In a country where life is generally so ordered it often appears as atrophied as a bonsai,
when individual citizens go astray, they frequently go astray with a passion and conviction as dedicated to their crime as their neighbors are to pursuing the norms. Mark Schrieber's look at the dangerous and shadier faces of Japan seems to me, an American resident in Tokyo for the past 38 years, long overdue in providing readers with a better balanced picture of the world's second largest economy. Some of the stories are truly bizarre; some are frightening; some are somehow humorous or ironic. But all of them offer an extraordinarily keen insight into a society that is often praised for its
lack of crime and its stable social order. A walk on the dark side with Schrieber is an exciting eye-opener and fabulously exotic entertainment as well.

Schreiber's first book, Shocking Crimes of Postwar Japan, was not only as gripping a read as anything penned by Ann Rule or Jack Olsen, it served as an excellent corrective to the widespread notion of Japan as a society free of violence-prone scofflaws. As good as that book was, however, its follow-up is, in many ways, superior--richer in anecdote, more analytical, covering hundreds of years of history. For those readers with an
interest in Japan, *The Dark Side* is, it almost goes without saying, a must-have. But this is also a painlessly instructive volume for those with an interest in the more general, and always fascinatingly complex, subject of crime and punishment. The criminally inclined, like the poor, we have always had with us: thanks to the prodigiously well-informed Schreiber, we learn the myraid ways that one country has dealt with that unfortunate certainty.

The Dark Side is a great book for two reasons. First, it's a good introduction to the history of crime, crime prevention, and criminal justice in Japan that stretches over 400 years. Though it's not a scholarly book, Schreiber's facts are carefully researched and then presented with a light touch. This book is valuable to anyone seriously interested in Japan, supplying background and facts that can hardly be found in other sources (unless the reader wants to retrace the work that Schreiber has done). The author achieves what we look for in a good historian-he's put a human face on the facts.

The second reason I like the book is because of its genuinely interesting stories. Call me offbeat, but I'm fascinated by the details of such topics as Japan's experiments with executions (including the story of a man whose neck was so strong that he couldn't be strangled-he was pardoned because his executioners saw his survival as a sign of divine intervention). The book tells about famous bandits from 300 years ago, love suicides (and the penalties for survivors!), a Tokyo magistrate whose skill puts him in the same league as Sherlock Holmes, and the delightful Sada-san, who anticipated Lorena Bobbitt by about 60 years.

All in all, this book is a fine read and a fine work of popular history.

First of all this Book is funny and keeps you reading. Tokyo Confidetial focused on Japan and many kinds of characteristic of Japanese. I would say if someone read this maybe the reder would think Japanese are crazy, but i think this book really show true? parts of Japanese. It's nice book to find what Japanese are up to and also it is good for serching the reason wy Japanese are crazy. Overall, i really enjoyed it not because i learned funnt secrets about Japanese but this book keeps you reading, makes your time faster. Oh yes i don't know how many ties i laugh haha.
So if you read my review, just trsyte me and click the button "Buy" and i know you would laugh and enjoy it.

As one of the gee-whiz, rocket eyebrow types who has lived in Japan nearly 20 years, I really appreciated Schreiber and his cohorts explaining what is going on with Japanese high school girls and their thigh-high uniform skirts, compensated dating, etc. There's lots more in this book than that, certainly, as the various seedier and "oh my!" parts of (mainly) Tokyo are parsed from the vernacular tabloids by these witty and perhaps *too* informed writers. They translate not only the words, but the titillating currents that buffet the "impenetrable" Japanese people and help give this society some of its excitement and spice. Thanks, Mark et.al, for opening up the bamboo curtain a whole lot wider!

Forget kimonos, samurai and ninja. Find out what"s really happening on the streets of the Land of the Rising Sun. A fantastic book that digs deep into a land with an underbelly as big as its sumo wrestlers. A must read for anybody interested in a no-holds-barred look at the REAL Japan.

I teach high school English. My students are wild about this book. That's all I have to say, and an astute reader will recognize immediately that nothing more need be said.

The book was a complete and utter disappointment. Someone trying to capitalise on the difference between the East and West of doing things. Why do Americans always feel that there notions of the world have to be correct - that is the thought that I had instantly when I read this "masterpiece". It is certainly not worth owning - sorry to say.

I've lived in Japan for 20 years but popular culture is one area that continues to elude me. This book goes a long way toward filling that gap. The author tells the stories of crimes that stayed in the headlines for weeks, but the great thing is that he explains why these deeds were important to the Japanese. Kim Hee Roh, for example, was an ex-con who held 13 hostages for five days--after he killed two yakuza. His story was especially important to Japanese readers because he was a Korean, a minority that has come in for some hard treatment by them. The writer fills us in on Kim's life story and shows how different commentators, even people-on-the-street, responded to the criminal and the hostage standoff. The book covers 15 more crimes with similar thoroughness. The crimes themselves have a certain shock value and are entertaining in an offbeat way. But the book also gives sidelights into the psychology of the criminals and places their crimes in cultural perspective by evaluating the responses of the press and others. We get to see what the crimes meant to the Japanese, and in this regard the book becomes a commentary on the popular culture of this fascinating country. The author obviously read dozens of articles in the Japanese-language press in order to report on each of these crimes. He's done a great (and entertaining) service to readers and done some excellent scholarship, too. My only criticism of the book is that it's only 312 pages long. I'd be happy to go on reading for days. Sergeant Joe Friday, on the TV detective series "Dragnet," used to say, "Just the facts, Ma'am" when he interviewed witnesses. I'm glad this book gives much more than just the facts.

Mark's book in a really good read. I do not like the title because it sounds like something you pick up in a supermarket as you pay for your groceries. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find I did not want to put it down after I started to read. The crimes are handled in a delicate manner and the real focus is on what happened later. Police incompetence, uniquely Japanese answers to problems other cultures would handle differently are all shown with gentle and sometimes pointed humor with just a hint of irony. Since many of the crimes are unsolved or the quilty may have been innocent it is fun to read some of the hypotheses about who really "done it and why." All & all a really good read.