Anth230: Anthropology of East Asia

Drugs in Japan

After finishing preliminary research on drug use in Japan, I found that most of the information pertained to the recent rise in meth use in Japan, especially since WWII. Most of the other sites and journals dealt with opium use in China or the Opium Wars. My research did show that the reason not much informaition exists on Japanese drug trends is the nature of Japanese culture, which holds such disdain for drugs and drug use. Simply put, the Japanese government does not keep detailed records, statistics, or estimates of drug use in the country, which begs another interesting question that could be used as a project. Does the head-turning by the Japanese government really help end the scourge that has taken off domestically, especially among children? As a result, I will focus more on the drug culture in Japan since WWII, and the effects it has in Japan and abroad.

This has allowed me to narrow my topic and to focus strictly on events that have happened more recently. As www.stopaddiction.com states, meth was first discovered in Japan, in 1919. It was synthesized primarily to help Japanese troops stay awake for long periods of time. It soon spread to other countries seeking to do the same thing. However, it seems that it became overused. In Vietnam, it is estimated that there were more American troops using the substance than the number of total users worldwide (stopaddiction.com). In Japan, the drug was distributed to the public soon after WWII, where it became an epidemic. According to cnn.com, this use has now ballooned to about 2 million Japanese, an undependable estimate that is derived from arrests of dealers, not users. In addition, the use is scary in that it is adopted by children at an alarming rate. With this in mind, I hope to be able to research the situation from a domestic and international perspective. With so much methamphetamine being produced in the US and Mexico, only an international effort can combat this scary trend. Furthermore, I hope to be able to figure out what the domestic front is, both among users and law enforcement agencies, and how they hope to curb use, address addicts, and stop illegal importation of the drugs. With the war on terrorism requiring careful inspection (at least ideally) of most imports into a country, it should be interesting to see what the effect will be on use and distribution, both in Japan and worldwide.