Marijuana has been making big headlines in Japan as of late. First, two Russian sumo wrestlers were expelled from the Japan Sumo Association for being caught in possession. Then shortly after, the head of the JSA who was also the mentor of one of the wrestlers, resigned to “take responsibility for the scandal.” This news is hardly surprising given the rigid moral code and religious foundation that the sumo association is known for strictly upholding. But no sooner has the sumo scandal slipped from headlines, two more upstanding figures in Japanese society with even tighter moral obligations have been arrested for smoking marijuana. Two Japanese doctors away from the country on holiday, were arrested in their Indonesian hotel room after local police received a tip that the two men had just purchased the drugs.

Granted, for a country as drug-aversive as Japan, it’s big news for sure; only the harshest everyman penalties for these squeaky-clean sumo wrestlers with joints in their purses and innocent family doctors who found that saving a life isn’t the only path to getting high. It makes you wonder; with Japan’s prudish mentality on drugs, are the more slightly ‘lax’ (a term which I use with great subjectivity) attitudes in other western cultures (Europe, The United States, South America, etc.) a result of lack of clear definition and focus, or simply are they placing their priorities towards higher branches? How do we define “drug” anyway? Needles, powders, and pills? Or is it something more vague–anything with crushingly addictive, life-altering side effects responsible for the erosion of society? If the former, then Japan needs to continue on its rigid, merry way with impunity. But if the latter, Japan needs to lighten up and look outside its shorelined box; perhaps first at an entire generation of youth, whose social skills are being crippled by a keitai addiction, of epidemic proportions.

But asking a nation like Japan to think outside the proverbial box is a pipe dream. Japan is a country of solid concepts. Blacks and whites. Ins and outs. Drugs are drugs, and cell phones are cell phones. Perceptions in Japan die hard. Especially when you can’t grind up a 3G and smoke it.