[Columbine]

In fairness to the Japanese government, I think I can see why they're strict about allowing pot into their country even in small amounts.

In the UK for example, it's quite easy to do a fly over with thermal cameras and find which houses are ganja-farms because they light up like beacons from all the heat-lamps. In places Australia, this is much more difficult because obviously it's a much hotter climate and the hot spots blend in. Japan thus far hasn't had a history of pot being a common place, easy to obtain drug, and I don't think it's unfair that they want to keep it that way.

If they relaxed on it, it would be easy in some areas of Japan for this hidden cell farms to boom, making their job of regulating the trade a lot more difficult. It would also send out a message to the criminal community that drug running was an unspoken OK and the government would turn a blind eye. Given how that sort of thing is rife and fuels a lot of violence in other asian countries, that would lead Japan into the same generic dis-reputation that it tries very hard to distance itself from.