Japan law and policy update

In comparison with other countries in Asia, Japan’s drug problem appears both significantly smaller and very different in profile. Historically an isolated island nation which never experienced colonization, it recognized the devastation wrought on China by opium and implemented harsh anti-opioid laws very early. Japan has never experienced a significant opioid addiction problem. Instead, stimulants, most notablymethamphetamine, are the greatest source of drug use and addiction in the society today. Somewhere between 100,000 and 2.3 million Japanese use methamphetamines, a broad range indicating the lack of information on drug use in Japan due to its strict zerotolerance approach.

Japan’s approach to drug trafficking and consumption has, from its very outset, applied a stringent criminalization and punishment approach to even the smallest infractions. Viewed through a rights-based framework, many of the policies adopted by the Japanese government appear unjustifiably harsh, with no regard for the rights of the drug user.

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