The forgotten success story: Japan and the methamphetamine problem

Abstract

This paper examines Japan's policy towards methamphetamine (Japanese: hiropon). Opium has been used in Japan for medicinal purposes since 1722. However, it was strictly controlled. The result was that drug abuse was minuscule. This changed with the introduction of methamphetamine. During the Second World War hiropon was given by the military to fighter pilots and the signal corps in order to help them stay awake and alert. After 1945, the large military stockpiles of methamphetamine found their way onto the black market. With society in chaos, drug abuse spread rapidly and a hiropon epidemic emerged. The introduction of a comprehensive anti-drug package in the mid-1950s, including stricter laws, resulted in that abuse having been almost totally eradicated by 1957. Around 1970 a new wave of abuse (‘the second epidemic’) began. It peaked around 1985, after which abuse tampered off, albeit slowly. A temporary increase in the mid-1990s made Japanese authorities declare the emergence of ‘the third epidemic’ that is still said to be ongoing. Official statistics show, however, that Japan has not seen any such epidemic. In comparison with most other Western countries, methamphetamine abuse in Japan is modest.

Keywords:

• illicit drugs
• stimulants
• methamphetamine
• hiropon
• epidemics
• abuse
• dependence
• Stimulants Control Law
• yakuza

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a lengthy report based on information and materials collected during a stint as visiting scholar at Keio University, Tokyo, in September and October 2013. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Miyaoka Isao and Professor Kokubun Ryōsei for assistance and stimulating discussions and the Bergvall Foundation for a generous research grant. I am also grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose close reading has improved the report.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The word usually used for methamphetamine is kakuseizai, which, more precisely, comprises four substances: methamphetamine, methylphenidate, cocaine and other sympathomimetic amines (Naitō 2011, p. 3). In legal terms, kakuseizai covers amphetamine and methamphetamine (Tadokoro 1982, p. 1). It is commonplace in articles and reports to confuse amphetamine and methamphetamine (Naitō 2011, p. 3). However, the former came into disrepute at the end of the 1940s in Japan, where consumers preferred methamphetamine that had a quicker effect (Katō 1993, p. 129).

2. There is a distinct difference between writings in English and in Japanese on Japanese methamphetamine abuse. ‘Epidemic’ is the term often used in literature in Western languages dealing with drug abuse in Japan. The medical term ‘epidemic’ captures what occurs when a certain group or area is affected by a certain disease within a comparatively limited time in a way that surpasses what would normally be expected (Nanzando's Medical Dictionary [2006], p. 2580). The translation into Japanese of the word epidemic is ryūkō, which however is rarely used in Japanese-language descriptions and analyses of methamphetamine abuse in Japan. Instead, the word that is almost always used is ran'yō, ‘use without good reason’. Since ran'yō is not a medical term, there is no entry for it in a comprehensive medical dictionary such as Igaku-shoin's Igaku jiten [Medical dictionary] (2003). Yanagida (1982, p. 25) has argued that ran'yō is ambiguous, making it unsuitable for scholarly texts. A similar argument has been forwarded by Katō Nobukatsu, who has discussed ran'yō as a social concept with inherent value judgements, which makes it unsuited for use in a medical context (Katō 1988, p. 11). He points out that there is also nondependent use of drugs according to the WHO definition of abuse (WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence Twentieth Report [1974], pp. 20ff).

3. Professor H. Richard Friman, personal communication, 14 February 2014.

4. This was made graphically clear in 1995, when the statistics for cannabis abuse suddenly dipped. The reason was not that consumption of this drug had decreased but rather because the Tokyo police had concentrated its personnel resources to deal with the religious sect Aum Shinrikyō after its sarin attack on the Tokyo underground – in so doing, reassigning its resources from tackling other types of criminality. See Wada (1997, pp. 84f).

5. Martin Raithelhuber, Illicit Synthetic Drug Expert ࠲Global SMART Programme Manager, UNODC, personal message, 13 January 2015.

6. Data provided by Thomas Pietschmann, Studies and Threat Analysis Section (STAS), Research and Trend Analysis Branch (RAB) ࠲United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, personal message, 14 January 2015.

7. A note of caution is called for. Data are not fully comparable since they represent prevalence for different years. In most cases statistics are from 2003–2005.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bert Edström

Bert Edström is a BA (1971), MSSc (1974) and PhD in Japanology (1988), at Stockholm University. His present position is Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Security and Development Policy. He is the author of Japan's Evolving Foreign Policy Doctrine (1999) and Japan and the Challenge of Human Security (2008) and articles and reports on Japanese politics and foreign policy. He may be contacted at [email protected]; [email protected].