Tokyo Vice

Premise

In 1999, American aspiring investigative journalist Jake Adelstein relocates to Tokyo and secures a job at a major Japanese newspaper, becoming their first foreign journalist. Taken under the wing of a veteran detective in the organized crime squad, Adelstein delves into the dark and dangerous world of the yakuza whilst living under the city's (and the newspaper's) official line that "murder does not happen in Tokyo".

Cast and characters

Main

Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein, an American journalist from Missouri who moves to Tokyo. The longer he stays, the more he delves into the corruption of Tokyo's seedy underworld, where no one is as they seem.

Ken Watanabe as Hiroto Katagiri, a detective in the organized crime division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He acts as a father figure to Adelstein and helps guide him through the thin and often precarious line between the law and organized crime.

Rachel Keller as Samantha Porter, an American expatriate living in Tokyo and former Mormon who makes her living as a hostess in the Onyx Club of the Kabukicho district, and later starts her own club. Her clients vary from salarymen to high-end clients and yakuza.

Hideaki Itō as Jin Miyamoto (season 1; guest season 2), a vice squad detective who is Jake's first contact in the Tokyo police but who is secretly working with the yakuza.

Show Kasamatsu as Akiro Sato, an enforcer in the Chihara-kai yakuza clan who collects protection money and is Samantha's handler at the Onyx Club. He secretly has a crush on her and is disillusioned by the yakuza lifestyle which he sees as anachronistic.

Ella Rumpf as Polina (season 1; guest season 2), an Eastern European migrant, and a spendthrift hostess at the Onyx Club with Samantha. A kind-hearted but naive young woman, she came to Tokyo to work as a model but was pulled into the seedy underbelly of Kabukicho.

Rinko Kikuchi as Emi Maruyama, Adelstein's supervisor and a senior journalist for the Meicho Shimbun newspaper. Maruyama is a composite of the various colleagues and supervisors who worked with the real-life Adelstein during his career.

Tomohisa Yamashita as Akira, Polina's boyfriend who works at a host club.

Miki Maya as Shoko Nagata (season 2), a detective from the National Police Agency assigned to Tokyo, who seeks to create a new task force to eradicate organized crime in the city permanently.

Recurring

Shun Sugata as Hitoshi Ishida, the leader of the Chihara-kai yakuza clan

Takaki Uda as Jun "Trendy" Shinohara, Jake's handsome friend and co-worker

Kosuke Tanaka as Makoto "Tintin" Kurihira, Jake's witty friend and co-worker

Masato Hagiwara as Duke (season 1), the owner of the Onyx hostess club

Kōsuke Toyohara as Baku, Jake's by-the-books, racist nationalist boss

Masayoshi Haneda as Yoshihiro Kume (season 1; guest season 2), Sato's direct superior within the Chihara-kai who is later revealed to be a mole working for the Tozawa organization

Eugene Nomura as Kobayashi (season 1; guest season 2), Ishida's right-hand man and a high-ranking member of the Chihara-kai

Kazuya Tanabe as Masamune Yabuki, the second-in-command of the Tozawa yakuza clan

Nobushige Suematsu as Gen, a member of the Chihara-kai who has an internal conflict with Sato

Koshi Uehara as Taro, a high-ranking member of the Chihara-kai

Noémie Nakai as Luna (season 1; guest season 2), the most prestigious hostess at the Onyx club

Rosaria Mokkhavesa as Malee (season 1), the most esteemed hostess at Onyx

Ayumi Tanida as Shinzo Tozawa, the leader of the Tozawa yakuza clan, a rival organization to the Chihara-kai, who is trying to establish himself in Tokyo while suffering from an incurable health condition

Guest

Jessica Hecht as Willa Adelstein, Jake's mother

Sarah Sawyer as Jessica Adelstein, Jake's sister who sends him audio letters on tapes and has been in mental health treatment

Hiroshi Sogabe as Sugita (season 1), the head of the Suzuno insurance company, which manipulates people into debt with the Tozawa organization

Nanami Kawakami as Yuka (season 1), a young woman Jake hooks up with while hanging out with Sato, later revealed to be a prostitute

Fumiya Kimura as Koji (season 1), Sato's first recruit within the Chihara-kai

Renji Ishibashi as Noboru Nakahara, the chairman of the Tozawa organization, and Kazuko's uncle-in-law

Toru Shinagawa as Koichi Tanaka, an elderly yakuza sōsai

Sotaro Tanaka as Dr. Shimizu, an underground doctor, who treats members of the Chihara-kai

Miyuki Matsuda as Inaba, the owner of a host club who pays protection money to the Tozawa organization

Hajime Inoue as Jotaro Shigematsu, the Minister of Transport, who gets blackmailed by the Tozawa organization

Kojun Notsu as Ide, a police captain and Katagiri's supervisor

Akiko Iwase as Rie Sato, Sato's mother

Danny Burstein as Eddie Adelstein, Jake's father

Nadia Parkes as Claudine (season 2), a classy, but brazen British hostess and Samantha's biggest earner

Episodes

Production

Development

Tokyo Vice was initially developed as a film in 2013, with Daniel Radcliffe attached to star as Adelstein and Anthony Mandler as director; development was advanced enough to where a production start of mid-2014 was set. In June 2019, the project was repurposed for television, receiving an eight-episode order from WarnerMedia for its streaming service HBO Max. Ansel Elgort was hired to star and act as executive producer on the series, with J. T. Rogers to write and Destin Daniel Cretton to direct the pilot. In October, Michael Mann was hired to direct the pilot and serve as an executive producer of the series. On June 7, 2022, HBO Max renewed the series for a second season. On June 8, 2024, Max canceled the series after two seasons.

Casting

In addition to his executive producing announcement, Ansel Elgort was also set to star. In September 2019, Ken Watanabe was added to the cast. In February 2020, Odessa Young and Ella Rumpf were added to the cast. In March 2020, it was announced that Rinko Kikuchi joined the cast, and that shooting began the previous month in Tokyo. In October 2020, Rachel Keller was cast to replace Young. In September 2021, Hideaki Itō, Show Kasamatsu and Tomohisa Yamashita were announced as series regulars, with Shun Sugata, Masato Hagiwara, Ayumi Tanida and Kōsuke Toyohara joining as recurring. In November 2022 Aoi Takeya and Takayuki Suzuki were announced to be cast.

Filming

Principal photography on the series began on March 5, 2020. On March 17, 2020, it was announced that production had halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo. Production resumed on November 26, 2020, and concluded on June 8, 2021. Production for the second season started in November 2022 in Tokyo and concluded in August 2023.

Tokyo Vice filmed almost exclusively in Japan, unlike many other western productions which often film limited establishing shots there and take the majority of principal photography back to Los Angeles, Vancouver, or Wellington. Location Manager Masanori Aikawa worked with HBO in order to develop new workflows to shoot in locations never filmed before, and showcased Tokyo in a way no other production has ever captured.

Release

The series premiered on April 7, 2022, with the first three episodes available immediately, followed by two episodes on a weekly basis until the season finale on April 28, 2022. The second season premiered on February 8, 2024 and concluded on April 4, 2024.

HBO Max and its sibling service HBO Go hold streaming rights to the series in countries where either service is available including the United States, Latin America, and certain European and Asian markets, while Wowow, also a co-producer, holds rights in Japan. Elsewhere, international distributor Endeavor Content has sold broadcast/streaming rights to the series to Crave in Canada, Canal+ in France, Paramount+ in Australia, OSN+ in the Middle East and Northern Africa region, Lionsgate Play in India and Starzplay in select European markets including the UK and Ireland. The BBC purchased second-window rights to the series in the UK, and began to air it in November 2022 on BBC One, with all episodes available for six months on the BBC's iPlayer service.

Reception

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 85% based on 25 reviews. The website's critics' consensus reads, "Tokyo Vice's protagonist is its least interesting element, but the intrigue of Japan's underworld and the verisimilitude of its setting make for a seductive slice of neo-noir." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 75 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 93% based on 14 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Fully settled into its dense cast of compelling characters and rich milieu, Tokyo Vice's sophomore season is a riveting crime chronicle." Metacritic assigned a score of 78 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Location Manager Masanori Aikawa earned Tokyo Vice a Location Managers Guild nomination in 2024 for his efforts in establishing the city of Tokyo as a significant character in the show.