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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.

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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 :/

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