For both alcohol and cigarettes, Japan is quite the opposite. Let’s find out why this is and learn more about all the little kids running around drunk in the land of the rising sun.

Being Of Legal Age

Now that we’re 20 we can drink and smoke, lol!

Ironically in 1900, Japan was the very first country to create a law that banned underage smoking. It’s kind of like those “ridiculous laws” articles that you see from time to time. For example, in Louisiana “Fake” wrestling matches are prohibited. Or, how in Washington the harassing of Bigfoot, Sasquatch or other undiscovered subspecies is a felony punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment. The underage drinking and smoking laws in Japan are just like that. Laws that nobody upholds, and laws that nobody cares about.

But, let’s just pretend that people care for a moment. The minimum drinking and smoking age is 20 years old, the age when people are considered to be “adults” in Japan. There are laws against consuming, selling, or giving cigarettes or alcohol to minors, but nobody listens. In 1996, the average number of cases brought to prosecutors for underage smoking, for example, was five. Of course, none of the accused were punished in any way. Underage drinking just isn’t considered a big deal, though God forbid you give someone else a ride on your bicycle (that’s a 20,000 yen fine I’ve seen given to several unfortunate people).

Drinking Underage In Japan

The kind of thing I would have liked had I been drinking in high school

The Japanese underage drinking law came into affect in 1922. It has been ignored ever since. Most nations decreased their alcohol consumption since WWII. Japan has managed to increase it. Alcohol on a whole is pretty big in Japan. With children it’s increasing as well.

Here is a summary of results on a survey translated by the authors of “Young People’s Drinking Behavior in Japan” (see sources below).

1. Despite the law prohibiting underage drinking, around 50% of junior high school and 70% of senior high school students reported some experience with alcohol.
2. As in other countries, instances of alcohol consumption, regular drinking, and alcohol-related problems show a constant and dramatic increase with age.
3. Differences are not too wide for drinking patterns of boys and girls. However, boys still exhibit more drinking problems such as fighting, vomiting, hangover, and blackouts.
4. The major source of beverage alcohol for junior and senior high school students was their own homes, followed by convenience stores. Percentage of students obtaining alcohol from vending machines decreased in both junior and senior high school students, as fewer vending machines selling alcohol became available.
5. The choice of alcohol beverage appeared to be gender-linked. Male students preferred beer, while female respondents preferred sweet or fruit-flavored cocktails.
6. Drinking behavior did not change dramatically between 1996 and 2000. It was noted however, that, while overall alcohol consumption appeared to decrease, drinking problems in female students increased during this period.

This wasn’t just one year of surveys, though. They ran follow-ups over the course of five years. By the fifth year, 70% of students were still filling out the survey. Here’s the summaries they came up with regarding the five-year span.

1. Drinking behavior changes dramatically during junior and senior high school years.
2. Over the 5-year period, the percentage of young people consuming alcohol doubled. Drinking in the family tended to be replaced by drinking with friends.
3. The prevalence of alcohol-related problems increased sharply since students were first surveyed in 1997. For example, the percentage of problem drinkers, identified according to the Japanese version of the Quantity-Frequency Scale (Suzuki et al., 1994), increased more than 100 times over the 5-year period, as students progressed from junior to senior high school.
4. Risk factors found to be associated with drinking problems were: earlier age of the first drink, susceptibility to peer pressure, and lack of communication with parents.

There are a few big-picture points we can glean from this. First, there are junior high school students drinking, which boggles my mind. Second, a lot of girls are drinking. Third, a lot of high school students are drinking, which is less surprising, but there’s still quite a bit of this going on.

So Why Are The Kids Drinking?

So we have to ask ourselves, why are all these underage kids drinking? I think there are several reasons, though please note that a lot of this is just my opinion and experience talking.

1. People Will Sell You Alcohol: Shopkeepers will sell to underage kids most of the time. The closest thing to carding I’ve ever seen was a screen that shows up in convenience stores that asks “are you 20 or older?” then has a “yes” button but no “no” button.
2. Vending Machines Vend Alcohol: Although alcohol vending machines are decreasing in numbers, there are still quite a few out there. You can easily buy alcohol from vending machines, and of course they don’t card you. If getting alcohol is this easy, then why wouldn’t kids buy from them? As one great beer mogul once said, “if you build it, they will come.”
3. The Taste Of Japanese Alcohol: Japanese alcohol is easy to drink. Even for kids. There is chu-hai, which mostly tastes like carbonated lemon soda, and if I was a kid I would have loved it (it was developed to be more “womanly” after all). Then there’s the regular beer as well. Asahi Super Dry, Japan’s most popular beer, which is also a lot like drinking a lightly beer flavored soda. After that there’s sake, which unlike sake outside of Japan, actually tastes really good (and is super smooth). Pretty much every Japanese alcoholic beverage is really easy to drink, and this makes it easier for the kids too. I didn’t like the taste of alcohol until my early to mid twenties. If I had been given basically any Japanese alcohol, I may have had a different opinion on the matter.

I can also confirm a lot of the summaries put forth above as well. Despite going to one of the best high schools in the Nagoya area, at least one third of my friends would drink on a somewhat regular basis. I didn’t see it much (unless we were at karaoke), but they were open about their habits. I had one friend who would have a beer every night “to help him to fall asleep.” I suspect he was just getting ready for salaryman life.

Smoking Underage In Japan

Unlike alcohol, I’ve seen firsthand the decrease in consumption across the board. Smoking in Japan is becoming slightly more taboo every year that goes by, and now they’re being corralled into smoking pens. Restaurants even have non-smoking sections or no-smoking rules, which feels unheard of considering how things were ten years ago.

Still, underage smoking is still prevalent, as Japan still is a very smoking culture. In 1999, 19% of 15-20 year old men and 4.3% of 15-20 year old women identified themselves as smokers. 42% of male smokers and 35% of female smokers reported going habitual before 20, the legal age limit. While a lot of time has passed between then and now, I imagine the numbers are fairly similar but slightly better (just guessing based on my own experience).

To back up these numbers, I have a similar experience (though a very small data-set) from high school times in Japan. Amongst my core group of six friends at the time, two of them smoked, though never at school. It wouldn’t be a lot (maybe one or two packs a week), but definitely enough to call them smokers. Of course, both of them are heavy smokers today, well into their twenties.

Just like alcohol, smoking is really easy in Japan. Tobacco Vending machines are much more prevalent compared to alcohol vending machines. If you don’t have a convenient vending machine, shopkeepers and convenience stores will sell pretty much anyone cigarettes. If you want them you can have them, and with the number of people who smoke still, there just isn’t that pressure not to smoke, so kids get started early.

But Is It Right?

That, I’m not so sure about. It’s easy to do in Japan, but I can’t really say what’s right or wrong (that’s up to you in the comments). Kids aren’t driving anywhere, because while it’s easy to get a beer when you’re 15 it’s impossible to get a driver’s license. So, nobody’s going to hurt anyone that way. Also, Japan is a lot safer than most places too. You can get drunk and fall asleep in front of a train station like this guy, and you don’t have to worry about your bag getting stolen.

Then, there is the whole “getting prepared for business life thing.” While I feel like it’s a dumb excuse (those salarymen drink way too much), there is some truth in this statement. Friends would tell me this in regards to their drinking, because if you’re not prepared both mentally and physically for the brutal nomikais that await you, you’re going to have a hard time.

But drinking can also help people to relax. With the intensity that is the Japanese school system, it’s (almost) hard to blame anyone who wants a way to calm down and relax for once. Alcohol is a way that people do that, and while it’s a bad excuse, I almost want to compare teenage drinking in Japan to teenage (pot) smoking in America. Marijuana in Japan is very hard to get (and the punishment is steep). Both aren’t right, technically, though many would argue otherwise, I think. Alcohol, compared to marijuana, is very easy to get, and there’s no punishment for breaking the alcohol law, just like marijuana and kids in America. When a kids wants to let go and escape testing hell for a few hours, this is how they’re going to do it (this and karaoke).

I’m not going to come out and say what’s right and wrong, because I really don’t know, but these are my observations. While I never partook in these activities myself in Japanese high school, I had plenty of opportunities. I guess my upbringing in America taught me that drugs are bad and I should always refuse, or something like that. If I was given a 5yen coin for the number of times I was offered alcohol at home / a matsuri / a restaurant… well, I could buy a lot of beer, though not as much as I would have got if I had accepted every alcohol-related offer. It’s easy to get alcohol and cigarettes in Japan and sometimes hareder to say no. Japan is a very group oriented culture, and alcohol (more than cigarettes) is one way to become closer with said groups. Alcohol opens you up and allows you to express your feelings, something that doesn’t come up very often in Japanese society (at least when alcohol isn’t involved). With the ease of getting alcohol and tobacco in Japan, as well as the lack of harder drugs, it’s no wonder there are so many cases of underage drinking and smoking.

Now it’s your turn. Is this right? Is it wrong? Let me know what you think.

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Update: Turns out, a lot of tobacco machines require an ID to show you’re of age. Times are-a-changing it seems. That being said, buying cigarettes from a person and not a vending machine seems quite easy, much like alcohol. So, while it’s more difficult than I thought to get cigarettes when you’re below 20 years old, it’s still fairly easy to get cigarettes. Apologies for the incorrect information, though the message is still pretty much the same, I think. Also, thank you for those of you who let me know in the comments, I need to get into smoking so I know these things!

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Sources

Japan: Streets Unsafe as Machines Prey on Children, by Mark A. Levin
Tobacco Control , Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 132-133

Young People’s Drinking Behavior in Japan, by Susumu Higuchi, Kenji Suzuki, Sachio Matsushita, and Yoneatsu Osaki.

But in Japan, like virtually anywhere else in the world, there are just so many drugs out there that it’s hard for the government to keep tabs on all of them. It’s especially difficult because people are always hard at work engineering new drugs that get around existing laws. In Japan, these are called “loophole drugs” (脱法ドラッグ).

The Japanese government has been trying to stem the tide of new, artificial drugs by banning what it can. Last summer, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry designated four new drugs as narcotics in an attempt to quell the burgeoning loophole drug business.

The whole thing feels a bit like a futile game of whack-a-mole — for every new drug the government bans, there’s some guy in a lab somewhere inventing two more drugs that fall between the cracks of existing laws.

One of the most infamous loophole drugs in Japan is synthetic marijuana, otherwise known as “spice.”

RRRRRAGHAGHAHGAHGAA SPICE MUST FLOW!!!

Right now in Japan, spice is in a weird cycle. The government bans new variations of spice every few months but, until they’re banned, those spice variants are perfectly legal. Any shop can legally sell spice as long as they say that it’s not meant for human consumption. And then the variation of spice is banned, a new variation hits shops, and the cycle begins anew. It’s like the Circle of Life, but with fewer singing animals and more drugs.

Vice magazine, while it’s not accidentally revealing the location of antivirus magnate and murder suspect John McAfee, produces a lot of interesting videos. I’m a big fan of its videos on North Korea, and its video about Mormons in Mexico was really fascinating.

Just last week, Vice released a video looking at synthetic weed in Japan. The video follows a Japanese woman purchasing and smoking fake weed for her first time ever. Unsurprisingly, a dude with huge dreads leads the whole effort.

A spice trip can go real bad, real quick

But the party may be coming to an end pretty soon. With spice being such a fringe, barely-legal substance and completely unregulated, it’s done some damage to its users. Bad trips and some hospitalizations have made it clear that you should take spice at your own risk.

In the last couple of years, the US military has really started cracking down on its soldiers stationed in Japan using spice. The military’s put into place a strict, zero-tolerance policy towards the drug in any of its forms, and has started testing and disciplining soldiers for their use of spice.

And just last month, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry decided to take a sledgehammer to this game of whack-a-mole and introduced sweeping, new bans to prohibit synthetic weed once and for all. Under these new rules, almost 800 drugs will be banned (compared to the 90 or so that are banned now).

Will this be the swan song for drugs in Japan? If history is any indicator, probably not. Even if it’s sniffing glue or chugging cough syrup, people always seem to find a way to get their fix.

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[threecol_two]Young Japanese men’s trend: Trying to look pretty: Young, urban men in Japan have been upping their game lately, paying more attention to their looks than ever before. Known as ikemen (イケめん), or “good-looking man”, these dudes have no qualms with undertaking traditionally very feminine beauty procedures, like pedicures and manicures. For once, maybe the US might actually be ahead of Japan. After all, we went through Queer Eye For The Straight Guy and “metrosexuality” craze years ago. There’s hope yet! [via News On Japan, Reddit][/threecol_two] [threecol_one_last]Narcotic designation decided for 4 drugs: Drugs are weird. Modern chemistry and botany are so sophisticated that there’s almost unlimited potential for the number of sensory-stimulating drugs people can create; and the law, always a step or two behind, has to do its best to keep up. Japanese law has done just that, and outlawed four new drugs. All I really request is that the cannibalism-inducing bath salts is outlawed. [via News On Japan]

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Smokers Find New Haven in Japan, But for a Price: Governments around the world have been cracking down on smoking ever since the whole “cancer” thing was discovered; but Japan’s enormous population refuse to go quietly into that smoke-free night. A new business called Ippuku is opening up in Japan, charging for the privilege to take your smoke break indoors. Will it take off? If I know how much Japanese people love to be surrounded by delicious, carcinogenic smoke, I’d say yes.
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[threecol_one]
She’s Winner! Hatsune Miku’s Chrome ad wins at Cannes: Last year’s Google Chrome commercial featuring the ever-popular Hatsune Miku has earned itself recognition at the esteemed Cannes awards. An impressive accomplishment for a fictional vocaloid character!

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Header photo by phogel

The Invention Of Crystal Meth

Known as shabu in Japanese (Ah ha! I knew that shabushabu place down the street from my place is run by yakuza), plain old methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine by Japanese chemist Nagai Nagayoshi in 1893. This is neat and all, but it’s no crystal meth. To do this, we have to wait until 1919 when Akira Ogata, Japanese pharmacologist, performs reduction on ephedrine. By doing this, he’s able to create crystal meth. Isn’t it pretty looking?

Because nobody really knew it was bad for you (hey, it keeps you skinny, makes you alert, and is totally awesome, right?), it began to gain popularity, though I would say it wasn’t until WWII that the stuff was really able to take off.

Crystal Meth In WWII

Under the brand name Philopon/Hiropon (ヒロポン), anyone who needed to stave off hunger and stay awake took this form of methamphetamine. Of course, during the war this was everyone. Factory workers could work long hours without eating (more bombs!). Soldiers that needed a pick-me-up took it (more marching!). Even kamikaze pilots were given this drug so they could fly long hours and not feel so bad about crashing into something at the end of their trip (aw, kind of sad!). If you’ve ever wondered why someone would ever go through with a kamikaze mission, this may be one of your answers.

That being said, let’s be fair here. It wasn’t just the Japanese giving drugs to their soldiers. Benzedrine, a similar compound that releases adrenaline, was used by Americans. The Nazis also used meth because they could bring their portable labs to the front. Even Hitler supposedly took a shot of meth every day to keep him feeling chipper (and also to stave off the Parkinson’s).

So, it’s not uncommon for drugs to go rampant (even government sanctioned drugs) during war time. That being said, Japan made a ton of Philopon during the war. So much that it had a huge surplus of it after it was all over. So, what do you do with the stuff? Answer: You sell it for super cheap.

Making Meth Legal In Japan

Following the war, Japan had three big problems:

• There was a lot of meth leftover not only in Japan, but everywhere else in the world as well (and it’s bad manners not to clean your plate, you know).
• There was a lot of work to be done (stuff got blown up pretty good and needed to be fixed).
• A lot of people were coming home, and there wasn’t enough food to go around (people were hungry!).

Luckily, the second two problems could be fixed by the first problem – How lucky! Dainippon Pharmaceuticals (aka Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, maybe you’ve heard of it) had a lot of Philopon to sell, and there certainly was a demand, too.

First of all, lots of soldiers were probably addicted to the stuff, meaning they could (legally) keep taking it once they got home. Second, a lot of industrial workers needed to stay awake for long periods of time. Philopon gave them that extra kick they needed to work those long shifts. One other nice side effect of meth is that you stop being hungry. With a shortage of food and a surplus of philopon, these two things went nicely together. Plus, you eventually lose all your teeth so why would you want to eat anything anyways? Win-win.

Really, anyone and their grandmother could get the stuff, and because not a lot of research had been done, people didn’t understand the implications of a nation on meth until a bit later. By then, though, it was kind of an epidemic.

The Crystal Meth Epidemics

After the war in 1946, we start to see the first reported cases of psychosis due to meth in Japan (as well as around the world). By 1948, people started to figure out that meth wasn’t a good idea, so Japan banned its use in tablet or powdered form. This left injection, which is actually much worse for you in the long term. Hospitalizations increased and drug-related crimes increased. Obviously it was time to put a stop to all this.

In 1951, the Japanese Ministry of Health banned meth in Japan, causing an overproduction of the stuff once again (yay, cheap meth!). Also, labs just began to move overseas (which partly explains why there are so many meth labs in Asia around Japan, and very few inside of Japan). 17,528 people were arrested in the first year of meth being illegal, but this number just continued to increase. In 1954, harsher penalties (including imprisonment up to 5 years for the first offense) got introduced. Despite this, 55,000 people were arrested in 1955 for drug-related crimes.

In 1955, however, a few things changed. The Japanese government created a huge campaign against substance abuse. Also, began to prohibit the raw materials usually used to make meth from being imported into the country and meth labs started getting raided. Really, this is when Japan put its foot down, and although crystal meth is still the most popular drug in Japan today, its tapered off quite a bit (as you’ll see).

Crystal Meth In Japan Today

My Yakuza Meth Dealer: Toshio “No Nipple Tats” Watanabe

Crystal meth, unsurprisingly, is the most commonly used illegal drug in Japan. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 80% of drug-related arrests in Japan have involved methamphetamine. Also, half the meth-related arrests in Japan were also related to the yakuza and other organized crime (if you go, tell them “Koichi Four-Fingers” referred you for a discount). It’s used by all kinds of people too. Those skinny Japanese school girls gotta stay skinny, you know?

For the most part, though, Japan and crystal meth manufacturing are quite separate (or people are extra good at hiding their labs). In 2010, the first crystal meth lab since 1995 was found and busted. That’s 15 years of no meth-labs being discovered. I think it’s safe to assume that Japan isn’t producing much of its crystal meth. Instead, it’s importing it mainly from the countries Canada, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey.

Japan definitely has a history of going nuts over its “drug problem,” though. While I will say that drugs are bad, kids, I think Japan’s reaction to the problem is pretty interesting. When a celebrity is caught with marijuana, it’s a gigantic media frenzy. The Japanese government is always lamenting about its terrible drug problems… but when you take a look, it’s not actually all that bad.

• Japan (population 127.7 million) reports approximately 4,000 annual marijuana offenses every year. The single state of California (population 38.6 million) reports approximately 75,000 annual marijuana offenses per year. Marijuana is currently the #2 most used drug behind crystal meth in Japan.
• In Japan, only 3% of people say they have tried “banned substances.” Comparatively 46% of Americans say they have tried banned substances.
• Japan sees around 12,000 crystal meth related arrests every year (this number has been pretty level for a while now). Compare this to 1955, which had 55,000 people.

I’m sure Japan would love a zero on the board when it comes to drugs, but when you compare these numbers to other countries (or even the Japan of 50 years ago), you have yourself a fairly small problem. I will say, though, that I think that marijuana will probably overtake crystal meth for the number one spot. Crystal meth has been holding steady at 12,000ish for quite a while now, but marijuana has been on the rise. Despite Japan’s long history with meth, there’ll be a new king soon. And, if I had to choose, I’d rather have to deal with pot over meth any day.

“Drugs are bad, m’kay?”

Let’s face it, Japan can be a weird place sometimes.When Japan isn’t inventing such useful things as poop-powered motorcycles, they’re churning out some of the strangest movies known to man.

And while you might think that only explanation for Japan’s weirdness must be copious amounts of psychedelics, it turns out that the Japanese do not mess around when it comes to drugs.

Japanese drug law is among the harshest in the world, and can be even worse if you’re a foreigner. Nobody is safe, not even a (former) Beatle.

Drugs in Japan

Japanese law and society at large usually view drug possession as almost an unconscionable act. Japanese citizens who are caught growing, possessing, or using illegal drugs of pretty much any kind find themselves in deep trouble.

Not only do drug offenders face up to five years in prison for their first offense, but there’s tons of other, non-legal repercussions too. A couple years ago, both a rugby player and a sumo wrestler were found to be in possession of marijuana, and both athletes had their Japanese sports careers ended.

People who get caught with drugs can be fired from their jobs, expelled from school, and have their life flipped, turned upside-down Bel-Aire style. In other words: it sucks to get caught with drugs if you’re a Japanese citizen.

Drug trip, or classic console game Rez? You decide.

And if the criminal penalties weren’t enough of a deterrent, drugs are really pricey in Japan compared to other parts of the world. According to the United Nations, Japan is the most expensive place in the world to get high. Tokyo sure ain’t Amsterdam.

So between the threat of jail time and the incredible expense, it’s not surprising that drug usage in Japan is pretty low.

But the way Japan treats its own citizens pales in comparison to the treatment that foreigners face for drug charges.

Gaijin on Drugs

If you’re visiting Japan from another country, it’s probably best to not even think about drugs. The law is never kind to foreigners in any country, but if you’re a gaijin with drugs, you’re a gaijin in trouble.

The US State Department warns of how harsh Japanese law can be on foreigners caught with illegal drugs in Japan:

…offenders can expect long jail sentences and fines. In most drug cases, suspects are detained and barred from receiving visitors or corresponding with anyone other than a lawyer or a U.S. consular officer until after indictment. Solitary confinement is common.

Yikes. Given, this sort of treatment might be more reflective of Japan’s justice system, but that’s a whole other issue for another post.

But seriously, don’t do this – you’ll be shot where you stand.

The Rolling Stones, former Beatle Paul McCartney, and Paris Hilton have all been denied entrance to Japan because of prior drug charges in their home countries. (But really, can you blame the Japanese for banning Paris Hilton from their country?)

Usually though, celebrities are eventually allowed into Japan. But for the rest of us who aren’t lucky enough to be greeted at Narita by hordes of screaming fans, it’s doubtful that you’ll ever be welcome in Japan if you’ve faced a drug charge at any time in your life.

And, as a recent story shows, if you try to get drugs into Japan from elsewhere, you can find yourself in pretty hot water. An American student studying in Japan is in jail at the moment because a friend of his sent him marijuana-infused sweets. In the eyes of Japanese law, it doesn’t matter that this student legally receives medical marijuana in his home state.

Is Japan’s drug policy too harsh? That’s definitely an issue up for debate. But the bottom line is if you’re looking to visit or live in Japan, you should be so drug-free that you make the Pope look like Hunter S. Thompson.

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