An old colleague recently visited from Japan. We had never really hung out outside of work settings, but since he was passing through town, him and his wife stayed at my house for the weekend. I don’t drink, but I was ok with him having beers as long as I could smoke a joint. He thought I was joking until I pulled one out to light it and he expressed a little discomfort. For context, I take more or less medically and we were in my kitchen.
Not sure if it’s a cultural thing or he’s had bad experiences with weed!
Thank you.
Ps.
I’m in the USA
14 comments
Well marijuana is extremely illegal in Japan. With that comes real stigma. The regular Japanese person will probably have discomfort around just talking about it tbh, let alone someone smoking in their vicinity.
Most Japanese people think of marijuana like you would heroin.
Was at a friend’s house and he burnt some “papier d’armenie”, looks like small pieces of paper that you burn for good smell, kinda paper incense. 2 Japanese girls freaked out, they were 100% convinced it was marijuana lol, they went mental and covered their mouth and nose and rushed out lol
Any potential Residue on clothing, body, hair and drugs sniffing dogs at customs at arrival in Japan will make me uncomfortable too.
The Japanese attitude toward marijuana hasn’t really progressed past “Reefer Madness”. Extremely Draconian drug laws mean people aren’t going to encounter it in their day to day life and it’s pretty much exclusively the domain of yakuza.
The Japanese attitude toward marijuana hasn’t really progressed past “Reefer Madness”. Extremely Draconian drug laws mean people aren’t going to encounter it in their day to day life and it’s pretty much exclusively the domain of yakuza.
It’s the smell that really makes me wanna hurl. Like, I don’t care whether you smoke a joint or not, but I get sick just from that pungent odor.
Marijuana is highly looked down upon in Japan- and still very illegal there. This “taking more or less medically” doesn’t exist back in Japan either. You’re just using drugs they associate with crime and especially if they’ve never come into contact with it, I’m sure the smell and sensory overload of just being next to it must’ve been very frustrating to deal with as well.
Uff you know how Marijuana is threaten in Japan?
It is handled like heavy drugs.
And also in front of the justice….
As I was in Japan in the hostel we had a japanese young couple who was also there. There listened to Rap and Hip Hop and smoked heavily weed.
Honestly I would never smoke weed in Japan.
I’m sure there are exceptions but as others said, extremely negatively. My partner grew up in Tokyo and even though she’s lived here for years in the US now, she still more or less sees it like crack or heroin.
Japanese people have no idea that there are medical uses for weed. To them it’s just a dangerous drug
絶対ダメ
Is a common expression which comes from Japan’s Anti-Drug campaigns, which essentially means “Never Okay”. Japanese law (and culture), from my understanding, doesn’t really differentiate between “Hard” and “Soft” drugs. For them, if it’s illegal, it’s illegal. Hence, 絶対ダメ
I don’t know your relationship with the guy, so it may not work out this way, but don’t be terribly shocked if he inconveniently never had free time to spend with you again.
I have two friends from Japan who both tried it when they came to Australia. They’d always been curious but said they’d never tell anyone back in Japan they had from how it is looked upon there.
It makes people extremely uncomfortable even talking about it, so I avoid it as a topic altogether. Seems to stem either from personal opinion or from a fear that someone might overhear. One Osakan I was talking to outside a bar in Shinsaibashi looked over his shoulder and shushed me when I mentioned smoking it as a teenager. And this is a guy who goes on mountain walks searching for mushrooms. More paranoid than even the most paranoid of weed friends, ironically.