Methamphetamine use in Japan after the Second World War: Transformation of narratives

Abstract

Scholars have argued that post-World War II domestic disorder in Japan caused a serious methamphetamine problem, which directly led to the establishment of the Stimulant Control Law of 1951. This paper examines the process through which that Law came into effect to argue the central significance of shifting discourses surrounding methamphetamine use, especially by users themselves, and nationalist dialogue concerning secret production and the smuggling of methamphetamine. These factors worked together in the 1950s to transform contemporary understandings of methamphetamine use, and to foster state efforts to regulate it.

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