Two 14-year-old girls were arrested for possessing marijuana in Kobe City on Thursday, and a 13-year-old girl was taken into custody, becoming the youngest person in Japan to be detained for the offense since records began in 1999. A 16-year-old girl, a part-time employee at an adult entertainment business, was also arrested.
Hyogo police said they received information last summer that girls at a public junior high school were smoking marijuana, and began their investigation. They searched the homes of the four girls on Wednesday and found small quantities of marijuana as well as smoking implements. One of the girls was found to be in possession of 0.5 grams of marijuana and another possessed 1.5 grams.
Police said the girls have admitted to smoking marijuana since last August, and told them they had smoked it with other friends as well .More than a dozen students were seen entering and leaving one of the homes on a regular basis, and police are in the process of determining their identities.
Police added the three junior high school girls each went to different schools, and had been increasingly absent from school recently. A principal at one of the schools said that they had made students aware of the effects and consequences of taking drugs, but that it was hard to monitor who students were associating with due to the proliferation of cell phones.
© News reports
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alphawolf
Well.. what is going to happen to the girls?
memyselfI
i used to work for many junior high schools in japan. I've seen deals going on in school and off school grounds. This doesn’ｔ surprise me one bit. I've seen kids carrying airguns trying to simulate drug gangs in america. Hahahaha !!!!
bamboohat
Marijuana is a gateway drug.
A gateway to good times!
S7ro9kGm3aQ
This is totally on the mark. I suffer from all of these!
Sarge
"One of the girls was found to be in possession of .5 grams of marijuana and another possessed 1.5 grams"
Wow, what a bust!
BurakuminDes
All power to the girls. All power to 'em.
dolphingirl
Yeah, how did they get a warrant to search their homes anyway? From hearsay? I hope not.
nath
Busting down the doors to conduct a search the boudoir dresser drawers of a 14 year old girl : Hmmm... Tiny little bras, undies, knee socks, Werthers Originals, Kit Kat rappers, Mister Donut coupons... Oh, there it is! We have hit paydirt, fellers! A SEED!
Icantbelieveit
Hyogo police said they received information last summer? Jeez, a year long sting operation on teenagers...Hyogo cops must not be too busy or too smart, one of the 2.
MeanRingo
They should start searching the homes of all the JHS and HS kids that have the Happa or pot leaf adorned clothing, bags, books etc. My own mother in law has a pot leaf necklace. Anyhoo, that will keep the cops busy while the growers assert claims over their territories. And as for bringing weed INTO Japan... why bother? The stuff grows quite nicely in the long grow seasons all on its own. Most of the weed getting through at the airport comes from the custom guys trying to train their moronic junior officers and screwing up.
Betting
"...since records began in 1999".
No wonder the Japanese think they don't have any crime in their country.
bamboohat
I call reporting foul.
The Mainichi is reporting that she is a part time restaurant worker. No "adult entertainment" sensationalism.
Because they can't mention her name, and hence her place of work, any restaurant, likely an izakaya, where they serve alcohol can be considered an adult entertainment place for increased web traffic and ad revenues.
this is just your normal, run of the mill JHS girl who smokes a little dope. Not entirely mainstream, but she's certainly not giving handies for a dollar between classes in her school uniform like some of you guys are imagining.
But it's good that the J-cops are spending all their time and resources chasing junior high school girls with about two hits worth of dope.
KyokoSmile
Smithinjapan, you are most certainly right, my friend. Japan thinks they can just sweep all this under the carpet and pretend this problem doesn't exist. They think people are stupid. They think their perfect little country is better than everybody else. I wonder what YuriOtani would say about this, or NihonRyu. My Husband thinks otherwise. This is just the beginning.
Nessie
Zero tolerance for weed.
Endless tolerance for prossy minors.
Because having weed isn't a victimless crime.
Head explodes.
smithinjapan
This is only a shock because policed bothered to look into it after girls were caught. This isn't a SUDDEN problem in Japan -- just a problem that's suddenly being given so much attention. Anyone who thinks part started yesterday was born yesterday.
nandakandamanda
An American parent at XYZ, an International school here in Japan once confided to me: "It's strange. Here is where we get the education we wanted for our kids, what they should be getting back in the States, a straight run. Back home, the schools are full of drugs. We find we can get a proper US education for them only here in Japan!"
bicultural
The problem with drugs in Japan is that it all gets lumped into one category. Their parents probably don't even know what weed does. Are people in Japan even aware that drugs can be roughly sorted into 3 categories?
southsakai
Too much Spliff and people go Skizo. I lived with guys who went prime stupid smoking this stuff. Distorted perception, Loss of Coordination, Hallucinations, Delusions, Impaired Memory, Disorientation. Please shelter your kids from Mary-J!
dammit
Good grief. And I'm pretty sure they don't mean karaoke.
my2sense
go after the Yaks.....
my2sense
Here is a whiff of new reality besides the weed... My guess is a lot of runaways and broken home kids are in this sort of lifestyle... same as in the US and Europe. Reminds me of that video from the early 90s (Runaway Train)or the new one from the Miley Cyrus. Teens, booze, drugs, pimps, sex trade... This news is barely news in the US but they need to crack down on the mizu biz here and not the pot... Id rather read about kids getting busted with a bit of weed rather than selling their souls to pay a keitei bill or worse, just to eat.
sctaber56
Some might remember the huge uproar and scandal back around 1981 when former Beatle Paul McCartney tried to enter Japan with a small amount of pot in his possession? His then group Wings, I believe, was scheduled for a major concert tour throughout Japan and the entire tour was cancelled. After a short time in jail (maybe just overnight) Sir Paul et. al. were sent back to wence they came. Absolutely Zero Tolerance was the rule back then. Didn't seem to phase the Cute Beatle much as he just shrugged his shoulders as he left the Land of the Rising Sun with a lot less yen then he'd expected in his back pocket. C'est la vie...
nath
In my country, you see juniors even smoke marijuana on the streets. I remember my time in military, it looked to me that I was the only one, who doesn't smoke it then (It doesn't mean that I never smoked it ;). Maybe rules in this case are too strict in Japan, but here (Switzerland) it's too open. There are some street-accidents lately caused by marijuana. Although I know a lot of people smoking it, I'm against legalization. It's a drug and you see people acting strange or absent-minded, after smoking it...
nandakandamanda
Mittsu, it's not the amount.
When I was at college in the States I remember some college kid in Chicago getting busted for a seed stuck beytween his floorboards and the judge trying to give him 20 years!
Mittsu
it's half a gram and one and half grams. You know how little dope that is? 2 spliffs? Hardly seems worth the trouble....
cuddles2009
Just look at Holland who controls things like this and seem to do it well.
I agree let the cops chase the real crims
borscht
Sorry, marijuana was legal until 1937 in the US. About the time these girls' grandfathers were smoking it.
norinrad21
A 16 year old in the adult entertainment business? Jesus Christ.....wtf????/
borscht
Since marijuana was only illegal in Japan after the US made it illegal during the occupation, why is it still on the books?
All these arrests will do is ruin those women's lives. The arrests aren't going to stop others from using weed, nor will they stop the flow of weed into Japan.
tkoind2
We can hardly expect kids to make good decisions when society as a whole can't sort this problem.
If you look at all the crime, violence, corruption and danger associated will weed alone, it is a major issue for the planet. But if you legalize it, manage it, tax it etc... then the resources can be shifted to something more important.
When society sends a message that it can be mature and informed about an issue like weed, then children can learn from that example too. We should expect better thinking on this topic from adults and government first.
As for Adult Entertainment. The fabric of society here is set against respect and protection for young girls from a very early age. Again, adults need to be thinking more clearly here if any change is to come. Starting with a much more clear definition of what constitutes an adult entertainment job and what age group should be allowed to work in it.
dolphingirl
societymike: I think you misunderstood.me. I didn't say anything about christian values or sheltering kids from weed. In fact, my point was just the opposite: that kids should know about drugs, their benefits & harms, so they can make better choices in their lives.
Parents and teachers generally just teach kids that 'drugs' are bad and that probably just makes teens want to do it more. Teenagers naturally want to rebel and do things that adults tell them they shouldn't do. If there were more open and honest conversations about drugs, they likely wouldn't be as much as a problem.
And I might add that I totally agree that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol. If people knew the true facts, marijuana would be legal everywhere. It's completely absurd that a medicinal plant, which could be regulated like other legal drugs and be very beneficial as a painkiller, is even illegal in the first place.
societymike
"karaoke" is also considered as "adult entertainment" in Japan. You guys are losing focus on a quick in translation and your understanding of the word "adult entertainment".
Fortunately, not all parents share your same sensitive christian values when raising their kids. I'm not sheltering my kids from weed. It's HARDLY a drug, and much less dangerous than alcohol ever was.
SimpleLife
The biggest question for me, is why a 16 year old girl is working in an adult entertainment business? Did her parents allow this? How is that an appropriate part time job for a young girl? The smoking pot, never good, but is it really that big of a deal? Stupid yes, but criminal enough to warrant headlines?
She must be behind the counter thats it
5SpeedRacer5
In the US, this is the kind of news that turns DAs into governors into Senators. I wonder what will happen here.
I do not know who can stand up against the torrent of public opinion against kids having access to illegal drugs. This seems pretty far over the line to me. Maybe, just maybe, people can overlook kids into crime and sex, but once you get drugs in there, the pitchforks come out. Reefer madness was made about students being SEDUCED by wacky weed, after all. (Haha... I see borscht beat me to the REEFER MADNESS reference. Synchronicity there. )
For example, I seem to recall that selling drugs in the US within 1000 feet of a school is automatically a felony, but I might be wrong.
FineDiner
My J wife smoked da stuff since she was 14 and she is one of the most sane J women I have ever met. Unlike the horror stories you sometimes hear.
Alphaape
This is what the story should be about in my opinion. Why is a child working there? I am against drug use, but to me this is what the Jcops should be looking into. What organization hires kids to work in this industry, those are the real criminals.
dolphingirl
This is all wrong. First of all, I want to know where the parents are of all of these girls. Did the parents not notice that kids were coming and going from their house? Did the parents of the 16-year-old know she was in the adult entertainment business?
Secondly, didn't the school do anything when the students weren't showing up for classes? This should never have gotten to the point where these girls had to be arrested; especially the 13 and 14 year old.
Parents and teachers are supposed to be guiding these kids and helping them to make good decisions. Shame on them for not doing their job.
What a ridiculous waste of time and police resources! 6 months to uncover that a few teens are smoking pot at one school?! I'm sure there are high school students everywhere in this country using marijuana and other drugs.
Teens will experiment with drugs and parents and schools have to be aware of the reality of this. I'm sure they got the big lecture at school--Drugs are bad. Don't do them.--Students need real education about drugs.
And as Tkoind2 pointed out, if marijuana were decriminalized and regulated in the first place, it would probably be harder to get and it would no longer hold the same 'ooh, dangerous' status so it would actually become less attractive for teens.
I guess we can hope that this experience shakes up these girls enough and helps them get on the right track in their life. And hopefully it will open the eyes of parents & schools and force them to address the issue rather than just turning a blind eye, pretending it doesn't exist.
Lowly
It doesn't say what kind of adult business she worked in, so it is hard to comment.
She could be pouring alcohol at an izakaya, as someone said.
Just for reference, in RI, USA, it is legal for girls 16 and over to work in strip clubs. I forget if they aren' allowed to get naked, but it is famous and cops from all over the Northeast US have their conventions in RI. Good or bad, that's the world.
societymike
LEGALIZE IT!! Seriously, at first it sounds stupid but... there is so much potential for easy tax revenue and more police budget available for fighting real crime. Honestly, I think alcohol is far more dangerous than weed ever was.
tkoind2
World wide solution. One step, many benefits. Legalize it!
Legalize it and tax it = good income for governments.
Decriminalize it = no more income for gangs and dealers who are now such a problem in places like Mexico.
Control it = control quality, safety, education and distribution which will help reduce the amount floating around for young kids. If you think it is hard to get in places like the US think again. Don't know about Japan, but legal or not kids who want it will find it. At least if you have controls you take away a lot of the mystery and thus the desire for it as a social tool for rebellious youth.The alternative is to keep wasting money and lives on trying to enforce something that cannot be eliminated.
benhur
tiny tokers
stirfry
practice for when she turns 18 ?
m5c32
Post-industrialism and idleness have arrived with their recreational paraphernalia. Welcome to the Western world in the East -sort of.
sirgamble
"One of the girls was found to be in possession of 0.5 grams of marijuana"
... so what? Mount a 6 month investigation into it and incarcerate her for 6-12 months. Greeeat... my taxes are being well spent...
cactusJack
Is this is going to headline on NHK TV news tonight? If it does, what a joke of a story.
Molenir
The biggest question for me, is why a 16 year old girl is working in an adult entertainment business? Did her parents allow this? How is that an appropriate part time job for a young girl? The smoking pot, never good, but is it really that big of a deal? Stupid yes, but criminal enough to warrant headlines?
gogogo
Welcome to Japan.
Potsu
Wow ! Really big important news....as usual a lot happenening in Japan.
Disillusioned
Gees! How old were you the first time you smoked it? Shouldn't be hard to find the sugar daddies. They'll get these girls into an interrogation room and beat the info out of'em.
noborito
This shows how little work police in Japan have. To take so much time for such a stupid thing. JHS students making national news. Sad indeed for Japanese culture. How did the police get a warrant to search a JHS students home? Perhaps there is more to this story. Perhaps we will learn that the girl, who is 16, was refused adult entertainment by that student.
dr_jones
Japan is too strict on drugs use!
borscht
While interesting, I bet this has less do to with the highly dangerous drug and more to do with the school. It might also have something to do with cops searching your home. Any number of reasons could contribute to these ladies be delinquent. This reefer madness might be one contributing reason but not the only.
goddog
A 16-year-old girl, a part-time employee at an adult entertainment business,
I do not see anything wrong with this, as lots of underage girls work in Izakaya mixing drinks and serving them. Maybe she changed the sheets on the beds.
Scotch
1) A 16 year old should be no where near the adult entertainment business 2) Massive waste of police time unless they are going to trace a dealer from this. Seriously try to catch someone with kilograms of the stuff or something! Arresting people for less than one joint is a joke. Get the dealers! 3) We have no idea where they bought this. Heck for all we know some Yakuza are growing the stuff in a warehouse.
Sorry cops .... try to get the big bust before you let out the news. You've just warned people you're looking into it.
Valmain
What a waste of resources. Spending a year and a half to bust a few minors who were apparently already on the lower rungs of the social ladder? Very sad.
KyokoSmile
Junnama, That's exactly the same line taught by the j-cops to those (japanese nationals)arrested concerning drugs. Accurate memorization will guaranteed less penalties or even a nice suspended sentence. Who knows, maybe even walk away scot-free!
guest
She was on call...
Marius2
Where did they get it? Why, here of course: http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9258/debito.jpg
Laguna
Kids like this give pot a bad rep. Why not some stories on those whom marijuana greatly benefits?
KyokoSmile
So much effort to sweep this under the carpet, J-cops. Japan is not what it used to be and never will again. Drugs are not that hard to get anymore. Sheesh, even a former Japanese co-worker confessed his marihuana habit before. I couldn't believe it so he showed me his pipe, LOL Honestly, the j-cops are wasting their time greatly. Chasing after these kids? What about going after Child-Pornography, Child-Abusers, Child Abducters, etc. Do this people(j-cops) have a clue? I guess not. 1.5? 0.5? Are you kidding me?
Beelzebub
I'd bet their pusher was a Russian sumo wrestler.
tarento
Who cares! Slap on the wrist and let them get back on the road to their career in hostessing or adult videos.
KyokoSmile
I wonder what the nationalists would say about this? YuriOtani? NihonRyu? I guess they only share their piece when it's about Okinawa or Whales.
DenDon
irie irie. I and I think this will become a right kerfuffle
kokorocloud
Good grief! There is so much wrong with this story.
michaelqtodd
LOL.One of the best euphemisms for a prostitute I have seen so far! Is this what she puts on her tax return?? Of course she is "cashed up".
Altria
Money?
souleater
since records began in 1999
Really advanced record keeping.
A 16-year-old girl, a part-time employee at an adult entertainment business
Does this sound normal to anyone else?
hard to monitor who students were associating with due to the proliferation of cell phones.
I'm pretty sure the school does not actually care who the students are associating with.
GOT A POINT THERE.....
souleater
um, why would a 16 year old work in an adult entertainment business?
bamboohat
Wow, those boys in blue are really on top of things. They spent half a year off a tip that some kids were smoking dope.
bumblebeetuna
I'm betting the follow-up story will inform us that the girls have led the police to the gaijin that sold them the pot. Of course, they will be charged to the full extent of the law, while the girls get a slap on the wrist. Kind of unbelievable that resources are still wasted on prosecuting potheads. But the salarymen still drink until last train and then puke all over the train platforms... that's fine.
neverknow2
I'm not sure which part is worse:
Really advanced record keeping.
Does this sound normal to anyone else?
I'm pretty sure the school does not actually care who the students are associating with.
thepro
wtf?
caffeinebuzz
They must have been pretty cashed-up kids. I agree with Chotto, I wouldn't be surprised if it was far more widespread than acknowledged.
Altria
Real winners, the lot of them!
chotto
Woah! This is crazy!! Should be an interesting case to see how far this goes / how many other students are using it!