Capcom Lends Its Characters to Japanese Anti-Marijuana Campaign
Recently, the well-known Japanese video game developer and publisher Capcom announced that its characters will participate in a new campaign aimed at discouraging marijuana use among young people. The campaign will feature characters from the Ace Attorney game series in new videos and promotional materials.
Since 2013, Capcom has worked with the Osaka prefectural government to create various educational programs and awareness materials. This year, the Osaka police department invited Capcom and other companies to help develop a campaign specifically targeting marijuana use among youth. According to Capcom’s official press release, “Government officials have emphasized that in recent years, there has been a worrying increase in the number of young people arrested across Japan for purchasing and using marijuana and its extracts. For this reason, we agreed to sponsor a new campaign against the use of this drug, which is set to launch at the beginning of July next year.”
The Ace Attorney series was chosen for the campaign because its main characters are lawyers, prosecutors, and other members of the justice system. Capcom has already unveiled a draft poster featuring the game’s heroes urging viewers to say no to marijuana. “We plan to release a series of posters with a print run of 6,000 copies, as well as distribute 4,000 flyers along with free face masks,” the company stated. “We hope our efforts will help protect the people of Japan from the risks associated with marijuana and other drugs.”
Background and Legal Context
In addition to its informational purpose, the project also has an economic aspect: by running the campaign and producing materials, Osaka’s government and major businesses hope to support the local economy, which has been struggling due to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Although marijuana is a traditional crop that was widely used in Japanese culture, its production, distribution, and use were only banned in 1948 under pressure from U.S. occupation authorities after World War II. Since then, Japan has enforced the ban very strictly, similar to other East Asian countries that adopted such prohibitions in the mid-20th century. Even minor marijuana-related offenses can result in severe penalties. Foreigners may face deportation and a ban on re-entry, while Japanese citizens can be sentenced to up to a year in jail and fined for simple possession or use. More serious offenses, such as distribution or cultivation, can lead to sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.
Despite these strict laws and the government’s reluctance to consider cannabis reforms, in late 2016, the Japanese parliament did allow the import and sale of CBD extracts from industrial hemp that do not contain THC.
According to a public opinion poll conducted at the end of 2019, only about 1.8% of Japan’s adult population had ever tried marijuana (for comparison, the same poll found that about 44% of U.S. adults were familiar with marijuana and its effects). While this figure has risen slightly over the past decade, Japan has made little progress toward reform. Even though Japanese people are aware of the growth of the cannabis industry in other countries, for most, legalization and use of marijuana—even for strictly therapeutic purposes—remains a taboo subject. As noted by the Japan Times, “Except for a few hundred activists nationwide, almost no one in Japan publicly supports the idea of cannabis reform.”