Sept. 20, 2024: Marijuana criminalization, whale meat, elders over 100, Shogun and Japanese sushi

Weed hurts nobody legal, and illegal it drives profits for I assume Yakuz4. Or other forms of organized crime. The only reason it was illegal in Japan in the first place was because of western values imposed on the country after WW2. The west has softened on this stance, but Japan is stubbornly clinging to these ideals.

Just legalise it already.....It's no more harmful to society than a stick of celery

Make the whale killing one illegal and the marijuana one legal.

Jaoan finds it difficult to change ANYTHING.

7 years! That's excessively punative! Especially considering those who pass such sentences are free to go home and unwind with a far more harmful drug...alcohol

Yous have gotta try eating some fin whale before you diss it.

Also, feel free to get it tested for mercury beforehand if you believe the anti whaling propaganda about that!

Bryde’s is pronounced Broodus too, by the way.

But the comment about people of different cultures eating different things was spot on.

The comparison with alcohol and tobacco is entirely misplaced and it is depressing to hear this lazy ill-thought through argument trotted out, in the usual smug mocking tone, once again. There is simply no worthwhile comparison: alcohol and tobacco are indeed dangerous drugs that do untold harm but they are already legal and deeply embedded in our culture. It is too late to criminalise them and to attempt to do so would be disastrous. Prohibition anyone? The answer then is to do what we can to dissuade people from abusing alcohol and tobacco and NOT to add a third dangerous drug to society. Japan is 100% correct in its strict attitude to cannabis and countless misery, mental illness, family breakdown and crime has been avoided through this policy. Don’t change it!

I voted "yes" because 7 years is ridiculous.

I live in the US, so I won't comment on Japan's decision to criminalize. Not my business.

But seven years is excessive. Since the law is aimed to keep younger people "on the right course in life", let's say the average person they will catch is 21 years old. They'll be 28 when released. That means they will have spent 25% of their life behind bars for smoking a bit of marijuana. That can't be fair punishment for such a low-level crime, and they may exit prison with a whole new (worse) outlook on life and be more likely to become a career criminal.

It appears Japan is moving BACKWARDS, in time, not forward

So - they will legalise medicinal cannabis. Thereby, accepting and acknowledging it's place as a therapeutic medicine. But also slap extraordinarily draconian punishments for it's use outside that? Yup - that is the Japan I remember leaving so happily.

Japan is 100% correct in its strict attitude to cannabis and countless misery, mental illness, family breakdown and crime has been avoided through this policy

The only misery this law will bring is the misery it will cause to individuals and their families by making criminals and thus pariahs out of the countless young people who already use marijuana which is already ubiquitous throughout Japan and which has far fewer health risks than tabacco or alchohol. In fact, it has medicinal benefits that could alleviate the suffering of many who have various disorders that medicinal marijunana helps treat. This law is excessively punitive...with the same or less incarceration time than rape! Appaulling for a G7 nation to be so behind the times and to be so bitterly punitive about their own being wrong on this issue.

they will legalise medicinal cannabis

without the THC which is the active medical ingredient.

It just goes to show how out of touch they are on the research and medical findings of this medicine. Absolutely oblivious! And they're being bitterly unreasonable for being so wrong about it for years. Personally, I don't care because I don't smoke it. But this law is going to affect young people...who the old guys in the government seem bent on punishing severely out of spite. This is a spiteful excessively punitive law that will ruin the lives of many young Japanese. Bravo, government...Bravo...throw your youth in jail for 7 years because they're trying to feel better.

the law is aimed to keep younger people "on the right course in life", 

They'll be kicked out of university and unable to find anything besides a low paying labor job when they get out...most certainly making their lives more miserable...which will increase the chance of them turning to drugs like alcohol which will destroy their livers, kidneys, hearts and shrink their brains...while making them more violent and bitter and likely to have an accident while driving, beat their partners, get fired...etc.

But hey, let's celebrate alchohol with commercials that depict the perfect enhancement to your beautiful life...while putting young people in a concrete box for 7 years! "aimed to keep young people on the right course in life"...what a joke!

Japan is so absurdly backwards where cannabis is concerned. It's legal in a growing majority of US states, and the results are overwhelmingly positive: less stress on the prison system caused by imprisoning non-violent offenders, massive increase in tax revenues, a more controlled, tested (and much cheaper) product, reduction in revenue/power of criminal gangs, etc.