I do agree that the traditional funding behind investigative journalism is drying up with the impending death of printed news, and I can only hope that someone somewhere discovers a new way to fund it in the modern information economy. I suspect it will probably be something similar to how agenda-driven NGOs do things, but perhaps done in a more centralized and objective manner. I suppose we have to wait for this transition period to run its course.

What really inspires me about your book is how you managed to learn so much about things that are hidden out of sight from surface world that we live in. I’m from Singapore, a technocracy that is in many ways similar to Japan when it comes to criminal justice. Things are very well managed here, to the point that reporters here basically have nothing to write about other than official government releases and human interest stories. I cannot imagine any reporter here building up the kind of relationships you have and using them to uncover a story of any social or political significance.

For example, human trafficking in Singapore is very similar to the incident you described in your book (i.e. tourist visa, indentured servitude, deportation upon arrest with no trial), but I’ve not seen any local journalist done a proper research on it before. Journalists here are quasi-government employees and no one dares to stir the hornet’s nest.

I suppose this says more about the quality of local journalism than anything else, but still… I truly admire what you’ve done.