Japan Once Revered Cannabis (And Will Again)

Great Moments in Weed History

David Bienenstock

Tv & Film, Comedy, History

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cannabis is a sacred plant in Shinto and Sumo wrestling—two of Japan's oldest and most vital traditions. And hemp was once the island nation's second biggest crop, after rice. Marijuana prohibition arrived via the American military occupation that followed World War II, Ironically, it's now the success of legalization activists in the United States that's inspiring a movement of homegrown advocates to return cannabis to its rightfully exalted place in Japanese culture. In this episode, Abdullah and Bean talk with Naoko Miki, co-founder of Green Zone Japan, a leading organization pushing for the rights of medical cannabis patients. CHANGE.ORG PETITION This is the change.org petition referenced in the episode, regarding the case of Ryujiro Oyabu, a celebrated ceramic artist who is currently challenging Japan's federal ban on cannabis. Please sign and share with your friends. EPISODE ARCHIVE Visit our podcast feed for 50+ episodes of our classic Great Moments in Weed History format, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday. PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, how's it going, folks? It's Abdullah and Bean. And welcome back for another episode of
0:06.1	great moments in weed history. This is another classic interview format episode. And today,
0:13.2	we've got somebody fighting for legalization in a place where it is truly an uphill battle. Isn't
0:20.5	that right being?
0:21.5	Yeah, we're going to one of the places,
0:23.3	maybe not with the harshest laws against cannabis,
0:26.9	but still incredibly harsh laws.
0:29.0	And on top of that, a country where simply identifying yourself as a cannabis user
0:35.7	or even a cannabis supporter can have you ostracized from your workplace,
0:41.6	from your family, and from really the whole of society. Yeah, that's right. And we are talking,
0:47.5	of course, about the island nation of Japan. I actually spent my semester abroad in college in Tokyo in 2005, probably the most
0:57.7	awesome place in the world that you can do your semester abroad. It really was fantastic.
1:03.7	But of course, as a cannabis person in Tokyo, you realize that you are much more in a drinking
1:09.4	culture than a cannabis smoking culture, right?
1:12.6	People definitely love to indulge in alcohol and party in Japan, but cannabis is very, very illegal.
1:19.6	And in fact, the underground for cannabis there is extremely small.
1:24.6	So I never met the people cultivating cannabis. They really wanted to keep it on the
1:29.2	low, but I did get to smoke some of their wares. The hash that's available in Japan is pretty
1:35.6	low quality, really dark, tarry hash, right? It essentially looks like bolt resin. Who knows where
1:42.4	the cannabis is actually coming from?
1:44.5	But the bottom line is that it's very, very illegal there.
1:48.1	Even if you're the type of person who would be into it,
	...

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