...Drugs...

Kids, just say no. Especially here. Penalties are harsh. From other stories I’ve read about Japanese prisons, it’s clear that the emphasis is on punishment rather than re-habilitation. The mere possession of cannabis, by far the softest substance covered in a certain informative chart I‘ve discovered, carries a sentence of up to five years. Drugs are the ultimate evil over here (apart from minority groups), although it’s only recently that Psylocibin (Magic Mushroom) has been declared illegal, previously enjoying, as it did in my own green and pleasant land, an ambiguous legal status.

Most of this information comes from a pamphlet entitled “NO, Absolutely NO!” to drug abuse! circulated in Kawasaki schools last year. Whilst I’m not advocating widespread drug use, this document is a piece of propaganda…and since it’s Japanese, it’s told with adorable cartoons.


Drug users are depicted as blue-skinned zombies with no pupils, surrounded by small squiggles, thunder bolts, and occasionally pursued by ghosts with knives. Whilst this is endearing for a while, the cracks in the relentless argument start to show with the persistence of the medium.

When they show an actual photograph comparing the brain of a clean member of society with that of a paint thinner abuser (apparently, it’s the drug of choice for penniless teenagers), then the argument carries weight. However, the same page presents two arbitrary drawings of a spiral, one supposedly by a normal person, the other supposedly by a paint thinner abuser…

This demonstration of points through patterns of an indeterminate source is repeated with a sketch of two rats, one normal, the other drugged. Their routes to various foodstuffs in a simple maze are traced with two lines, one smooth and precise, the other, erratic and wavy. The diagram clearly indicates that a cartoon rat under the influence of drugs is less likely to find food than a sober cartoon rat.

Maybe the authors realized that their constant use of cartoons to illustrate a point was in danger of not being taken seriously, so they backed it up with some photographs of rats under the influence of cannabis. The caption beneath a photo of four rats seeming to have a fight, claims that cannabis makes creatures attack their non-drugged fellows. I have spent a long time looking at this photograph, and I am convinced that it actually shows two very stoned rats mesmerized by their own reflections.


The interesting thing about this pamphlet is the very Japanese tone. First of all, when describing the cons of drug use, the authors highlight the effects it has on society - namely people dropping out, not working and subsequent economic losses, which is a stance I’ve never seen before in similar literature.

Later on, there is a world map showing the routes that illicit substances take to get to their destinations. Even though some opium reaches the rest of the world from Japan, the big arrows make it clear that the drugs came from China first.

To sidestep for a while, and mention how Governments see fit to conveniently forget some embarrassing segments of their history…opium was a strong source of revenue in countries occupied by Japan. Consequently, the Japanese Government created millions of addicts in an act of state sponsored drug dealing. Governments of the West, you’re just as guilty.

Back to the drug booklet, and one picture of the blue drug zombies claims that they’re criminal gangs from the Kansai region (West Japan). That one still baffles me. Why, out of all the BDZ’s in the pamphlet is one group singled out as being from Kansai, and from nowhere else, as if Kansai was the source of all that is evil in Japan?

For some reason, people from Kansai seem to take a beating from those in Kanagawa and Tokyo. One of my most recent private students was telling me about a trip she took to Osaka, as her son is studying there. Despite the legendary friendliness of the Osaka-jin, she didn’t like it there as she found their Japanese to be “dirty”. In the hope of discovering some actual Japanese swear-words, I pressed her on the subject, but it turns out it was their accent that disgusted her so.

This is an attitude I’ve encountered several times since being here. I once had the misfortune to meet and have a prolonged conversation with the rudest woman in the world …she, of course, was oblivious to her odious tongue, and we were with mutual friends, so I had to hold mine…anyway, the bulk of her galloping faux pas has been lost in a blurry flurry of beer and other social occasions…but I remember her making frequent aspersions as to the moral fibre of everywhere in Japan she didn’t have intimate knowledge of.

Once again, I only skirt around that core of Japanese society - Uchi & Soto, inside and outside…it’s like Japanese society is made up of gossiping circles who strengthen their internal bonds by demonizing everything outside their group.

Back to drugs - I agree with a great deal of what the pamphlet says. Drugs, legal or otherwise, when consumed regularly are bad for you. Maybe what is a bone of contention for myself and others of a similar persuasion is the imbalance and sometimes outright lies of the anti-drugs argument. It seems that here, just like everywhere else, drugs are tolerated as long as they’re useful to society. Ripobitan D anyone?