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Drugs are bad, nnnnnnnkay

Image courtesy of The Mainichi Daily News

Watching the hysteria over this story about celebrity Noriko Sakai’s drug use (Check out the Mainichi Daily News article here), I keep thinking about how unbelievable this would be in my own country, the U.S.A.

Try to imagine so much being made of Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Charlie Sheen, the list of drug-crazed celebs goes on and on.

Seems to be a couple of things going on. First, us Americans seem desensitized to this. If we gave a shit about every celeb who turned to drugs, we’d have no time to talk about anything else (to a certain extent this is the case now). Second, Americans love to watch the car crash–drugs tend to make the spectacle of people’s lives falling apart that much better. Third, drugs have long been tightly controlled on the island-nation of Japan. As a result, people here appear to be very naive about drugs. . .marijuana is just as bad as heroin in many people’s eyes. So, the conversation is just in a different place. Last, there seems to be a kind of satisfaction here in Japan that comes with casting a moral gaze down upon celebrities. They are judged very harshly.

I personally feel sorry for Sakai having to air her dirty laundry like this. Remind me not to become famous in Japan.

Would love to hear other thoughts on drugs, celebrity, and mass communication in Japan.

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Contributor Bio: I am a doctoral student of environmental anthropology currently living and conducting research in a mountain village in Nagano. In my research I explore modernity as it is expressed in a rural mountain community. Specifically I look at national management structures, as well as social discourses, related to forests and probe the impacts these have on local human communities. I have lived and worked in Japan for 5 years. My interests also include Buddhism, literature, music, and mountaineering. Read more at my personal blog: In the Pines.
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26 comments - What do you think? Posted by Eric John Cunningham - September 18, 2009 at 8:31 pm

Categories: Celebrity News Tags: apology, celebrity, drugs, media, Noriko Sakai, TV

steve

A couple of things here. First of all, wasn’t it us Americans who told Japan marijuana is a bad bad thing?

And Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan… They were teen idols I think, but I don’t think they ever tried to convey the wholesome image that Ms. Sakai built a career on. Maybe Martha Stewart getting busted for insider trading is a better analogy. Charlie Sheen… I don’t know what to make of him.

I think part of the reason this case has received so much media attention is because of who she was perceived to be. Look at Manabu-kun. His drug scandal involved a dead hostess, but I believe he made bail quicker and definitely had less media attention.

GaijInJapan

“First of all, wasn’t it us Americans who told Japan marijuana is a bad bad thing?”

We were, but a lot of smart people realized that it was all mass hysteria and a ploy by a lot of profiteers to remove the competition. Marijuana (and hemp) weren’t always illegal in the US.

The difference I have seen is that your typical American is willing to challenge those statements by the government or the mass media, whereas the Japanese are much more ready to blindly accept it. Hell, I get pretty disturbed at how easily people here believe the marketing hype if there’s one iota of possible scientific truth. That’s why pseudoscience-based marketing works so well over here. If people _think_ they are making the wise and scientific (therefore logical) choice, they’ll do it without considering any other viewpoints. Unfortunately, it’s usually either half-truths or even outright lies that influence their decisions. Minus Ions in your electronics? Your blood type is because Japanese were farmers and Europeans were hunters? Give me a break.

The Overthinker

“your typical American is willing to challenge those statements by the government or the mass media, whereas the Japanese are much more ready to blindly accept it.”

I really wonder about this. Penn & Teller have shown that Americans are wonderfully susceptible to Bullshit, after all.

Eddie

Great response Overthinker.

tokyojesusfist

Yes, I think it really comes down to what kind of image the celebrity has.

DD

She did that press conference apology for the fcking cash. What a bitch. I watched it from my office window. In the Mainichi Daily News building. A few of the Mainichi boys were talking about it. Highest bidder wins. What an apology!
Sandy

I think it’s probably better in Japan, although perhaps a bit too extreme. I’m fed up of seeing celebrities disgrace themselves by doing any number of things, only to return to the spotlight six months later and make a few more million with a “comeback”.

I know I’m very harsh on celebrities, but if you did drugs and slept with your boss’s wife, you’re not likely to get your job back in a few months, but with celebrities that seems to be the case over here. I think they need to have a more stern eye cast upon them.
http://www.occidentalism.org Matt@Occidentalism.org

I heard Ms. Sakai is a yakuza no musume anyway. Is that true?

hgfktku

well you must be yakuza-bitch to became musume.

http://tokyoscum.blogspot.com/ DrSenbei

Shouldn’t that be “remind me not to become a smack head in Japan”?
Asa

I think the extreme attention is overkill in Japan on this issue of Sakai Noriko. Maybe that is coming from the view as an American. Yeah we see the Brittney Spears and Lindsey Lohan’s of the celeb world and we just assume they are doing drugs and don’t really care. I went through a time in my life that I did a lot of drugs. With the help of him above, my life is clean now and so much has started over in better ways. I hope this for Sakai Noriko. Let’s just forgive her and let her start over. We’ve all needed that in our lives at one time or another. Let’s give it to her.
Tomyam7

It is unbelievably overreacted. I know Noriko Sakai when she was about 16. And her image was pure and innocent, and the impressive thing is that she has kept her image until now. Now another image as “good mom” is added on top of it.

In this case, it didn’t help her to try to erase all the evidences that she used the drug. When people thought she “disappeared” in the first place, not only her fan worried about her, but general people worried about her as well.

But it turned out that she was just running away to get rid of drug from her body. So, I think people are just feeling betrayed.

S, what do you expect from cerebs then? Do you want then to be a Buddha or something? I just don’t get it….
All I think that she did badly is about her kid. I can’t imagine how hard it is for him that both of her parents are caught….

yoga boy

She should be put in prison for no less than 5 years and her husband should get a minimum of 10. But of course being that she is a celeb she will get off easy.

Thinker

Well, if you want a comparable American case to compare it to, look at how Whitney Houston has come out recently about her drug problem. She didn’t do any time in jail, plus gets to be interviewed by Oprah (where she was practically bragging about her drug use!).
Vonskippy

Maybe people in the rest of the civilized world are smart enough to recognize the hypocrisy of allowing (both legally and socially accepted) people to drink themselves into a failed liver but pooh pooh other recreational drugs that have WAY less bad health effects.

cesar

so you’re saying it’s ok to use less harmful drugs than alcohol, since two errors would somehow lead to a right path?

or you’re saying that, since there are worse drugs than some illegal ones people shouldn’t bother themselves with those minor drugs and focus only on the big, bad one? like… “let’s forget about bullying since there are so much homicides around the country”?

I really can’t quite agree with the rest of the civilized world smart enough to agree with you here

Yom

i thought i was gonna have an epileptic fit when all the flashes went off when she started crying

himawari

The news program I saw even issued a warning on-screen about the flashing XD;

Jeanie

Fuji News Network reported that the was “calm a day after being admitted to the mental health ward of a Tokyo hospital.” She’s in a MENTAL hospital? Whatever happened to rehab for drugs?
Sukeroku

This story has dominated the Japanese press for something like six weeks…practically every channel, every day. In US terms its like OJ Simpson (except OJ KILLED his estranged wife). In the past year, ever since the two Russian sumotori were busted for marijuana the press has gone overboard with the anti-drug coverage. (Yet a “head shop” in Shibuya or Shinjuku is not that hard to find.) As far as Sakae Noriko is concerned the Bobbie Brown/Whitney Houston analogy might be close. Apparently her husband is a spoiled son who spent most of his life surfing and snowboarding and married her after he knocked her up. Should we be surprised that he indulges in a little drug use (I’m a surfer and know just little about the scene here in Japan) and
that she got involved too. Finally do any of these Japanese celeb/talents go to rehab for their excessive drinking/drug habits???

lovely

i have heard that there is next to nothing as far as “rehab” in japan. no drug problems (yeah, right), hence no rehab. they would have to go to another country for it – but apparently there is a great need for rehab in this country. drugs are the least of the problems as far as i am concerned. just read any blog, newspaper, magazine etc. and see the enormous amount of pain, suffering or death alcohol causes in this country every day at every level of society.

http://www.binary-apotheosis.com/blogs/index.php Rob A

As far as drugs go, my answer is always “持ってないけど好きです”.
TofuUnion

Most Japanese find this hysteria over the story about Noriko Sakai case is ridiculous. But the normal people can’t help it because it’s media doing this. Those news are just forgettable.
John

She was jailed and publicly pilloried for smoking pot???

Well, the Saudis whip people who drink beer.
Rising Sung

It’s not “nnnnnnnnnnkay” its “mmmmmmmmmmmkay” if your referring to Mr. Mackey……

http://www.otakimura.blogspot.com Eric John Cunningham

This comment may be the nerdiest I’ve ever received, nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkay.

Cheers for the correction, though.

-Eric

Drugs are bad, nnnnnnnkay

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