Nara schoolgirl arrested for drug possession

Turned in by your DAD, that's rough.

Thanks Dad.

I'm surprised she didn't say she got them from a foreigner. She certainly must have been acting strangely if she missed this opening gambit.

My husband has been acting strangely, too recently.. I think I should call the police :) I mean, come on! The dad obviously knew something but wasn't able to handle the situation or wanted to teach her a lesson.

I wouldn't be too critical of the father. The girl may have been acting violently, being destructive or even suicidal.

For your one phone call allowed from jail, do not call DAD.

Too many YAKUZA down in Nara, do they care about raping and abusing this girl then making sure she is hooked on their drugs? No! I feel very, very sorry for parents, but I am sure this is only the TIP of the iceberg!

I would never call the police on my kid. Period. The DAD had zero common sense or is a vindictive loser. There are other support lines available before getting the law involved.

Why didn't dad just take care of this himself by taking away priviliges for the daughter, and showing a little backbone. Also, since when is it news that a teenager is caught with drugs? I think Japan needs to wake up to the fact that it has a drug problem.

What a nice father.

elbudamexicano at 09:57 AM JST - 27th January Too many YAKUZA down in Nara, do they care about raping and abusing this girl then making sure she is hooked on their drugs? No! I feel very, very sorry for parents, but I am sure this is only the TIP of the iceberg!

elbudamexicano - You said it perfectly! "this is only the TIP of the iceberg!"

Perhaps the Dad was so scared of the situation his daughter had got herself into that he decided jail might be the only safe place for her. She might even have asked him to do this for her. What do we know?

The father should have tried talking to his daughter and fixing things there before destroying the girl's future.

That being said, the yaks in Nara are at it again. It is pretty obvious that this girl didn't make the drugs herself.

Like many working fathers, maybe 'Dad' was totally estranged from his daughters, hadn't spoken to her properly except for weekend family service meals at restaurant floors of shopping malls, had no real friends to talk too; another product of Japan's dysfunctional work and family life...

Don't agree with him calling the police, but who else could he turn to? Can't be easy being a Dad here with a teenage daughter...

I also found a few strange father-daughter relationships. Met a few families and was surprised to see that the relationship was not that great. So asked a very nice 52 year old Jfather why he does not feel that bond with his only child-daughter. He said that he finds that the mother is choking her with some artificial love and he cannot understand that. So he prefers to keep away from that. This father here- I am sure that he loves the child and so decided to do what he thought was right at the moment.

That's messed up being turned in by dad. Maybe he wasn't really her dad but her dealer who's teaching her a lesson for missing a payment.

OTOH, her father might have done her a favour, as she will get proper treatment now, etc.

Many drug-addicts reach a point where no talking, etc will help anymore.

Good Dad: Exhausted every possible means to fix the problem at home, so turned to the law to save his precious child life before it was too late. Good for him and her.

Bad Dad: Decided right away that he did not want to deal with it, has little interest in his daughter’s well being or future and wanted the police to deal with his parental duties. Most likely, but will give him the benefit of doubt.

Unless someone here knows the Paul Harvey (The Rest of the Story) version, it’s six in one hand and a half dozen in the other…

making this a public spectical is NOT the way to deal with this. That is not love. He could have handled this quietly in about 10000 million differnt ways. What if every mistake you made was in the newspaper. would that help you move forward?

kujinarikusuki.

Did he release the info the newspapers or was it done by the police, etc?

What's love got to do with it? Sending your daughter to jail is absolutely perfect in my book.

Nice work! Calling the cops on your own daughter! Lovely..... no wonder shes taking drugs with a father like that, Id be getting high, too!

@Noirgaijin 11:21am - Yes! Exactly what I was thinking of saying, but you did it much more succinctly. Chances are the girl was not exactly willing to exchange an honest and open discussion, opting instead for "I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!" , threast of running away, and door-slamming.

The father should have tried talking to his daughter and fixing things there before destroying the girl's future.

Maybe he did. Maybe she's had lots of problems. Maybe he wants the drug dealers caught.

It's a 4 sentence mini-article; impossible to know what exactly is happening based on the scant information provided. So why jump to conclusions?

That's messed up being turned in by dad. Maybe he wasn't really her dad but her dealer who's teaching her a lesson for missing a payment.

Totally dawg. Thats soooo right. She was also probably prone to pointless and unfounded speculation so she totally deserved to be ratted out. AMIRITE???

And why is this news?

One would imagine the the father needed to scare his rebellious daughter straight. He did the right thing. Where does a 17 year old School girl get money for drugs? by turning tricks or hostessing. The girl was probably in a world of hurt. He father reached out instead of banishing her.

Something has got to be missing from this story because no father in his right mind would call the cops on his 17 year old daughter. He just ruined her life.

I know the law punishes drug possession harshly in Japan, but can someone inform me if it's the same for minors? I believe the father would know it was drugs before he called the cops, and so I'd like to know what he thought was acceptable consequences to pay for her actions.....part of me keeps thinking it was an act of desperation on his part, since the arrest would be embarrassing to himself and his entire family, which just doesn't sound right for a Japanese person to do.

I read another article where the girl said "I bought (the drugs) from an acquaintance for the first time this month."

The father apparently went to the police station and said that his daughter had some drugs.

So in my conclusion, the father should have grown a pair and dealt with this like a man instead of going to the police. That being said, a better option would be to have gone to the police with his daughter and ratted out the person who sold the drugs.

I have no kids, though, and am just a student, so maybe I am making light of raising children?

He just ruined her life.

How did he ruin her life? He may have saved it. She's a minor, she can't be named, she'll have no record when she turns 20. This could help her fix whatever problems she's been having.

There are not enough facts listed in this article to really judge...maybe the father has tried a million things and this was the last thing...or maybe he's a real mean father and doesn't care. We can't really say anything aside from own opinions at this stage...

An awful lot of speculation on what was behind the father's motives in the comments so far. It's a sad story. Hopefully the girl still has a future.

She has a future right after she tells the police the name of the person she purchased the drugs from!!!

Very sparse article but at least we know that these dangerous drug using high school girls are being curtailed, further efforts like this will no doubt rid Japan of its almost non existent drug problems.

Her father did the right thing. She's a minor and will not be punished but rehabilitation and professional help is in order. If he had not called the cops, then had they found out there were drugs in the house, he could have been arrested as they would not have believed him if he were to say "those aren't my drugs".

Wow! Cops searched their home based on the father saying his daughter was acting strangely?! Most teenagers act strangely! Do police go out to a home every time they get a call that a teen is behaving a bit weird?

It's hard to say if the father did the right thing because there aren't enough details. In general, when parents suspect that their kid is doing drugs, I would say the parents should try to handle the situation themselves. If they have tried everything they can, then go to the cops as a last resort.

Until one walks in another's shoes, how can one be so judgmental? Maybe it's because this father DOES love his daughter so much that he felt he had no other choice but to contact the local police. There definitely is more to this sad story. I agree with Typhoon Tom's way of thinking. As for the yakuza presence in Nara, is that a big problem these days? Or in the Kansai region in general? Or are there other social justice issues at work here?

17, holding? What do you think teenagers are? Saints? What a NARC the dad is.

Still, the dad probably did the right thing. Teenagers are little sh#ts.

The idea that he is 'saving her' seems somewhat theatrical, jforce has a point, teenagers aren't saints...they're teenagers, this is when we learn from 'mistakes'.

Only after you have tried everything and nothing has worked should a parent rat out their kid to the cops. I feel sorry for her, now that she has to go through the judicial meat-grinder. I wouldn't wish that on anyone who has made a mistake. The money that the father will now flush down the toilet for legal fees,court costs,fines,probation and other fees could have been better spent on a good rehab facility. I really hope that this was a last resort to save her life and not a lazy dad who wants the police to do his dirty work.

No way would I rat on one of my kids - no matter what they'd done or to whom they'd done it,

Kids sometimes do bad things, like drugs etc..but sometimes these kids have losers for so called parents who are also fools on drugs etc..the other day the Los Angeles fire department was called in for a so called fire, the grandma, age 30 was high as a kite, her daughter 14 was also stoned out of her brains, the grand kids, just born, well in the same tiny room, with lots and lots of puffy white smoke were treated for SMOKE INHALATION and sadly enough, just from this second hand smoke, they seemed to be craving MARIJUANA, so sorry fleetwood, if you are a drug addict, do not be surprised if your OWN KIDS or GRANDKIDS rat you out, narc on you and let you clean in behind bars.

Good Dad: ...

Bad Dad: ...

Good Dad: Tried various approaches to help daughter break her drug habit since becoming aware of it xx months ago but without success. Call in the authorities and tell them it started only recently.

Plausible?

DocHoliday603.

You truly think no-one will ask questions when a teen is checked into a rehab clinic? Not that it is easy to get checked into one or even a mental hospital in Japan.

That is if you can do so. I knew a few kids that got hooked on drugs when I was a teen and let me tell you there is little that family and friends can do, most gave up in the end.

After that experience I understood why our school made us watch "Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" and similar movies like "The Third Wave".

so sorry fleetwood, if you are a drug addict, do not be surprised if your OWN KIDS or GRANDKIDS rat you out, narc on you and let you clean in behind bars.

I know my kids tried drugs [just like I did when I was young] but I didn't call in the Drug Police to ruin their lives and sure enough they got past that phase and have gone on to be very successful both academically and professionally.

But if you want to run squealing to the woodentops the first time one of your kids does something you don't like by all means do so.

Loyalty to your own is more important than any stupid law.