especially 'Tokyo Underworld'.
October 5, 2024
Thoroughly enjoyed this one, the memoir of an American man who worked mainly as a journalist and author over the course of his 60 years in and out of Japan. Focus is mostly on his quotidien life as a "gaijin" in Tokyo, but what a life.
Author had a front row seat to the transformation of Japan from devastated loser of a world war to global economic powerhouse. He offers many a fascinating insight into the mindset of the Japanese as a whole, with a focus on political, underworld and baseball characters. He has written extensively about these folks, and those books are all now on my 'to read' list here.
Author had a front row seat to the transformation of Japan from devastated loser of a world war to global economic powerhouse. He offers many a fascinating insight into the mindset of the Japanese as a whole, with a focus on political, underworld and baseball characters. He has written extensively about these folks, and those books are all now on my 'to read' list here.
January 20, 2025
This was a thoroughly enjoyable memoir centred around Tokyo.
Whiting (the author) arrived in Tokyo in the early 60s, it was still recovering from WW2.
He really brings alive what it was like to live in Tokyo through various periods including the Olympics prep and actual event, the bubble in the 1980s and modern day Tokyo. His writing is very accessible and even managed to make me interested in his favourite sport, baseball (something I never thought I'd say).
I haven't read any of Whiting's other books but I will be sure to seek them out now. Highly recommended!
Whiting (the author) arrived in Tokyo in the early 60s, it was still recovering from WW2.
He really brings alive what it was like to live in Tokyo through various periods including the Olympics prep and actual event, the bubble in the 1980s and modern day Tokyo. His writing is very accessible and even managed to make me interested in his favourite sport, baseball (something I never thought I'd say).
I haven't read any of Whiting's other books but I will be sure to seek them out now. Highly recommended!
September 5, 2025
It’s an entertaining read about an ex-military guy turned investigative journalist who goes native and his reminiscences of his work and life. Even from the start, you sense and see by his actions, his sensitivity and cultural understanding and humor. He shares the good and the bad and the ugly of the culture. He has the humility to learn while keeping his own values and identity intact. It’s a fun read about the life and times during the 60’s onwards. I enjoyed his Ichiro book awhile back and now, this memoir is a home run as well.
December 1, 2021
Whiting is a gifted storyteller and effortlessly brings Tokyo, the city he has called home for almost six decades, and its myriad inhabitants to life in a memoir that is nothing less than loveletter to his chosen home - though one that recognizes problems and flaws alongside the positive aspects of life in Japan instead of conyeving a purely rose-tinted view. A fascinating book about a fascinating life.
July 6, 2023
An easy and fun read after I heard about it from my high school math teacher The author arrived in Japan when I was a child in Tokyo, and I enjoyed following his journey through time while recalling my own memories of the city
December 27, 2021
I loved this book!! After living in Japan for two years, I have always been fascinated by the culture.
Mr. Whiting takes us to places long gone and places we can never see because of his deep understanding of the culture and language. It covers the entire period from his arrival as a young Airman in 1960 to the present day. I have even greater respect for Japan after reading the book.
Mr. Whiting takes us to places long gone and places we can never see because of his deep understanding of the culture and language. It covers the entire period from his arrival as a young Airman in 1960 to the present day. I have even greater respect for Japan after reading the book.
March 19, 2022
Tokyo Junkie
A junkie, by definition, is someone bent on destroying themselves through excessive behavior. But Robert Whiting may have intentionally rewritten the definition of "junkie" in his riveting memoir covering six decades in Tokyo, and counting.
Whiting's love and comprehensive knowledge of Tokyo are even greater than his addiction to the place. Whiting is a best-selling author, a journalist, and a media personality. US presidents, he tells us, have read his books in their quest to grasp the way the Japanese mind ticks.
From his humble beginnings as a 19-year-old GI stationed in the Tokyo area on an intelligence assignment, this kid from small-town Eureka, California, turns to the sports pages of the Japanese newspapers to gradually take command of a most difficult language—that eludes most Americans. He gets his degree, specializing in political science, from prestigious Sophia University, and his first office job is editing books for Encyclopedia Brittanica.
"I arrived here all those years ago in the full flush of American cockiness, a sense of superiority and entitlement that was unaffected by my total ignorance of any and all matters – cultural, historical or practical – that might be in the discussion."
Well, Whiting has more than vindicated himself of that ignorance. He's one of the world's leading authorities to speak about Japanese sports, politics, and organized crime.
One area of his expertise is baseball. In his best-selling book, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, he describes the making of Tokyo Junkie, which came about through a love of the game, and his astute grasp of group-ism versus individualism, a subject that he covers in his first book, "You've Got to Have Wa."
Whiting can be hilarious and self-effacing in his humor. The tall, dashing younger version of himself recalls being trotted out on social occasions by his Japanese hosts, like a "pet monkey."
Whiting occupies such different strata of life experienced by most Japanese foreigners in Tokyo. Myself included. He preceded most of us, arriving in 1962. He is succeeding a good many of us, too, as he nears his 60th anniversary in Japan, with a lot more stories to share.
A junkie, by definition, is someone bent on destroying themselves through excessive behavior. But Robert Whiting may have intentionally rewritten the definition of "junkie" in his riveting memoir covering six decades in Tokyo, and counting.
Whiting's love and comprehensive knowledge of Tokyo are even greater than his addiction to the place. Whiting is a best-selling author, a journalist, and a media personality. US presidents, he tells us, have read his books in their quest to grasp the way the Japanese mind ticks.
From his humble beginnings as a 19-year-old GI stationed in the Tokyo area on an intelligence assignment, this kid from small-town Eureka, California, turns to the sports pages of the Japanese newspapers to gradually take command of a most difficult language—that eludes most Americans. He gets his degree, specializing in political science, from prestigious Sophia University, and his first office job is editing books for Encyclopedia Brittanica.
"I arrived here all those years ago in the full flush of American cockiness, a sense of superiority and entitlement that was unaffected by my total ignorance of any and all matters – cultural, historical or practical – that might be in the discussion."
Well, Whiting has more than vindicated himself of that ignorance. He's one of the world's leading authorities to speak about Japanese sports, politics, and organized crime.
One area of his expertise is baseball. In his best-selling book, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, he describes the making of Tokyo Junkie, which came about through a love of the game, and his astute grasp of group-ism versus individualism, a subject that he covers in his first book, "You've Got to Have Wa."
Whiting can be hilarious and self-effacing in his humor. The tall, dashing younger version of himself recalls being trotted out on social occasions by his Japanese hosts, like a "pet monkey."
Whiting occupies such different strata of life experienced by most Japanese foreigners in Tokyo. Myself included. He preceded most of us, arriving in 1962. He is succeeding a good many of us, too, as he nears his 60th anniversary in Japan, with a lot more stories to share.
February 5, 2023
In the early 1960s, Japan was a poor country still emerging from the ravages of World War II. Pollution was a terrible problem. Most people in Tokyo didn’t have flush toilets. Yet Robert Whiting found himself fascinated by the city when he arrived there as a 19-year-old GI in 1962. His fascination has continued unabated since then, as evidenced by his latest book, Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys...and Baseball.
“I was as naïve as they come,” Whiting writes of his life before Tokyo. But his naivete didn’t last long as he sought out new experiences while working hard at learning Japanese. Whiting often ventured out from Fuchu Air Station, on the outskirts of Tokyo, where he worked in US Air Force Intelligence, to places like Shibuya, Ginza, and Shinjuku, where he encountered yakuza, bargirls, Catholic priests, doctors, haiku-writing bohemians and others. And though he was surrounded by numerous vices that he could have become addicted to, it was Japanese baseball that he became obsessed with.
The 1964 Olympics brought Japan to the eyes of the world – and brought tears of pride and joy to the eyes of many Japanese. Whiting writes that he “…watched fascinated, astonished, as, before my eyes, the city evolved, in a few short years, from a fetid, disease-ridden third-world backwater into a modern megalopolis in what many believe to be the greatest urban transformation in history.”
Though many Japanese were moved to tears because of how far they had come since 1945, there were also tears of grief and shame during the Olympics, when the Dutch judo contestant Anton Geesink won the Gold Medal against the Japanese Akio Kaminaga in the Open category. (The Japanese had requested that the Olympic committee include judo in the games.)
Whiting writes about how Geesink’s win revealed the strong mixed and complicated feelings that the Japanese harbored toward foreigners. Sometimes, Whiting shows us, those feelings were not mixed at all, but outright hostile. Despite his criticisms though, it is clear that Whiting’s love for the country, and especially Tokyo, is much stronger than any other feeling he has – mixed or otherwise.
Whiting does not confine his criticism to the Japanese. Americans in Japan could be as narrow-minded as any Japanese, he tells us. When Whiting’s enlistment ended in the mid-'60s and he decided to stay in Japan, many of his fellow GIs accused him of being a “Jap-lover.”
Whiting has spent most of his life since leaving the Air Force in Tokyo. In the decades since the ’64 Olympics, the city has gone through another miraculous transformation. Whiting’s own experiences in those years have been just as fascinating.
In 2013, Tokyo was again awarded the Summer Olympics. By that time it had become the city with the highest GDP in the world, with more Fortune 500 companies than any other metropolis. And the world had become enamored with Japanese culture; people had become hooked on everything from sushi to anime. Japan by then had also stumbled through numerous corruption scandals, and its economy had shrunk during the “lost decade” of the 1990s. By 2013 Whiting had graduated from a Japanese university, mastered the Japanese language, written numerous critically-acclaimed books (including the Pulitzer Prize entry, You Gotta Have Wa), been honored by US presidents and received death threats from yakuza after writing Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan. And he had married a Japanese woman – Machiko Kondo – who made a career as an officer for the United Nations.
Whiting takes us on a delightful tour through all of this.
Tokyo Junkie brings to mind two other fine books that I’d highly recommend reading after you've finished Tokyo Junkie. One of them is the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan, which traces America’s role in Vietnam up to the 1970s and on a parallel level the life of John Paul Vann, an American who spent many years in war-torn Vietnam and died there when his helicopter hit trees while flying at night.
The other book is Whiting’s own Tokyo Underworld, which traces Japanese-American postwar relations, and on a parallel level the life of Nick Zapetti, a former US Marine, who came to Japan during the postwar Occupation and stayed there. Zapetti would boast that he was the richest American in Japan, but he lost most of his money and died in his adopted country a broken man.
Sheehan and Whiting skillfully interweave the lives of the main characters (and in the case of Tokyo Junkie, the narrator) with larger forces. This makes the books very personal stories as well as macro-political/economic narratives about places that have had an immense impact on the United States and the rest of the world.
Tokyo Junkie is different from the two other books, however, in that both Vann and Zapetti were dark and conflicted figures. Whiting has lived through a great deal of drama in his years in Tokyo, but reading Tokyo Junkie it’s clear that his own dramatic story is a happier one.
By the time Zapetti died he had planned to kill all those he disliked. It seems, however, he disliked himself more than anyone else. As Whiting writes in Tokyo Underworld, Zapetti told him shortly before he died that “…any man who left his own country to live in another was an ‘asshole,’ deserving of everything bad that happened to him.”
Zapetti was wrong. Whether it is in Tokyo, or anywhere else in the world, one will find heroes, villains and fools. Zapetti belonged in one - or both - of the latter categories. By living and writing Tokyo Junkie, Whiting deserves to be listed in the first category.
If you have any interest in learning of how a fascinating city and a fine human being have developed over the course of nearly 60 years – with many trials, tribulations, joys and successes - read Tokyo Junkie!
“I was as naïve as they come,” Whiting writes of his life before Tokyo. But his naivete didn’t last long as he sought out new experiences while working hard at learning Japanese. Whiting often ventured out from Fuchu Air Station, on the outskirts of Tokyo, where he worked in US Air Force Intelligence, to places like Shibuya, Ginza, and Shinjuku, where he encountered yakuza, bargirls, Catholic priests, doctors, haiku-writing bohemians and others. And though he was surrounded by numerous vices that he could have become addicted to, it was Japanese baseball that he became obsessed with.
The 1964 Olympics brought Japan to the eyes of the world – and brought tears of pride and joy to the eyes of many Japanese. Whiting writes that he “…watched fascinated, astonished, as, before my eyes, the city evolved, in a few short years, from a fetid, disease-ridden third-world backwater into a modern megalopolis in what many believe to be the greatest urban transformation in history.”
Though many Japanese were moved to tears because of how far they had come since 1945, there were also tears of grief and shame during the Olympics, when the Dutch judo contestant Anton Geesink won the Gold Medal against the Japanese Akio Kaminaga in the Open category. (The Japanese had requested that the Olympic committee include judo in the games.)
Whiting writes about how Geesink’s win revealed the strong mixed and complicated feelings that the Japanese harbored toward foreigners. Sometimes, Whiting shows us, those feelings were not mixed at all, but outright hostile. Despite his criticisms though, it is clear that Whiting’s love for the country, and especially Tokyo, is much stronger than any other feeling he has – mixed or otherwise.
Whiting does not confine his criticism to the Japanese. Americans in Japan could be as narrow-minded as any Japanese, he tells us. When Whiting’s enlistment ended in the mid-'60s and he decided to stay in Japan, many of his fellow GIs accused him of being a “Jap-lover.”
Whiting has spent most of his life since leaving the Air Force in Tokyo. In the decades since the ’64 Olympics, the city has gone through another miraculous transformation. Whiting’s own experiences in those years have been just as fascinating.
In 2013, Tokyo was again awarded the Summer Olympics. By that time it had become the city with the highest GDP in the world, with more Fortune 500 companies than any other metropolis. And the world had become enamored with Japanese culture; people had become hooked on everything from sushi to anime. Japan by then had also stumbled through numerous corruption scandals, and its economy had shrunk during the “lost decade” of the 1990s. By 2013 Whiting had graduated from a Japanese university, mastered the Japanese language, written numerous critically-acclaimed books (including the Pulitzer Prize entry, You Gotta Have Wa), been honored by US presidents and received death threats from yakuza after writing Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan. And he had married a Japanese woman – Machiko Kondo – who made a career as an officer for the United Nations.
Whiting takes us on a delightful tour through all of this.
Tokyo Junkie brings to mind two other fine books that I’d highly recommend reading after you've finished Tokyo Junkie. One of them is the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan, which traces America’s role in Vietnam up to the 1970s and on a parallel level the life of John Paul Vann, an American who spent many years in war-torn Vietnam and died there when his helicopter hit trees while flying at night.
The other book is Whiting’s own Tokyo Underworld, which traces Japanese-American postwar relations, and on a parallel level the life of Nick Zapetti, a former US Marine, who came to Japan during the postwar Occupation and stayed there. Zapetti would boast that he was the richest American in Japan, but he lost most of his money and died in his adopted country a broken man.
Sheehan and Whiting skillfully interweave the lives of the main characters (and in the case of Tokyo Junkie, the narrator) with larger forces. This makes the books very personal stories as well as macro-political/economic narratives about places that have had an immense impact on the United States and the rest of the world.
Tokyo Junkie is different from the two other books, however, in that both Vann and Zapetti were dark and conflicted figures. Whiting has lived through a great deal of drama in his years in Tokyo, but reading Tokyo Junkie it’s clear that his own dramatic story is a happier one.
By the time Zapetti died he had planned to kill all those he disliked. It seems, however, he disliked himself more than anyone else. As Whiting writes in Tokyo Underworld, Zapetti told him shortly before he died that “…any man who left his own country to live in another was an ‘asshole,’ deserving of everything bad that happened to him.”
Zapetti was wrong. Whether it is in Tokyo, or anywhere else in the world, one will find heroes, villains and fools. Zapetti belonged in one - or both - of the latter categories. By living and writing Tokyo Junkie, Whiting deserves to be listed in the first category.
If you have any interest in learning of how a fascinating city and a fine human being have developed over the course of nearly 60 years – with many trials, tribulations, joys and successes - read Tokyo Junkie!
May 22, 2021
A nice memoir of an interesting life spent in Japan. For those of us a little younger than Whiting, it's also a historical record, as many of the scenes described are set squarely in a Tokyo of the past that are hardly imaginable today. I have little interest in baseball, and so lost the thread a little in those sections, but even for a non-enthusiast understanding the country's relationship with this particular sport is interesting.
October 4, 2022
Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Robert Whiting is an outstanding writer and has clearly lived a charmed life. He has embarked on some wild adventures and has seen the biggest city in the world completely transform itself over the past 60 years. Both the city's narrative and his own are completely fascinating and worth your time and attention. Must-read material!
January 12, 2023
The first 5-star book of the year(2023) is a memoir of the 60 years of Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa between the two Tokyo Olympics. The author is Robert Whiting, an 81-year-old journalist living in Japan. Although the book is written in English for an international audience, the readers who will really enjoy reading this book are those of us who have lived through this period. He is a valuable witness who has observed the era of high economic growth, the bubble economy and its collapse, and the lost 30 years from the perspective of the masses like us. This is not just nostalgia but a first-class discussion of Japanese culture from an original point of view.
Whiting came to Japan in 1962 as a U.S. Army soldier, worked in intelligence for the CIA and NSA, retired from the military, studied political science at Sophia University, and married a Japanese woman. After working as an English teacher for Tsuneo Watanabe, an influential fixer and later president of the Yomiuri Shimbun, and as an advisor to the Yakuza Sumiyoshi-kai, he became the editor of the Japanese edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and produced related English language materials. 1977 saw the publication of his best-selling book "Chrysanthemum and the Bat," and he began working as a freelance journalist. He has since published many bestsellers, including the Pulitzer Prize nominee "You Gotta Have Wa" (1989) and "Tokyo Underworld" (2000), which has been made into a Hollywood movie.
Whiting was fed up with being treated as a "gaijin," but on the other hand, he used his foreigner's privilege to infiltrate the depths of politics, baseball, and the underworld, which ordinary Japanese could not do. In his youth, he lived in a cheap apartment in Higashi-Nakano, visited at 2 am by hostesses wearing thick makeup and yakuza men he knew, but since becoming a successful journalist, he has mingled with celebrities and lived in a house in Kamakura and a tower apartment in Toyosu. He is a man who knows Japan inside and out, front and back, from top to bottom.
Typically, an individual's retrospective of 60 years can be nostalgic or influenced by recent events that distort the perspective of history, but Whiting's historical perspective is very balanced. He has not lived in Japan for 60 unbroken years but has lived in cities around the world because his wife, who worked for the United Nations, has been transferred to other countries. This is why he is able to look at Japan more objectively than the "gaijin" celebrities who often appear on TV. His analysis is thought-provoking. The book is rich in content and should be read as a textbook by young Japanese readers.
What makes this book a page-turner more than anything else is its unique approach. Using the keywords that he has used in dozens of his books, including politics, popular culture, baseball, professional wrestling, and the underworld, he has superbly organized the turbulent history of our time. And by linking it to his own tumultuous personal history as an expatriate, it becomes a fascinating story. Although there are some journalistic criticisms, Whiting's writing is always full of love for Japan and Tokyo, making this a masterpiece that will evoke strong sympathies among Japanese readers.
Whiting came to Japan in 1962 as a U.S. Army soldier, worked in intelligence for the CIA and NSA, retired from the military, studied political science at Sophia University, and married a Japanese woman. After working as an English teacher for Tsuneo Watanabe, an influential fixer and later president of the Yomiuri Shimbun, and as an advisor to the Yakuza Sumiyoshi-kai, he became the editor of the Japanese edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and produced related English language materials. 1977 saw the publication of his best-selling book "Chrysanthemum and the Bat," and he began working as a freelance journalist. He has since published many bestsellers, including the Pulitzer Prize nominee "You Gotta Have Wa" (1989) and "Tokyo Underworld" (2000), which has been made into a Hollywood movie.
Whiting was fed up with being treated as a "gaijin," but on the other hand, he used his foreigner's privilege to infiltrate the depths of politics, baseball, and the underworld, which ordinary Japanese could not do. In his youth, he lived in a cheap apartment in Higashi-Nakano, visited at 2 am by hostesses wearing thick makeup and yakuza men he knew, but since becoming a successful journalist, he has mingled with celebrities and lived in a house in Kamakura and a tower apartment in Toyosu. He is a man who knows Japan inside and out, front and back, from top to bottom.
Typically, an individual's retrospective of 60 years can be nostalgic or influenced by recent events that distort the perspective of history, but Whiting's historical perspective is very balanced. He has not lived in Japan for 60 unbroken years but has lived in cities around the world because his wife, who worked for the United Nations, has been transferred to other countries. This is why he is able to look at Japan more objectively than the "gaijin" celebrities who often appear on TV. His analysis is thought-provoking. The book is rich in content and should be read as a textbook by young Japanese readers.
What makes this book a page-turner more than anything else is its unique approach. Using the keywords that he has used in dozens of his books, including politics, popular culture, baseball, professional wrestling, and the underworld, he has superbly organized the turbulent history of our time. And by linking it to his own tumultuous personal history as an expatriate, it becomes a fascinating story. Although there are some journalistic criticisms, Whiting's writing is always full of love for Japan and Tokyo, making this a masterpiece that will evoke strong sympathies among Japanese readers.
September 15, 2025
Gave up after the baseball section. This guy is so insufferable that I couldn't read the rest, even though his life in Japan seems very interesting. My problem with this book is that even though he's in his 70s when he wrote it, he's mentally an oversexed teen. Every third page is a mention of a "beautiful, long-legged" Japanese girl who flirted with him or slept with him, or a wink-nod about his visits to prostitutes. He mentions once that a lot of "young" Japanese girls in the 1960s when he first was in Japan were forced into prostitution due to hunger, but this doesn't seem to bother him. He thinks it's cool that he and other American GIs could "have fun" with them. And I guess he thinks he's mature because he shakes his fingers when the violence towards them got out of hand in a couple of scandalous incidents.
Since there's no way to avoid those paragraphs (they come up in every context), I stopped reading the book. It's too bad because I learned a lot about Japan's initial economic boom the in 1960s and the significance to the nation of the 1964 Olympics, about the physical transformation of Tokyo (for better and worse), about the fact that there was a strong anti-Vietnam movement in the late '60s as part of a general anti-American sentiment, about corruption, and about Japanese baseball. All that is good stuff, and I might read one of Whiting's regular reportorial books. But I don't need his pants-dropping, name-dropping memoir.
Since there's no way to avoid those paragraphs (they come up in every context), I stopped reading the book. It's too bad because I learned a lot about Japan's initial economic boom the in 1960s and the significance to the nation of the 1964 Olympics, about the physical transformation of Tokyo (for better and worse), about the fact that there was a strong anti-Vietnam movement in the late '60s as part of a general anti-American sentiment, about corruption, and about Japanese baseball. All that is good stuff, and I might read one of Whiting's regular reportorial books. But I don't need his pants-dropping, name-dropping memoir.
April 20, 2021
My thanks to NetGalley and Stone Bridge Press for an advanced copy of this memoir.
Robert Whiting's memoir Tokyo Junkie is a love story to a city that the author has watched grow, change, and grow into the megacity that it is today. For over 60 years Mr. Whiting has lived in Tokyo, with some interruptions in other world capitals, but has since a young man considered Tokyo his true home. Joining the army at a young age, he was assigned to Japan in the early 1960's and fell I love with the culture, the language and the people. He chronicles the changes he has seen to the city from its post-war ruins, to the changes made for the Tokyo Olympics, to its growth as a technological hub, financial crash, and Olympic dreams that have been detailed by a world pandemic.
Mr. Whiting covers crime, the financial world, arts, but its the sports that he loves especially baseball. He found a career writing two books on a the love of the sport in Japan, that opened many doors for him both professionally and socially. There's even a brief section on Japanese wrestling that I found very informative.
This book is a study in both a city and a man, juvenile in some places, wise in others but necessary for the creation of the man he became.
Robert Whiting's memoir Tokyo Junkie is a love story to a city that the author has watched grow, change, and grow into the megacity that it is today. For over 60 years Mr. Whiting has lived in Tokyo, with some interruptions in other world capitals, but has since a young man considered Tokyo his true home. Joining the army at a young age, he was assigned to Japan in the early 1960's and fell I love with the culture, the language and the people. He chronicles the changes he has seen to the city from its post-war ruins, to the changes made for the Tokyo Olympics, to its growth as a technological hub, financial crash, and Olympic dreams that have been detailed by a world pandemic.
Mr. Whiting covers crime, the financial world, arts, but its the sports that he loves especially baseball. He found a career writing two books on a the love of the sport in Japan, that opened many doors for him both professionally and socially. There's even a brief section on Japanese wrestling that I found very informative.
This book is a study in both a city and a man, juvenile in some places, wise in others but necessary for the creation of the man he became.
March 21, 2024
Well, this is what it is, a memoir of someone who arrived at Tokyo barely out of high school, in the late fifties, and it grew on him until he became very fond of the city.
The thing is, it does not really add up to much. We end up knowing something about the author, something about the city, and a lot about baseball. Surprisingly, does not mention Thomasson, a player that was so bad that he became a symbol for architectural goofs.
At any rate, it is not a biography, because it leaves lots of gaps in between, mainly when he was outside Tokyo, and it’s not a travel book, because it does not focus on specific moments, or areas. He mentions all the books he’s written, and some articles, but you end up with the impression that to really understand what’s going on you need to read some of his other books, such as “Tokyo underworld”.
At least, there’s a big picture of the city throughout the second half of the XX century and a bit of the next one, with some value in the timespan. But there’s very little to commend about it, other than that.
The thing is, it does not really add up to much. We end up knowing something about the author, something about the city, and a lot about baseball. Surprisingly, does not mention Thomasson, a player that was so bad that he became a symbol for architectural goofs.
At any rate, it is not a biography, because it leaves lots of gaps in between, mainly when he was outside Tokyo, and it’s not a travel book, because it does not focus on specific moments, or areas. He mentions all the books he’s written, and some articles, but you end up with the impression that to really understand what’s going on you need to read some of his other books, such as “Tokyo underworld”.
At least, there’s a big picture of the city throughout the second half of the XX century and a bit of the next one, with some value in the timespan. But there’s very little to commend about it, other than that.
May 14, 2024
I decided to give this a go not because I have any interest in baseball (I have less than none), or Whiting's career (I knew nothing about him), but for the promised personal take on Tokyo's evolution from the early 60s to the present - and because it was about to drop out of Audible's included with membership selection.
On the evolution of Tokyo from a couple of years before the 1964 Olympics to the delayed 2020 Olympics, it delivers nicely - I first visited Tokyo in 2003, some 40 years after Whiting, and he does a great job of filling me in on what I missed and the vast transformations the city has seen. And it turns out the other two aspects were surprisingly engaging too.
The audiobook version would, however, have been vastly improved if they'd hired someone who knows how to pronounce Japanese, and if they'd refrained from doing silly (and bad) accents when other people are quoted.
On the evolution of Tokyo from a couple of years before the 1964 Olympics to the delayed 2020 Olympics, it delivers nicely - I first visited Tokyo in 2003, some 40 years after Whiting, and he does a great job of filling me in on what I missed and the vast transformations the city has seen. And it turns out the other two aspects were surprisingly engaging too.
The audiobook version would, however, have been vastly improved if they'd hired someone who knows how to pronounce Japanese, and if they'd refrained from doing silly (and bad) accents when other people are quoted.
May 17, 2024
Robert Whiting developed a Tokyo perspective over the 50 years he spent living in the city which he now considers home. It all begins in 1962 when a 19 year old Whiting arrives with the U.S. Air Force. He first sees Japan through the eyes of occupation but then quickly comes to see a city about to be welcomed back into the world community with the preparation for 1964 Olympics (Tokyo was the first city in Asia chosen to host the games). As the city transforms and Whiting's time with the military comes to an end he decides to stick around in the city which “had more bars per square kilometer than anywhere in the world.”Why not take a “crazy trip through the Looking Glass,” first as a student and then English tutor and editor for Encyclopedia Britannica. Now, almost 60 years later Whiting lays out a story of an age with consistently entertaining details about nearly all aspects of Japanese daily life and culture, creating a priceless document of the rise of one of the world’s great cities. A memoir for Robert Whiting but also a biography about Tokyo.
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