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Paper short abstract:

This paper uses a case study of magic mushrooms to examine the contemporary history of popular, political, and private discourses on drugs in Japan. The 2002 ban on magic mushrooms, which were widely sold from the late 1990s, was strongly influenced by an association of mushrooms with "foreignness."

Paper long abstract:

This paper uses a case study of magic mushrooms in Japan around the turn of the twenty-first century to examine the contemporary history of popular, political, and private discourses on drugs. From the late 1990s until a legal ban in June 2002, hallucinogenic "magic mushrooms" (majikku masshuruumu) were widely available and consumed in Japan. They were sold by head shops, clubs, and mail-order retailers throughout the country, causing alarm among politicians and the media amidst a growing concern with supposedly rising drug use among the nation's youth. This paper examines a wide range of media and discourses around magic mushrooms to show how mushrooms became a locus for debates on the relationship between legality and morality with regard to intoxicating substances. An important element of these discourses was the construction of an image of magic mushrooms as "foreign" by both users and supporters of their prohibition, in spite of the fact that many species grow naturally in Japan. For those advocating a ban on magic mushrooms, their "foreignness" was synonymous with being "un-Japanese." The diverse "foreignness" of magic mushrooms was constructed by linking them to Japanese overseas travelers, Southeast Asian and South American "criminals," Western "hippies," Iranian immigrants, and other groups deemed suspect by the Japanese media. This paper argues that government policies developed amid tensions between scientists, politicians, and sensationalist media, in the midst of international pressure.