Why Japan Is so strict about drugs

By Brian Ashcraft / Kotaku

If you’re in Japan, keep this mantra in mind: never do drugs in this country. Ever.

The United States, Australia, and other countries are hardly perfect with their drug laws. Celebrities, however, have long appeared to play by different rules. This is not true in Japan, where if the rich and famous are caught with illegal substances, it’s not a speedbump on their careers, but a stop sign.

Japanese society is built on very high expectations. The expectation is that if some has broken the law, a company should not profit from that person’s work. The taint of crime, especially drug-related, is seen to reflect on the larger group. Making money off an alleged criminal is certainly not a good look in image-conscious Japan.