[MMM]

Originally Posted by GoNative

The idea too that the Japanese get much exposure to world out there through the internet, be it on drugs or anything else just isn't the case. Japan has one of the lowest rates of personal computer ownership out of all the big developed nations. It would be hard to find any home without a game console and they practically live their lives out of their keitais but sitting down behind a computer in the home and surfing the net is not overly common. Looking up english sites on the internet is very uncommon. I've worked with numerous Japanese people over the years who had never used a search site like Google before! The Japanese are nothing if not very accepting of what they are told. If the government tells them that drugs, including marijuana, are dangerous then that's exactly what most will believe.

I don't think your ideas are necessarily wrong, but you make two glaring mistakes in this post.

1) Japan is one of the most internet savvy nations in the world. The nation of Japan produces the most blog posts per capita than any other language.

Japan leads in blog posts per capita | ZDNet

Japanese people are Internet-savvy. They may have been late to the table, but they are there now.

2) It is not the government, but the culture that is reflecting the attitude about drugs. The government reflects that in the laws, but on the whole the Japanese people are pretty blasé and indifferent to the national government compared to the US.

To say the Japanese are very accepting of what they are told implies something pretty demeaning. They believe what their parents and mentors tell them...just as everyone else does in the world.

Originally Posted by GoNative

It would occur to very few to ever seek out information that is contrary to what they are told.

This is not a particular trait of Japanese people, but of people in the world in general.

Originally Posted by GoNative

The Japanese, in my opinion, are an extremely ignorant people who have little knowledge of anything beyond their own little world. This does have some benefits of course

This may be one of the most backward statements I have ever read on this website.

Japan is a nation of travelers, readers, and students of the world.