Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by scottishcow 2650 days ago
It amuses me how Western media outlets continue to quote Adelstein, his entire shtick consists of spouting made up stuff about Japan to Western reporters with no means of fact-checking.

I guess it goes both ways though, the self-proclaimed "America-tsuu (US experts)" here aren't any better.

1 comments

Is there some legit criticism on him and provable dishonesty? I don't know much but I seem to recall him publishing stories uncovering and/or reporting on what could be viewed as problematic or even embarrassing things about japanese culture.
This thread may be of interest:

https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/3lnpt6/is_jake_adels...

It's not like he acts with any apparent agenda or malice, the guy just has no regard for facts. Everything he writes consists of a small sliver of facts mixed with tons of faux-noir, spiced-up BS that paints some exotic portrait of Japan tailored for Western audiences.

I guess we all want foreign countries to be more exotic than they really are — I remember when I first moved here from LA, my classmates seemed disappointed to learn that I'd never been involved in a gunfight :/