Why I would rather work for the yakuza than National Geographic Television
Why I would rather work for the yakuza than National Geographic Television: My resignation, apologies, and words of caution to anyone involved with production.
By Jake Adelstein | Published: 3 March 2011
I have been working as a consultant on a National Geographic Television documentary on the yakuza since the summer of last year. I resigned on February 24th. I also asked that my name be removed from the program.
I did this for two reasons. I was not given full access to the materials that would allow me to verify the factual accuracy of the program and thus unable to do my job properly. There are also issues of the program being seen as yarase (やらせ). Since I can’t verify the factual accuracy, taking the money and continuing would be perfidious. Also, after seeing a rough cut of the program, I now have serious concerns about the safety of all Americans and Japanese sources, friends, and the staff of National Geographic Channel Japan who are involved with this program. There is a chance that the yakuza that have been betrayed by NGT will use violence against those residing in Japan to express their anger. I am even concerned about the safety of the yakuza that agreed to appear in the documentary, probably under false pretenses and false promises. They will face retaliation from their superiors if the program is aired as it is now. Yakuza are people too, a small minority of them are good people in their own right, and once they cooperate with the program, they are also sources. And sources have to be protected. That is the good faith that is demanded in responsible journalism.
I am posting this publicly because I have been unable to reach all the parties involved in this documentary. I will not be shown the final product and National Geographic Television has refused to tell me whom they interviewed or how those interviews were obtained therefore I can’t be sure who is at risk of substantial harm. After consulting with friends in the Japanese police and in US Federal Law Enforcement agencies, who advised that I had a duty to inform all parties involved, which I agree with, I have decided to do this very publicly. National Geographic Television has asked me at least once not to update or inform their Japanese partners about problems with the production (see correspondence and emails). Therefore, I feel that I must do what they should do.
In February, I asked for a copy of the final cut of the documentary video and a final copy of the script to make sure that factual errors had been corrected and to have the yakuza ceremony footage I loaned NGT excised from the program. I received a notice from National Geographic Television, refusing this request, that curtly stated:
“NGT is satisfied that Mr. Adelstein has completed his consulting services on the Program, and Mr. Adelstein should submit his final invoice if he has not already done so.”
On February 25, instead of turning in a final invoice, I turned in my letter of resignation and I am returning my salary. The check is in the mail.
I have posted highly redacted versions of my resignation letter both in English and my Japanese letter of resignation or 辞任状. They have been redacted to risk the exposure of and endangerment of sources and those involved with the project.
My counsel has advised me that by posting this I will probably face malicious litigation from NGT that will bankrupt me and leave me financially destitute. But after careful consideration, I have made my choice. I would rather lose my life savings than have anyone lose their life or their fingers for the entertainment of NGT’s viewers.
For more on the background to these events, please continue reading.
I was employed by National Geographic Television (USA) as a consultant for their documentary, and as part of that work I helped arrange interviews, handled logistics, and did some of the interviews myself. I introduced the outsourced film team to my sources and friends. I loaned them footage of actual yakuza ceremonies, for their “dramatization” sequences-that I asked to be returned and that they have not. There was actually no response to that request until they failed to obtain the same footage from CBS 60 Minutes, at which point they essentially said they would steal it or find it from third party sources.
For several months, I have repeatedly asked to have all the materials necessary to verify the “factual accuracy” of the program, as was the agreement. The reply from NGT was to insist that “factual accuracy” actually meant “general accuracy”, and that I was being difficult.
When you insist on doing your job correctly and to the best of your ability, some people become annoyed; I have many faults as individual but I try my best to be a responsible journalist, which is to tell the truth to the public and protect my sources. I have failed to protect my sources in the past. I don’t ever forget about it; I try to atone for it. In addition to being an investigative journalist, I am a board director of a Japanese NPO, which fights against human trafficking and the exploitation of women, children and foreign workers, often providing shelter and doing rescue missions. I do that work pro bono. There are many times we have information we’d like to take to the police or make public but cannot because it would endanger the victim. We always choose the safety of the victim first. It’s standard operating procedure. As a journalist, I believe the same rules of protecting victims are supposed to be applied to sources.
This is not the first time I’ve worked with a documentary film crew. In 2009, I worked with Lara Logan and Howard Rosenberg of 60 Minutes on a feature about four yakuza receiving liver transplants at UCLA under dubious circumstances. The television crew was well prepared, had read my book and all the documentation I sent them in advance, and spent months doing independent research. They spent weeks consulting with others and myself. They diligently altered footage and voices so as avoid endangering anyone involved. I was even consulted about the re-broadcasting of the documentary and when I said that safety concerns had emerged, they agreed, and did not re-air the film. They have been the paradigm of professional, ethical, and responsible journalism.
What NGT are doing is often referred to as “parachute journalism”, a problematic practice well-described by the Committee To Protect Journalists. It essentially involves transporting journalists, or a film crew with no journalists, into an area to report on a story in which they lack knowledge, experience, and good judgment. The dearth of knowledge and budgetary constraints often results in inaccurate and sometimes harmful news stories or features. Parachute journalism is not always a bad thing. It can bring fresh perspective to news coverage. However, it can also result in huge problems if done recklessly.
On a personal level, it’s one thing to have a crew of outsiders come into the country, cause havoc and then run away, but usually they don’t leave a ticking time bomb in your house and not tell you about it. I expect that National Geographic Television’s response to this will be to defame me, and attack my credibility, and assorted character assassination. They may pretend to take the moral high ground by saying, “We’re exposing criminals.” But what they’re doing is burning their sources and exposing them to danger. The yakuza that cooperated were promised things that were not delivered. They were promised that their conversations were “off the record.” They are not being “exposed”; they are being betrayed. Perhaps NGT will work out a back-door deal with those involved where they promise to cut the problematic footage in exchange for the parties involved making coerced statements that they “we were completely happy with how we were treated.” That would be a kind of blackmail, but I believe that NGT is capable of doing that to save face.
The three yakuza involved claim that the director made verbal promises at the time of the interviews and these promises were broken. They were promises that ensured confidentiality, a say in the final edit and that there would be nothing in the program to incriminate them. They cooperated in good faith. By US standards they were foolish for not getting something in writing. If you look at the situation like a yakuza would, they were simply expecting that they were dealing with honorable people, whose words meant something in lieu of a written contract.
There is a saying in Japanese, bushi wa nigon ga nai (武士は二言がない). Literally, a samurai doesn’t have a second word. What it means is that once a samurai has said he’ll do something or promises he’ll do something, he does and he keeps that promises. He doesn’t backpedal and say “factual accuracy” means “general accuracy” or that “we may have said that but that’s not what you signed.”
Would I believe the word of three yakuza over the word of an LA based “film director” who brags about his reputation for doing awesome “dramatizations” and “re-creations”? Mmm…Yes. I’d believe the yakuza every time, in this case. The yakuza do have standards and practices. They are not particularly high standards but they exist. Most yakuza have them posted on large ornate scrolls posted on their office walls and written in bold dark cursive: “Any member who engages in theft, robbery, rape and or any other activity that runs contrary to the noble way (ninkyodo) will be expelled.” It’s very clear.
I’ve never seen the standards and practices documents for National Geographic Television, although I have asked to see them many times. The only time I’ve even heard NGT staff seriously mention them was at the room of the Ritz Carlton Tokyo where the director was staying. He was complaining that standards and practices at NGT had issued a new directive which banned all sit-down interviews, “because they’re boring” and required the outsourced film crews to get footage of people “doing things” while being interviewed. It was at this point that he began complaining about the scholars, police officers, ex-police officers, and authors that I had arranged to interview weeks in advance, because obviously, they weren’t interesting enough. They would have given great insight but they are people who sit down and talk, not perform.
Towards the end of the filming, the crew became desperate for “exciting footage” and ran around town getting it, making us short on staff. Of course, there was also no good will between the director and myself and one crew member had already quit after declaring that they felt the director had no concern for the safety of their family in Japan. So I conducted two of the interviews myself, with a one-man film crew. I was not hired as a reporter but as a consultant but I gladly did the work because I wanted the program to have some substance. I was glad that parts of that interview remained, at least in the cut that I was shown, with reluctancy by NGT.
I thought about leaking this state of affairs anonymously so as to avoid legal issues but then I decided that’s the kind of cowardly, sneaky backstabbing behavior that I detest. I’ll speak up for myself, and I will speak for everyone that they have ruthlessly used and endangered for their own profit.
What NGT is doing is tantamount to criminal negligence. Under Japanese law, if during the course of your work you engage in negligent behavior that results in injury, you can be held criminally responsible and arrested. The Japanese penal code refers to this as gyomujo kashitsushisho (業務上過失死傷) or “crimes of injury through negligence in the pursuit of professional activities.”
I am a Japanese permanent resident and subject to the laws of Japanese. NGT may be surprised to know this, but since the documentary filming was conducted in Japan, they and the film crew are also subject to Japanese law. Just because you’re not Japanese doesn’t make you above the law.
In September of 2004, the Japan Coast Guard arrested the Russian captain of a ship on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, after the ship capsized and three crew members died. The ship had arrived at the lumber dock in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture and began unloading its cargo. Coast guard officials then told the captain to move the vessel away from shore to protect it from a typhoon that was approaching, but the captain did not heed the warnings and stayed at the dock. The ship repeatedly crashed against the pier and sank; three of the eighteen crew members died and the fourth crew member was never found.
In analogous terms, which I hope NGT can understand, they are the Russian ship captain, the typhoon is the footage they have taken in bad faith, the crew is everyone in Japan involved with this documentary, and I am the coast guard. They’ve been notified.
If they air the film as it is now and anyone is hurt, I’ll be the first one to go to the police and file charges of criminal negligence resulting in injury and/or death. And I will do my best to see that they are extradited. Because recklessly endangering or causing harm to others is a crime here in Japan where the documentary was filmed.
They can’t deny they knew there were dangers. The chain of emails that someone in the organization anonymously sent me establishes that, as well as does this posting.
NGT has been warned; I hope they become enlightened and do the right thing for once. Ethical and factual journalism can actually be pleasant, if a little boring.
You might wonder, “Well, if it’s so dangerous, why don’t you leave Japan?” I don’t leave because I while I may retreat, I don’t run away. I’m the sole support of a good friend and his family, who I have promised to look after. I also know that when the yakuza get angry they will look for someone to blame. I don’t want that to be one of my friends who introduced National Geographic to their sources that NGT then browbeat into getting introductions to current yakuza members. I’ve talked with the parties involved, directly and indirectly; they don’t blame me. I don’t fear losing my life. I don’t fear losing face either; I’ve already lost it. It has been a humiliating week of apologizing to all parties involved in the program, including the National Police Agency. Every one who I introduced to the National Geographic Television crew is upset with me and doubts my judgment. I can only apologize and do my best to make sure that it doesn’t reflect badly on them. I don’t worry about the yakuza taking their frustration out on me. However, I worry that their subordinates will confuse National Geographic Channel in Japan with National Geographic Television and that their staff will suffer for it, if they seek to avenge their comrades. It is also possible that the individuals who made the introductions to the yakuza are harassed or blamed for the matter.
From the beginning, I warned NGT repeatedly that interviewing current members would cause problems and be dangerous. Those warnings were not heeded and I have spent several days now apologizing and dealing with the individuals they have angered. The yakuza groups involved in the program have killed at least twelve people in recent years, including innocent bystanders in cross-fire, their gangland enemies, and have also shot police officers. They are to be taken seriously.
Below I have posted highly redacted versions of my resignation letter both in English and Japanese. They have been redacted to risk the exposure and endangerment of sources and those involved with the project. National Geographic Channel Japan had nothing to do with the making of the documentary, although due to the lack of English ability of most yakuza, I fear that they will end up being the middlemen in this conflict. I can only offer my deepest apologies to all concerned and hope that the producers will do the right thing and not air footage that endangers many, betrays the good faith between journalists and sources, and borders on criminal negligence. I was not involved in the problematic interviews and have no editorial control of the program. Please address any enquiries to National Geographic Television.
--
For anyone wondering, this is the National Geographic program in question:
Gangland Tokyo
By Jake Adelstein | Published: 3 March 2011
I have been working as a consultant on a National Geographic Television documentary on the yakuza since the summer of last year. I resigned on February 24th. I also asked that my name be removed from the program.
I did this for two reasons. I was not given full access to the materials that would allow me to verify the factual accuracy of the program and thus unable to do my job properly. There are also issues of the program being seen as yarase (やらせ). Since I can’t verify the factual accuracy, taking the money and continuing would be perfidious. Also, after seeing a rough cut of the program, I now have serious concerns about the safety of all Americans and Japanese sources, friends, and the staff of National Geographic Channel Japan who are involved with this program. There is a chance that the yakuza that have been betrayed by NGT will use violence against those residing in Japan to express their anger. I am even concerned about the safety of the yakuza that agreed to appear in the documentary, probably under false pretenses and false promises. They will face retaliation from their superiors if the program is aired as it is now. Yakuza are people too, a small minority of them are good people in their own right, and once they cooperate with the program, they are also sources. And sources have to be protected. That is the good faith that is demanded in responsible journalism.
I am posting this publicly because I have been unable to reach all the parties involved in this documentary. I will not be shown the final product and National Geographic Television has refused to tell me whom they interviewed or how those interviews were obtained therefore I can’t be sure who is at risk of substantial harm. After consulting with friends in the Japanese police and in US Federal Law Enforcement agencies, who advised that I had a duty to inform all parties involved, which I agree with, I have decided to do this very publicly. National Geographic Television has asked me at least once not to update or inform their Japanese partners about problems with the production (see correspondence and emails). Therefore, I feel that I must do what they should do.
In February, I asked for a copy of the final cut of the documentary video and a final copy of the script to make sure that factual errors had been corrected and to have the yakuza ceremony footage I loaned NGT excised from the program. I received a notice from National Geographic Television, refusing this request, that curtly stated:
“NGT is satisfied that Mr. Adelstein has completed his consulting services on the Program, and Mr. Adelstein should submit his final invoice if he has not already done so.”
On February 25, instead of turning in a final invoice, I turned in my letter of resignation and I am returning my salary. The check is in the mail.
I have posted highly redacted versions of my resignation letter both in English and my Japanese letter of resignation or 辞任状. They have been redacted to risk the exposure of and endangerment of sources and those involved with the project.
My counsel has advised me that by posting this I will probably face malicious litigation from NGT that will bankrupt me and leave me financially destitute. But after careful consideration, I have made my choice. I would rather lose my life savings than have anyone lose their life or their fingers for the entertainment of NGT’s viewers.
For more on the background to these events, please continue reading.
I was employed by National Geographic Television (USA) as a consultant for their documentary, and as part of that work I helped arrange interviews, handled logistics, and did some of the interviews myself. I introduced the outsourced film team to my sources and friends. I loaned them footage of actual yakuza ceremonies, for their “dramatization” sequences-that I asked to be returned and that they have not. There was actually no response to that request until they failed to obtain the same footage from CBS 60 Minutes, at which point they essentially said they would steal it or find it from third party sources.
For several months, I have repeatedly asked to have all the materials necessary to verify the “factual accuracy” of the program, as was the agreement. The reply from NGT was to insist that “factual accuracy” actually meant “general accuracy”, and that I was being difficult.
When you insist on doing your job correctly and to the best of your ability, some people become annoyed; I have many faults as individual but I try my best to be a responsible journalist, which is to tell the truth to the public and protect my sources. I have failed to protect my sources in the past. I don’t ever forget about it; I try to atone for it. In addition to being an investigative journalist, I am a board director of a Japanese NPO, which fights against human trafficking and the exploitation of women, children and foreign workers, often providing shelter and doing rescue missions. I do that work pro bono. There are many times we have information we’d like to take to the police or make public but cannot because it would endanger the victim. We always choose the safety of the victim first. It’s standard operating procedure. As a journalist, I believe the same rules of protecting victims are supposed to be applied to sources.
This is not the first time I’ve worked with a documentary film crew. In 2009, I worked with Lara Logan and Howard Rosenberg of 60 Minutes on a feature about four yakuza receiving liver transplants at UCLA under dubious circumstances. The television crew was well prepared, had read my book and all the documentation I sent them in advance, and spent months doing independent research. They spent weeks consulting with others and myself. They diligently altered footage and voices so as avoid endangering anyone involved. I was even consulted about the re-broadcasting of the documentary and when I said that safety concerns had emerged, they agreed, and did not re-air the film. They have been the paradigm of professional, ethical, and responsible journalism.
What NGT are doing is often referred to as “parachute journalism”, a problematic practice well-described by the Committee To Protect Journalists. It essentially involves transporting journalists, or a film crew with no journalists, into an area to report on a story in which they lack knowledge, experience, and good judgment. The dearth of knowledge and budgetary constraints often results in inaccurate and sometimes harmful news stories or features. Parachute journalism is not always a bad thing. It can bring fresh perspective to news coverage. However, it can also result in huge problems if done recklessly.
On a personal level, it’s one thing to have a crew of outsiders come into the country, cause havoc and then run away, but usually they don’t leave a ticking time bomb in your house and not tell you about it. I expect that National Geographic Television’s response to this will be to defame me, and attack my credibility, and assorted character assassination. They may pretend to take the moral high ground by saying, “We’re exposing criminals.” But what they’re doing is burning their sources and exposing them to danger. The yakuza that cooperated were promised things that were not delivered. They were promised that their conversations were “off the record.” They are not being “exposed”; they are being betrayed. Perhaps NGT will work out a back-door deal with those involved where they promise to cut the problematic footage in exchange for the parties involved making coerced statements that they “we were completely happy with how we were treated.” That would be a kind of blackmail, but I believe that NGT is capable of doing that to save face.
The three yakuza involved claim that the director made verbal promises at the time of the interviews and these promises were broken. They were promises that ensured confidentiality, a say in the final edit and that there would be nothing in the program to incriminate them. They cooperated in good faith. By US standards they were foolish for not getting something in writing. If you look at the situation like a yakuza would, they were simply expecting that they were dealing with honorable people, whose words meant something in lieu of a written contract.
There is a saying in Japanese, bushi wa nigon ga nai (武士は二言がない). Literally, a samurai doesn’t have a second word. What it means is that once a samurai has said he’ll do something or promises he’ll do something, he does and he keeps that promises. He doesn’t backpedal and say “factual accuracy” means “general accuracy” or that “we may have said that but that’s not what you signed.”
Would I believe the word of three yakuza over the word of an LA based “film director” who brags about his reputation for doing awesome “dramatizations” and “re-creations”? Mmm…Yes. I’d believe the yakuza every time, in this case. The yakuza do have standards and practices. They are not particularly high standards but they exist. Most yakuza have them posted on large ornate scrolls posted on their office walls and written in bold dark cursive: “Any member who engages in theft, robbery, rape and or any other activity that runs contrary to the noble way (ninkyodo) will be expelled.” It’s very clear.
I’ve never seen the standards and practices documents for National Geographic Television, although I have asked to see them many times. The only time I’ve even heard NGT staff seriously mention them was at the room of the Ritz Carlton Tokyo where the director was staying. He was complaining that standards and practices at NGT had issued a new directive which banned all sit-down interviews, “because they’re boring” and required the outsourced film crews to get footage of people “doing things” while being interviewed. It was at this point that he began complaining about the scholars, police officers, ex-police officers, and authors that I had arranged to interview weeks in advance, because obviously, they weren’t interesting enough. They would have given great insight but they are people who sit down and talk, not perform.
Towards the end of the filming, the crew became desperate for “exciting footage” and ran around town getting it, making us short on staff. Of course, there was also no good will between the director and myself and one crew member had already quit after declaring that they felt the director had no concern for the safety of their family in Japan. So I conducted two of the interviews myself, with a one-man film crew. I was not hired as a reporter but as a consultant but I gladly did the work because I wanted the program to have some substance. I was glad that parts of that interview remained, at least in the cut that I was shown, with reluctancy by NGT.
I thought about leaking this state of affairs anonymously so as to avoid legal issues but then I decided that’s the kind of cowardly, sneaky backstabbing behavior that I detest. I’ll speak up for myself, and I will speak for everyone that they have ruthlessly used and endangered for their own profit.
What NGT is doing is tantamount to criminal negligence. Under Japanese law, if during the course of your work you engage in negligent behavior that results in injury, you can be held criminally responsible and arrested. The Japanese penal code refers to this as gyomujo kashitsushisho (業務上過失死傷) or “crimes of injury through negligence in the pursuit of professional activities.”
I am a Japanese permanent resident and subject to the laws of Japanese. NGT may be surprised to know this, but since the documentary filming was conducted in Japan, they and the film crew are also subject to Japanese law. Just because you’re not Japanese doesn’t make you above the law.
In September of 2004, the Japan Coast Guard arrested the Russian captain of a ship on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, after the ship capsized and three crew members died. The ship had arrived at the lumber dock in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture and began unloading its cargo. Coast guard officials then told the captain to move the vessel away from shore to protect it from a typhoon that was approaching, but the captain did not heed the warnings and stayed at the dock. The ship repeatedly crashed against the pier and sank; three of the eighteen crew members died and the fourth crew member was never found.
In analogous terms, which I hope NGT can understand, they are the Russian ship captain, the typhoon is the footage they have taken in bad faith, the crew is everyone in Japan involved with this documentary, and I am the coast guard. They’ve been notified.
If they air the film as it is now and anyone is hurt, I’ll be the first one to go to the police and file charges of criminal negligence resulting in injury and/or death. And I will do my best to see that they are extradited. Because recklessly endangering or causing harm to others is a crime here in Japan where the documentary was filmed.
They can’t deny they knew there were dangers. The chain of emails that someone in the organization anonymously sent me establishes that, as well as does this posting.
NGT has been warned; I hope they become enlightened and do the right thing for once. Ethical and factual journalism can actually be pleasant, if a little boring.
You might wonder, “Well, if it’s so dangerous, why don’t you leave Japan?” I don’t leave because I while I may retreat, I don’t run away. I’m the sole support of a good friend and his family, who I have promised to look after. I also know that when the yakuza get angry they will look for someone to blame. I don’t want that to be one of my friends who introduced National Geographic to their sources that NGT then browbeat into getting introductions to current yakuza members. I’ve talked with the parties involved, directly and indirectly; they don’t blame me. I don’t fear losing my life. I don’t fear losing face either; I’ve already lost it. It has been a humiliating week of apologizing to all parties involved in the program, including the National Police Agency. Every one who I introduced to the National Geographic Television crew is upset with me and doubts my judgment. I can only apologize and do my best to make sure that it doesn’t reflect badly on them. I don’t worry about the yakuza taking their frustration out on me. However, I worry that their subordinates will confuse National Geographic Channel in Japan with National Geographic Television and that their staff will suffer for it, if they seek to avenge their comrades. It is also possible that the individuals who made the introductions to the yakuza are harassed or blamed for the matter.
From the beginning, I warned NGT repeatedly that interviewing current members would cause problems and be dangerous. Those warnings were not heeded and I have spent several days now apologizing and dealing with the individuals they have angered. The yakuza groups involved in the program have killed at least twelve people in recent years, including innocent bystanders in cross-fire, their gangland enemies, and have also shot police officers. They are to be taken seriously.
Below I have posted highly redacted versions of my resignation letter both in English and Japanese. They have been redacted to risk the exposure and endangerment of sources and those involved with the project. National Geographic Channel Japan had nothing to do with the making of the documentary, although due to the lack of English ability of most yakuza, I fear that they will end up being the middlemen in this conflict. I can only offer my deepest apologies to all concerned and hope that the producers will do the right thing and not air footage that endangers many, betrays the good faith between journalists and sources, and borders on criminal negligence. I was not involved in the problematic interviews and have no editorial control of the program. Please address any enquiries to National Geographic Television.
--
For anyone wondering, this is the National Geographic program in question:
Gangland Tokyo