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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><i>Speed Tribes</i></span>
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</style><table class="infobox ib-book vcard"><caption class="infobox-title">Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation </caption><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Author</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Karl_Taro_Greenfeld" title="Karl Taro Greenfeld">Karl Taro Greenfeld</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Cover artist</th><td class="infobox-data">Adrian Morgan / Red Letter Design, <a href="Dan_Winters" title="Dan Winters">Dan Winters</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Subject</th><td class="infobox-data">Japan</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Genre</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Anthology" title="Anthology">Anthology</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Publisher</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Harper_Perennial" title="Harper Perennial">Harper Perennial</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Publication date</div></th><td class="infobox-data">1994</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Media type</th><td class="infobox-data">Print</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Pages</th><td class="infobox-data">286</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">
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</style><bdi>978-0-06-092665-6</bdi></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation</b> is a 1994 <a href="Anthology" title="Anthology">anthology</a> book by <a href="Karl_Taro_Greenfeld" title="Karl Taro Greenfeld">Karl Taro Greenfeld</a>. A collection of nonfiction short stories about the decadence and disaffection of urban Japanese <a href="Generation_X" title="Generation X">Gen X</a> youth during the early 1990s in the last years of the <a href="Japanese_asset_price_bubble" title="Japanese asset price bubble">Bubble Economy</a>, <i>Speed Tribes</i> was widely reviewed in international media.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Summary">Summary</h2></div>
<p>Each story in <i>Speed Tribes</i> focuses on the life of a specific Japanese youth in the aftermath of the <a href="Japanese_asset_price_bubble" title="Japanese asset price bubble">Japanese asset price bubble</a> collapse. Its subjects include a young <a href="Yakuza" title="Yakuza">Yakuza</a> member, a nightclub hostess, an office girl, a motorcycle gangster, a hacker, an ultra-right-wing nationalist, and '<a href="Choco_Bon-Bon" class="mw-redirect" title="Choco Bon-Bon">Choco Bon-Bon</a>', a porn star. Popular 1990s rock band <a href="Zi%3AKill" title="Zi:Kill">Zi:Kill</a> appears in a chapter that documents the writer's time spent with the band and the events that nearly caused their break up.
</p><p>Greenfeld wrote <i>Speed Tribes</i> while working as a reporter in <a href="Tokyo" title="Tokyo">Tokyo</a> in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <i>Speed Tribes</i> is written in a literary style, and has been cited as an example of <a href="New_Journalism" title="New Journalism">New Journalism</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In interviews Greenfeld has freely admitted that many of the characters in <i>Speed Tribes</i> are not real individuals, and that the stories in <i>Speed Tribes</i> are a mixture of secondhand stories and original reporting.<sup id="cite_ref-tedaldi_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-tedaldi-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-moorghen_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-moorghen-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Reception">Reception</h2></div>
<p>Writing for <i><a href="The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>, <a href="Alan_Poul" title="Alan Poul">Alan Poul</a> reviewed the book unfavorably, focusing on its "tough guy" language, inconsistent narrative choices, inaccurate descriptions, and an approach to reporting Japanese culture that reduced the stories to "simple, cynical morality plays".<sup id="cite_ref-nytbrreview_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-nytbrreview-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Dennis Romero of the <a href="Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a> criticized <i>Speed Tribes</i> for its "bad writing, shaky structure and strange characters," but favorably noted that "Greenfeld turns over the cold, hard stone of Japanese culture and finds life beneath."<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="Kirkus_Reviews" title="Kirkus Reviews">Kirkus Reviews</a> called <i>Speed Tribes</i> a "tense and spicy read," but concluded that it was "dragged down by heavy-handed writing."<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In <i>Japan Quarterly</i>, Janet Goff noted "the uneven quality of the stories" but observed that the book added an important perspective on modern Japan.<sup id="cite_ref-jqreview_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-jqreview-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> A review by Margaret Scott in <i><a href="The_Wall_Street_Journal_Asia" title="The Wall Street Journal Asia">Asian Wall Street Journal</a></i> questioned Greenfeld's motives in writing the book, calling the author "shrewdly opportunistic" and summarizing the book as "pretentious pessimism".<sup id="cite_ref-awsjreview_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-awsjreview-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><a href="Kodansha" title="Kodansha">Kodansha</a> bought the <a href="Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a> translation rights to <i>Speed Tribes</i> shortly after publication, but a <a href="Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a> translation has never been published.<sup id="cite_ref-tedaldi_3-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-tedaldi-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation magazine cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-017039-4">"Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation"</a>. <i><a href="Publishers_Weekly" title="Publishers Weekly">Publishers Weekly</a></i>. August 29, 1994<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">June 28,</span> 2018</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFWolley2010" class="citation web cs1">Wolley, Leann (April 29, 2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://asiapacificarts.usc.edu/w_apa/showarticle.aspx?articleID=15074">"From New Journalism in China to Autism: Interview with Karl Taro Greenfeld"</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">June 28,</span> 2018</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-tedaldi-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-tedaldi_3-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-tedaldi_3-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFTedaldi2012" class="citation web cs1">Tedaldi, Justin (August 30, 2012). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://jetwit.com/wordpress/2012/08/30/justins-japan-interview-with-speed-tribes-authorjet-alum-karl-taro-greenfeld/">"Interview with author Karl Taro Greenfeld on 'Triburbia,' 'Speed Tribes'"</a>. <i>JETwit: The Alumni Magazine for the JET Alumni Community Worldwide</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">June 28,</span> 2018</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-moorghen-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-moorghen_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFMoorghen2015" class="citation web cs1">Moorghen, Jean-Marc (February 1, 2015). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160326091356/https://moorghen.com/stories/2015/2/1/speed-tribes-revisited-an-hour-with-karl-taro-greenfeld">"Speed Tribes Revisited – An hour with Karl Taro Greenfeld"</a>. <i>Moorghen.com (originally published at figure8productions.com)</i>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://moorghen.com/stories/2015/2/1/speed-tribes-revisited-an-hour-with-karl-taro-greenfeld">the original</a> on March 26, 2016.</cite></span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-nytbrreview-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-nytbrreview_5-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFPoul1994" class="citation news cs1"><a href="Alan_Poul" title="Alan Poul">Poul, Alan</a> (October 16, 1994). "Tokyo's Generation X: A portrait of the young and the hip in Japan". <i><a href="The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. p. BR36.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation magazine cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/karl-taro-greenfeld/speed-tribes/">"SPEED TRIBES Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation"</a>. <i><a href="Kirkus_Reviews" title="Kirkus Reviews">Kirkus Reviews</a></i>. July 1, 1994<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">June 28,</span> 2018</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-jqreview-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-jqreview_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFGoff1995" class="citation magazine cs1">Goff, Janet (July 1995). "Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld". <i>Japan Quarterly</i>. Vol. 42, no. 3. p. 354.</cite></span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-awsjreview-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-awsjreview_9-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFScott1994" class="citation news cs1">Scott, Margaret (November 18, 1994). "Speeding Through Modern Japan". <i><a href="The_Wall_Street_Journal_Asia" title="The Wall Street Journal Asia">Asian Wall Street Journal</a></i>. p. 7.</cite></span>
</li>
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