The Washington Post

The Washington Post became the first major outlet to publish Jake Adelstein’s account of Tadamasa Goto’s deal with the FBI, turning a heavily sourced but repeatedly rejected investigation into a public report. The paper’s significance lay not only in providing a venue: its editors demanded extensive proof, and the FBI independently confirmed the central claim before publication.

A story blocked elsewhere

Adelstein’s investigation drew on a source inside Goto’s organization who told him in November 2006 that the FBI had let Goto enter the United States. Adelstein then assembled additional information through a U.S. Justice Department source and contacts in Japanese law enforcement and the underworld. The resulting material supported a detailed account, but securing a publisher proved difficult: newspapers and magazines raised concerns about the story’s age, the prospect of angering the National Police Agency, and whether the FBI would confirm it. One prospective publisher feared legal costs and retaliation; another wanted more hard evidence.

After deciding to write the article in English, Adelstein first approached the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan newspaper. An editor’s internal assessment dismissed the account as unbelievable. A family friend then introduced him to John Pomfret, editor of The Washington Post’s Outlook section. Pomfret also questioned the story and asked for proof; Adelstein supplied about a hundred pages.

Verification and publication

The Washington Post subjected the article to a sustained fact-checking process. For more than a month, Adelstein spent hours each day answering questions, checking details, and identifying sources. The paper ultimately obtained independent confirmation from the FBI that the central account was true. It published the story on May 11, 2008. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan later published Adelstein’s article as well, but omitted Goto’s name.

The publication came against a serious personal and professional risk. Adelstein had been told that Goto might have him killed if he were found guilty, and on March 5, 2008, he was placed under police protection. That protection included discussions with an FBI special agent and Japanese authorities, as well as a request that U.S. law enforcement watch Adelstein’s home in America. The article’s publication therefore followed a period when both the truth of the investigation and the danger of making it public were pressing concerns.

Reach and limits of the disclosure

Adelstein sent a copy to the Yomiuri Shinbun before publication, but it and other Japanese newspapers ignored the story. He had already begun working with the Los Angeles Times, whose later report included material about Goto’s UCLA connection that The Washington Post article had not mentioned. The Los Angeles Times published its story on the front page on May 31. Japanese outlets that covered it often attributed the information to that newspaper rather than independently verifying or extending the reporting; some did not cover it at all.

The Washington Post’s publication thus opened a route for a disclosure that domestic outlets had declined to carry, while the subsequent reporting showed the limits of that breakthrough. In the book’s acknowledgments, Adelstein thanks John Pomfret and Emily Langer of the Outlook section for vetting and publishing the article in May 2008. The episode presents the paper as both a rigorous editorial gatekeeper and a venue willing to publish a sensitive investigation after the evidence had been tested.