TOKYO —

Japanese marijuana smokers have a sixth sense. Or at least, that’s what Takeshi (not his real name) tells me as we sit in an increasingly smoky room in suburban Saitama, where a chunky, pungent joint is being passed from person to person.

“You don’t ask a person if they smoke. You just know. You’re a smoker and they come to you,” he says.

Takeshi rolls a mean joint, but that’s hardly surprising, as he’s been a smoker for 18 years. His friend Kenji’s not bad either. Both of them are in their 30s, hold down jobs, play sports and lead otherwise normal lives. They grow marijuana themselves, or otherwise access it through networks of friends.

“No one’s really selling it. Most people are just growing for themselves. They’re peaceful people and they just grow it and give it to their friends,” Takeshi says.

But after years flying beneath the radar, Japan’s marijuana underground is getting paranoid — and it’s not just the weed talking. High-profile cases involving celebrities, sports stars and university students have focused media and political attention squarely on what’s being portrayed as a marijuana boom.

“Now marijuana is big in the news because a lot of people are getting caught and everybody’s getting nervous,” Takeshi says. “Before it was kind of free but now the tension is getting bigger and we always feel kind of depressed. Everybody’s really uptight.”

3,793 marijuana-related arrests in 2008

Marijuana-related arrests soared in Japan last year — there were 3,793 in 2008, compared to 3,272 in 2007 and 1,670 in 1999. Four sumo wrestlers — three Russian and one Japanese — have been expelled for smoking grass in the past year, throwing the ancient sport into a crisis that claimed the scalp of the sumo association head Kitanoumi. At universities, including venerable institutions such as Waseda and Kyoto, students have been caught selling and smoking marijuana, mostly home-grown from seeds bought over the Internet.

The apparent spike in marijuana usage has sparked a wave of warnings about the apocalyptic threat the drug poses to society. An email sent to Waseda students thundered that marijuana smokers “all too often end up physically and mentally ruined, perhaps leading lives of crime.”

“There is no ‘innocent’ or ‘harmless’ way to take illegal drugs. In Japan, possession alone is sufficient to lead to the most dire of social punishments. Engaging in drug-related activity is utter stupidity,” it read.

Newspaper editorials followed a similar line. Railing against the “cannabis pollution” sweeping the country, the Asahi Shimbun mounted arguments against those who wonder why marijuana is illegal, while tobacco and alcohol are not.

“Banned substances, including cannabis, are believed to act on the brain’s ‘reward center’ that produces the sense of satisfaction felt when one achieves something. In short, they act on what could be called the source of human vitality,” it said.

But a significant number of young Japanese seem to be suspicious of this official hysteria, and a recent survey revealed that a majority of Waseda University students have no trouble accessing illegal drugs. So are we witnessing the emergence of Japan’s first stoner generation? And if we are, is that such a terrible thing?

Thriving marijuana underground

You won’t see any Bob Marley posters on the wall of Hemp Restaurant Asa in Shimokitazawa. Its clean white surfaces are awash with ambient lighting, and the kitchen serves up macrobiotic food made from hemp-derived ingredients.

The restaurant’s owner, Koichi Maeda, is one of Japan’s best-known hemp activists, campaigning for the legalization of cannabis for both medical and commercial purposes. Now 58, he has written several well-received books, including “Marijuana Seijun Ryokou” (“Young Marijuana Holiday”), about his adventures smoking pot around the world. He also speaks Arabic, English and Korean. In fact, Maeda is as close as you get to a celebrity in Japan’s marijuana underground.

“I think marijuana use is becoming more widespread,” he says, “especially as more and more people go abroad and experience marijuana in the U.S. or Southeast Asia.”

According to Maeda, most pot is grown in homes and distributed among networks of friends, rather than through organized crime gangs. He estimates that 2-3 million people smoke marijuana in Japan, although there are no hard figures to back this up.

“The police say marijuana becomes a source of profit for the yakuza, but marijuana smokers don’t like to have relations with the yakuza,” he says.

Maeda is big on the history of cannabis in Japan. Before the end of World War II, hemp was an important crop, and not because of any narcotic qualities. It was widely grown in the Japanese countryside and used to make rope, nets, clothes and other products. Even today, religious robes that the emperor wears during certain ceremonies are made from hemp.

But when the Americans rewrote Japan’s constitution after World War II, hemp was outlawed— which led to protests from local farmers.

“In the Diet, there was an argument about hemp control,” Maeda says. “Some members of parliament, especially from the agricultural areas, fought against the control because they were very poor at that time and needed the plant.

“In the end, hemp was allowed to be grown with a license, and about 20,000 were engaged at the time. But now only 200 growers have the license because it is very strictly regulated. It’s almost impossible to get one — you have to build a very high fence, over five meters high.”

Strict drug laws

Japan has some of the world’s strictest drug laws, with heavy sentences meted out for relatively minor offenses. About five years ago, Maeda became embroiled in a high-profile case involving his friend, the late writer Ramo Nakajima.

Nakajima, who had gained a cult following with novels such as “Tonight, Every Bar in Town,” asked Maeda to supply him with some marijuana, ostensibly to help with his glaucoma. Maeda enlisted a grower friend, who gave a 1/4 ounce to the writer. Police caught Nakajima with the pot at his home, and Maeda and the grower were also arrested. Nakajima later died after falling down a flight of stairs in an alcohol-induced stupor.

“I received an eight-month suspended sentence and three years’ probation. I fought that all the way up to the Supreme Court, because it was for medical problems,” Maeda says.

Maeda battled the conviction on constitutional grounds, but lost. He now has a criminal record, and his grower friend remains in prison five years later.

“Five years is too much. My friend is 56 years old now. I am really angry — he tried to help people. Even if glaucoma was not the main reason, I know that Nakajima needed marijuana for his depression,” he says.

Peter, a 36-year-old English teacher who hails from America’s west coast, also has first-hand experience with Japan’s marijuana law enforcement. Tokyo police caught him smoking last year, and he spent the next 10 days sharing a cell with a homeless man, a heroin addict and an “ore ore” scammer.

“We were out on the town in a pretty popular area in west Tokyo and me and some people I knew started smoking,” Peter says. “A couple of witnesses saw us and called the cops … it was just so surreal for me. I just thought, ‘Is this really happening?’”

Whisked away in a police car with sirens blaring, he soon found himself handcuffed and tied to a chair, where he went through several hours of interrogations about who owned the drugs and the one member of his group who’d escaped.

“I was in over my head, thinking this is more serious than I thought it was and this is not going to be an easy ride. When it really hit me was when they started doing the fingerprinting, because that was a precursor to going into a police holding cell,” he said.

For the next 10 days, Peter lived a highly regimented prison life. English was not allowed — he passed the time by revising Japanese textbooks which his girlfriend brought in. Peter speaks good Japanese, so he was able to chat with his cellmates, which helped alleviate the boredom. So did meals, letter writing and cigarettes.

“I didn’t really smoke cigarettes before that. You just look for the little things, anything you can do to get through the day. There were two breaks: one was sleeping at night, because your mind can take you anywhere you want, and the other was smoking a cigarette.”

Peter is circumspect about his experience. On the one hand, he can’t understand why smoking marijuana is regarded as such a heinous crime, but on the other he knowingly broke Japanese laws — in a public place.

“When you know that something’s illegal and you still do it, then you run the risk of getting caught. As much as my personal view is that marijuana’s not such a big deal, that rule is still there, and I think it’s important to respect that,” he says. “But I kind of felt it was a bit harsh. For doing something which causes no victims and is pretty much innocent, I think it’s pretty ridiculous, to be honest.”

Little chance of decriminalizing pot

It’s far-fetched to imagine that drug laws in Japan will change any time soon. Media, political and public opinion is stacked against those who would like to see pot decriminalized. Occasional pro-marijuana demonstrations, like the recent 420 March in Tokyo, draw hundreds of people, but in reality support for legal reform is very low.

“Of course, the smokers want decriminalization of marijuana, and other people want hemp for industrial purposes, and others for medical purposes,” Maeda says. “But it’s not yet very strong.

“Through the events of this last half year, the TV and the police and the government have tried to implant the idea that marijuana is very bad,” he continues. “Smokers become violent and lose their memory and become sick. But I don’t think this will affect a lot in the future, because in the last 15 years, people came to know the reality. Even if the government spreads false stories, people will come to know.”

Takeshi and Kenji, of course, support the decriminalization of marijuana. But they don’t seem keen to take the fight to the authorities — what they’d really like is for the public attention to disappear so they carry on smoking, without fear of intense police and government scrutiny.

“It’s about 50-50 in terms of whether people believe what the government says,” Takeshi says. “We don’t care what these people think. Their mindset is really old-school. It’s a really tight feeling.”

As the night rolls on in Saitama, so do the joints. Ideas are discussed, jokes are told and YouTube classics are shared. Eventually, the party degenerates into a jam session of staggering musical ineptness.

It seems bizarre that one curious neighbor could land us in jail, possibly for years. We’re criminals, every one of us — relaxed, giggling, happy criminals.

Local hotspots for hemp enthusiasts

Taimado: Store and online shop sell pipes, bongs, rolling papers, clothing,
incense and CDs. 2F, 2-6-5 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku. Tel: 03-5454-5880. Open daily noon-11 p.m. Nearest station: Shimokitazawa. www.taimado.com

Hemp Restaurant Asa: Serves a full menu of healthy hemp-based dishes. 3F, 2-18-5 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku. Tel: 03-3412-4118. Open Mon-Tue and Thu-Fri 5-11:30 p.m., Sat-Sun & hols noon-11:30 p.m., closed Wed. Menu in Japanese and English. Nearest station: Shimokitazawa, south exit. www.asanomi.jp

Chanvre Hemp Beauty: Offers a variety of oils, aromas and unguents. 5F, Yokoyama Building, 2-11-8 Kichijoji Honcho, Musashino-Shi. Tel: 0422-20-5306. Open Fri-Wed 11 a.m.-8 p.m., closed Thu. Nearest stn: Kichijoji. www.chanvre.jp

Stoner slang

Grass: Kusa, gurasu, uiido, haabu (くさ、グラス、ウィード、ハーブ)
High: Toba sareta (飛ばされた; lit: flying away)
Whacked: Buri-buri (ぶりぶり)
Joint: Jointo (ジョイント)
Bong: Bongu (ボング)
Wanna roll it?: Maku? (巻く)
Roach: Ro-chi (ローチ)

This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine.

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Latest 15 of 59 Total Comments Show All

• 

  jonnyboy at 03:43 PM JST - 13th April

  perhaps leading lives of crime

  this is possibly true. but only if you prosecute and label young people guilty of what is at worst a questionable, victimless misdemeanour by entirely disenfranchising them from the mainstream job market or worse send them to criminal training camp (otherwise known as the prison system)

• 

  Wakarimasen at 06:10 PM JST - 13th April

  Legalize it!

• 

  Ah_so at 06:18 PM JST - 13th April

  I do not want to come across at patronising to this wonderful country, but don't you sometimes want to go up to Japan and ruffle its hair and give it a biscuit for trying so hard?

• 

  jacqueshellacque at 05:02 AM JST - 14th April

  Those who say the Japanese aren't burdened by so-called "judeo-christian" puritanism are proven wrong when it comes to drugs. The urge to control people's private lives can be just as strong here as in places where people believe the creator of the universe cares how we eat, dress, or perform sexual congress. Activities which produce no victims should not be crimes.

• 

  urufuls at 01:38 PM JST - 14th April

  nisegaijin - science has a lot to do with it, and it is correct there is a lot more to it then just science. Science and social research just happen to show strong evidence that marijuana use has hurt society. Nobody is saying that you cannot be successful when smoking pot in regard to the friend that WAS a "complete stoner". Would he be a manager if her were still a complete stoner? In my first post I state that there are those people who can mediate their intake of marijuana. I submit that governments who find that there are those who cannot mediate and "cause harm to others" decide that this is enough to control the substance to keep it out of society.

  jonnydesu - Those are some awesome questions, and I really enjoy your candor in this discussion! Who decides what is good or bad for us? We both agree that the individual has the ultimate decision with this. What are laws and legislations for? In your earlier post you suggest that the government and laws are there to protect the individual. So how do we get laws? Legislators who are chosen by representatives (that the people vote on) make these laws. So the laws are decided on by the people. And we're back to the majority issue. The people elect representatives so that there is a voice representing them and to protect them. When the research (done by government, universities, independent organizations what have you) shows evidence that marijuana abuse grossly injures society, why wouldn't the government that the people elected make laws to protect them from it? The government already makes laws and has made laws in regard to what is good or bad for society (i.e. Murder is illegal). I agree with you that the sugar and salt example is extreme, because I know that the body needs both in some form to function properly. It however does not need marijuana. It doesn't need TV either, yet the government encourages individuals to go out and exercise. The government needs TV though to make sure the people are informed. The NHK fees are for a different discussion though :).

  I think it's great that you have given up marijuana. It's very difficult for many people to do that as you admit. Now that you have disclosed yourself as a prior smoker of marijuana, the question is that if you found a regular contact to obtain the stuff, would you start up again? Or would you be able to decline because it is against the law? What if it were legalized? Would you decline it even though you have been marijuana free for 3 whole years? You are speaking from personal experience, but can you speak for those who are true addicts? I say that the population who are true addicts to marijuana have made it so the government has put strict controls on the stuff.

  There are pro marijuana sites that teach a potential user how to avoid addiction and still use it, but with the warning that "If you think you will have a problem using it" to not use it at all and to "think before you do it."

  http://www.marijuanapassion.com/Marijuana-Withdrawal.html

  Why do you think they say this? Because for every person that claims they are a responsible smoker, there is somebody who is not and "ruins" it for the rest of those who have control, and causes serious harm to society. They know that overuse of marijuana leads to serious social problems, which catches the eye of the government, and they want to prove that the drug is harmless and say that "it depends on the personality" of the individual whether or not they will have behavioral issues. Those with the behavioral issues have been shown to go on to other serious addictions when marijuana isn't enough, ergo giving credence to the claim that marijuana is a sort of "gateway drug". Again I say that the sugar and salt example is extreme, but I will go down that road with you and the other direction of the extreme and say that if marijuana were legalized, what's to stop the next group of people saying that X drug should be legalized? Then we are at the same debate again. The line has to be drawn somewhere. Why not start with a substance that has been proven with research to cause serious damage to society. Maybe not in your circle, but the facts are there. (Did anyone even read the research report posted earlier? Here it is again: http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports/Marijuana/Marijuana4.html ) There is a post in this very discussion by space monkey that a serious psychological condition were associated with marijuana use, and the very next two posts are by individuals who express sympathy, and then quickly brush off the notion that it had anything to do with marijuana.

  How does legalizing a plant not protect an individual's freedom of choice?

  That's kind of a loaded question because marijuana is not just any mere plant. You started smoking it from age 19, something made you want to continue it for 16 years. You can't just lower the status of marijuana to just a "plant" then raise sugar and salt to the level of social menace in the same discussion. For those who are truly addicted to marijuana, they have limited their own freedom by not being able to easily quit. And even if they do, they may go on to another addiction as you state. Legalizing marijuana would put more into the hands of potential addicts with serious problems.

  Addiction = not protecting an individual's freedom of choice.

  And no, I can happily say I have never been to an AA meeting. :)

• 

  Wakarimasen at 02:16 PM JST - 14th April

  Less people die from "Marijuana induced violence" or "marijuana induced illnesses" than do from tobacco or booze related ones, I'll wager. The J government should be as tolerant of the former as it is of the latter two.

• 

  concrete at 02:21 PM JST - 14th April

  A lot of these comments are true, but in our lifetimes pot will not be legalized.

  Holland for example has halfed the homicide rate by legalizing murder, in their famous murder cafes. The same should be done with pot

• 

  cathrynm at 03:03 PM JST - 14th April

  "Those who say the Japanese aren't burdened by so-called "judeo-christian" puritanism are proven wrong when it comes to drugs."

  Maybe it goes back to the Opium Wars in China, and the bad things that happened there. Drugs got kind of a bad reputation in Asia.

• 

  sidjtd at 06:20 PM JST - 14th April

  Pot has never been a part of Japan, and to think it will integrate well...well... it won't. I think a Japan without Pot is a better society. People who get caught with smoking it should get jailed and fined accordingly, longer than a week but a few weeks if possible.

• 

  jonnydesu at 09:05 PM JST - 14th April

  urufuls -

  I think you are one of the few posters that are anti-legalization that make any valid points. You have done your research, and have a well balanced argument. I just have a few more counters, and then I think it will be time to put this issue to bed for a bit.

  To clarify my position on the need for laws, I believe they should be created to protect the individual from harm by others, not from harm by oneself. Drug laws are truly about keeping the choice away from the self, which is not the true purpose of law. I think this is where my argument is ultimately leading to. Yes, what about drug "x", if marijuana becomes legal, why not all drugs. I think many of the pro-posters out there might draw a line at pot, and say cocaine and heroine are not to be legalized. I disagree, all drugs should be legal, and allowed to be governed by the individual. However, with that said, as I stated before, the individual should also take full responsibility for their actions. If they decide to use a drug, become addicted, and let their lives crumble apart, they should not expect anyone, including the government, to bail them out. That is where I feel the hypocrisy lies with most pro-legalizers. When the drug is used and a positive experience happens out of it, it is because the individual, but when something negative happens, they blame the drug. When I used marijuana, I never blamed it for any of my shortcomings, nor did I contribute any of my successes to it, that was my own will at work. I have experimented with many other drugs, some which I couldn't handle or disliked the affects, thus I never did them again. I'm sure there are many people out there with the same experience as me, and I'm sure there are many people who caused great pain to themselves, but that is the beauty of having choice. To be regulated and molded into a clone for the benefit of the majority is the worst evil out there. It would be too difficult at this point of society to just change the laws and allow the individual complete freedom, especially with drugs, but we need to start moving toward laws that don't punish for self inflicted pain, or bliss if you are lucky. To answer your question would I use again, well, if it was legalized, sure I would. But not because I am an addict. I don't need it to function. It is just an enjoyable thing to me, like having a nice glass of wine or scotch. I don't think I would use it as often as I did in the US, because the people that I associate with don't use it and for me it is a very social thing to do. I look forward to your next reply, and say thanks in advance for the discussion. Curious to see what the next big debate will be.

• 

  Venlo at 02:49 AM JST - 15th April

  Get this all you debating folks.

  The Economist Magazine, one of the top international weekly business & news magazines in the world, (one of my favorites too, for may years) recently devoted their cover to the issue of drugs. Here is what they had to say in their the March 3, 2009 issue.

  "The Economist continues to believe that the least bad policy is to legalise drugs.

  “Least bad” does not mean good. Legalisation, though clearly better for producer countries, would bring (different) risks to consumer countries. As we outline below, many vulnerable drug-takers would suffer. But in our view, more would gain."

  They go on to say many more interesting things. Check it out.

  "The failure of the drug war has led a few of its braver generals, especially from Europe and Latin America, to suggest shifting the focus from locking up people to public health and “harm reduction”

  And more...

  "There are two main reasons for arguing that prohibition should be scrapped all the same. The first is one of liberal principle. Although some illegal drugs are extremely dangerous to some people, most are not especially harmful. (Tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them.) Most consumers of illegal drugs, including cocaine and even heroin, take them only occasionally. They do so because they derive enjoyment from them (as they do from whisky or a Marlboro Light). It is not the state’s job to stop them from doing so.

  What about addiction? That is partly covered by this first argument, as the harm involved is primarily visited upon the user. But addiction can also inflict misery on the families and especially the children of any addict, and involves wider social costs. That is why discouraging and treating addiction should be the priority for drug policy. Hence the second argument: legalisation offers the opportunity to deal with addiction properly.

  By providing honest information about the health risks of different drugs, and pricing them accordingly, governments could steer consumers towards the least harmful ones. Prohibition has failed to prevent the proliferation of designer drugs, dreamed up in laboratories. Legalisation might encourage legitimate drug companies to try to improve the stuff that people take. The resources gained from tax and saved on repression would allow governments to guarantee treatment to addicts—a way of making legalisation more politically palatable. The success of developed countries in stopping people smoking tobacco, which is similarly subject to tax and regulation, provides grounds for hope."

  What more can I add?

  Comments please.

• 

  JayJayE at 03:23 AM JST - 15th April

  Drugs are not good, Full stop. But they are with us and they have always been with us. They are more of a problem now than ever before yet anti-drug laws are relatively new (20th century). Perhaps the question we should ask is, why?

  But I digress. Drugs are bad but people will do them. I myself smoke and drink (both are drugs, don't kid yourself). I used to smoke pot but don't anymore. I'm not against it, just doing what the Romans do.

  Now on the subject, locking people up who put trash in their bodies will do nothing, NOTHING. It didn't work in the 1920-30s in America and it won't work now. Granted pot is NOT safe (you can't overdose, but it can cause cancer) and yes, it is less harmful than (cough, cough) tobacco, but all this is not the point.

  The point is why, in only the last 100 years (in all of history) have laws been passed on how we poison ourselves? And why are people who (maybe foolishly) do so treated as murderers or rapists? People forget this is very recent.

  I legalize all of it and put in under government control. Hell, the new Kanagawa smoking law has worked well on me, can't smoke at stations, can't smoke on the street, I've pretty much quartered what I smoked and I must say, I'm annoyed and grateful at the same time.

  Pot legalized would mean age limits, tax, tough laws as to were to smoke it and how much a person should be allowed to carry. Those right wing Christians who harp on about "legalizing pot will hurt the children" are DEAD wrong. If anything, it will help keep it out of the hands of children (unless they are as lax as they are in Japan with tobacco).

  And again, why do so many people now take drugs (including alcohol and tobacco). This is the question we really need to be asking.

• 

  proudathiest at 05:07 PM JST - 15th April

  The false information (lies) spread in the media are sickening.

  It's all about education and we the people know the truth. Decriminalization is a good first step - rather than outright legalization - because it can be controlled better. Sudden legalization is not only impossible but could lead to problems such as the market being flooded with poor quality/chemicalized weed. Just look at tobacco.

• 

  nipandtuck at 11:02 AM JST - 16th April

  Well, I don't know about you, but I'm off to Hokkaido again this summer to go camping. Really good weed grows really wild, and not a cop for miles...

• 

  AEROCASTER at 05:48 PM JST - 16th April

  Canada has legalized growing, possession, and use of pot for health reasons. Individuals can easily apply for and receive a license from Health Canada. A majority of Canadians now believe it should be legalized or decriminalized for personal recreational use. I'm for legalization and I'm not even interested in smoking it. It simply makes more sense that keeping it illegal.

  Japan, wake up! The longer it's criminalized, the sooner your underworld will take up the cause. Look what's happening to Mexico to see the true ugliness of drug prohibition in action.

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