A Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare panel met on May 25 to begin discussions regarding lifting the ban on medical cannabis to benefit patients who suffer from refractory epilepsy.

As reported by The Asahi Shimbun, the ministry may revise the current law sometime this summer. Japanese law currently prohibits any possession or cultivation of any part of cannabis, including “the spikes, leaves, roots and ungrown stalk of the cannabis plant.”

The Asahi Shimbun references that of the “Group of Seven,” or the seven countries with the most advanced economies, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of these, Japan currently has one of the strictest approaches to cannabis regulation and prohibition. In August 2021, the Japanese ministry wrote a report that recommended that the government should consider following the example of other countries to allow patients to use medical cannabis.

While the ministry is discussing the addition of a provision to the Cannabis Control Law that would exclude medical cannabis consumption from becoming grounds for punishment, the agency also seeks to further criminalize recreational use.

Although cannabis is illegal, there are some Japanese cannabis cultivators who are licensed to produce hemp to create shimenawa, a specific rope that is commonly used at shrines. There are no punishments for these cultivators, for fear that the production of the ropes may include “unintentionally inhaling substances of marijuana.” However, this assumption was disproven when no farmers’s urine tests came back positive for cannabis in a survey conducted in 2019.

The Asahi Shimbun writes that some experts believe the law should provide treatment options for “those addicted to marijuana to prevent repeat offenses,” which mainly includes Japanese youth.

In December 2021, Japanese gaming company Capcom allowed the use of its Ace Attorney character to curb cannabis consumption in the nation’s youth, in conjunction with the Osaka Prefectural Police (OPP). Previously, Capcom has assisted the OPP with other crime prevention campaigns. “Capcom hopes to support crime prevention activities in Osaka and all of Japan through this program, which will see the production of 6,000 original posters, as well as 4,000 original flyers that will be included with individually wrapped face masks,” the company said in a press release.

Japan has long prohibited cannabis under the Cannabis Control Law that originally went into effect in 1948. Historically, cannabis had its place in Japanese culture and religion, but from the 1950s onward, Japanese law on cannabis mirrored that of the United State’s approach to prohibition. The Japanese hemp industry was still permitted to operate, but due to expensive cultivation licenses and a decline in demand for hemp goods, few farms remain.

While the government perspective is beginning to shift, it is still clear that Japan needs more progress before it can fully embrace cannabis legalization. In 1980, former Beatles band member Paul McCartney visited Japan with less than eight ounces in his possession, which netted him an 11-year ban from returning. In February 2022, a U.S. Marine received two years of hard labor for mail-ordering “a half-gallon of weed-infused liquid and the quarter-pound of cannabis” from an unnamed individual in Nevada. On May 17, a school nurse was imprisoned for allegedly possessing “an unspecified amount of dried cannabis in two jars and a plastic bag.”

Even when Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, the Japanese government made a statement reminding Japanese nationals living broad that cannabis is illegal to consume even if they live in a country where it’s legal.

According to Kyodo News, the National Police Agency release data that there were 5,482 people who were caught in violation of Japan’s cannabis law (4,537 for possession, 273 for illegal sales, and 230 for illegal cultivation).

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Japanese video game powerhouse Capcom revealed last week that it is lending its hit character Ace Attorney to a campaign designed to prevent cannabis use by young people. The company announced on Thursday that characters from the popular video game series will be enlisted to fight youth cannabis use under a collaboration with the Osaka Prefectural Police department’s juvenile delinquency prevention awareness campaign.

Every year since 2013, Capcom has worked with the Osaka Prefectural Police and the law enforcement agencies of neighboring prefectures to develop and implement crime prevention awareness campaigns. This year, the company received a request from the Osaka Prefectural Police to use the popular Ace Attorney characters for the first time in a campaign to prevent marijuana abuse, “which has seen a conspicuous shift toward younger age groups,” according to a statement from Capcom.

The campaign will feature characters from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, which was released in July, in flyers and posters to be distributed at educational institutions, community police facilities, and train stations throughout Osaka Prefecture. The artwork includes the classic Ace Attorney ‘objection!’ stance as well the word “no” in large red letters.

“Capcom hopes to support crime prevention activities in Osaka and all of Japan through this program, which will see the production of 6,000 original posters, as well as 4,000 original flyers that will be included with individually wrapped face masks,” the company wrote in a December 9 press release.

The company’s support of the campaign is part of its program to nurture regional revitalization efforts throughout Japan by capitalizing on the power of its intellectual property to engage people in four areas including economic development, cultural awareness, prevention education and election participation. The company has carried out various initiatives since 2009, such as concluding the first comprehensive agreement between a video game company and a local government body, collaborating with prefectural police in the Kansai region on prevention activities, and working to raise awareness of gubernatorial elections.

Popular Japanese Video Game Series

The Ace Attorney series, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, features courtroom battle games where players take on the role of a defense attorney who fights for the lives of their wrongfully accused clients. Since the first game in the series was released in October 2001, Capcom has grown the brand through a comprehensive, multi-platform marketing strategy, leveraging it in mediums such as animated television shows, stage performances, and orchestral concerts. The Ace Attorney series has grown to become one of Capcom’s most popular, with cumulative shipments totaling 8.6 million units as of the end of September.

Cannabis in Japan

Although cannabis has been cultivated in Japan for thousands of years, the nation prohibits the import, export, cultivation, sale, purchase, and research of cannabis buds and leaves for recreational or medicinal purposes under the 1948 Cannabis Control Law. Production of hemp, which is utilized in some Shinto religious practices, is legal, and CBD products containing no THC have been available since 2016.

Japan has some of the most severe penalties in the world for violations of marijuana prohibition laws, including jail sentences of up to five years for simple possession. Penalties for cannabis sales, cultivation, and possession for sale are even more severe, with sentences ranging up to 10 years in prison.

Despite the risk, cannabis is the second-most popular illicit drug in Japan behind methamphetamine, according to a 2019 survey. Approximately 1.8% of people said they had used cannabis in their lifetime, compared to about 44 percent of Americans. Although efforts to reform cannabis prohibition laws have taken root in other east Asian nations in recent years, the Japan Times reported in 2021 that “political momentum for legalizing cannabis” in the nation “is essentially nonexistent.”

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