Popular podcast goes international with Tokyo-lensed episode

Chicago — Journalist and author Jake Adelstein is the special guest on the new episode of Matt Slayer’s “And Now We Drink” podcast, recorded on location in Tokyo, Japan.

“And Now We Drink” is like ”the conversation at the end of the bar” featuring your favorite writers, comedians, musicians, actors and adult performers.

Adelstein, a reporter for Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper from 1993 to 2005, is considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan. He is the author of 2009’s “Tokyo Vice” and 2016’s “The Last Yakuza.”

On Episode 285, host Slayer sits down with the living Tokyo underworld encyclopedia to discuss everything from how the sex industry functions, how organized crime operates, how vice is regulated, and how Soap Land circumvents the law in one of the world’s most fascinating cities.

As Adelstein breaks down how to keep up on your Yakuza news, the intriguing conversation definitely kicks off 2023 the right way . . . sake and all!

“It was my absolute pleasure to sit down with legendary investigative journalist and ‘Tokyo Vice’ author Jake Adelstein,” said Slayer.  “And a big shoutout to Cherie DeVille for DM sliding him and making it happen.

“Jake opened my eyes to the surprising ways in which Japanese porn and sex work function. And he was definitely a good sport about some of my weirder questions.”