Marijuana (大麻） in Japan：Don't Smoke More Than You Can Eat

Japan has always had a fairly lax attitude towards marijuana and probably only criminalized it because of pressure from America. Unlike speed （覚醒剤）it’s not a crime to use it, only to possess it. Basically,  the implication in the law is that smoking marijuana probably doesn’t do much to a person and is unlikely to turn them into a menace to society.  I’m not really sure why the law was written this way but it sort of makes sense. Often the prosecution... Read More

Hosts and Hostesses: Some thoughts on Hiroko Tabuchi's great article

Tabuchi-san wrote an interesting piece about the resurgent popularity of hostess jobs in Japan in the New York Times last week. I contributed a commentary to the debate blog about it. Hopefully, the comments were edifying.   PAID FRIENDS, EGO-BOOSTING, HIGH PAY AND HIGH-RISKS   Read More

Yakuza Superstitions #1

When a yakuza sees a hearse (霊柩車/reikyusha) coming towards him in traffic, he’ll often put down the cell-phone which he has semi-permanently attached to his ear, and hides his thumb in his fist to avoid bad luck. (親指を隠す). The thumb, called the oyayubi 親指 in Japanese, means “parent finger.” It represents to the yakuza, the oyabun (father-figure) who is their boss in the organization. The Godfather so to speak. 
 The idea is that by hiding the thumb... Read More