I arrived in Tokyo in November for the Japanese International Hemp Expo (JIHE) 2025 with a familiar mix of jet lag, curiosity, and professional reflex. After decades working at the intersection of cannabis, law, and global markets, I’ve learned that the plant reveals more about a society than almost anything else. Where it’s embraced, feared, regulated, or whispered about tells you volumes about culture, history, and power.
Japan tells that story quietly, but unmistakably.
I was in Toronto just a few days earlier, where cannabis had been a focused topic at the International Bar Association (IBA) Annual Conference. In Canada, the discussion around cannabis is mainstream and where lawyers, regulators, and business leaders debate policy, compliance, and international markets with the same seriousness they do banking or intellectual property. Cannabis content that touched on cross-border trade, medical access, and compliance frameworks drew interested audiences, and there was no stigma in asking hard questions about the future of cannabis in global law.
It was striking to see how normalized the conversation had become in Canada over the past several years. But also, how this topic has become embraced by the international legal community which, not too many years ago, refused to discuss the topic due to the conservative nature of the legal profession, in general.
Stepping off the plane in Tokyo, the contrast was immediate. In Canada, cannabis is part of public discourse, policy development, and even social culture. In Japan, even the word is whispered. Enforcement is strict, social tolerance is low, and every interaction is filtered through layers of caution. The contrast was not just legal, but also cultural. Having just come from Toronto’s conference halls, I could see how Japan’s approach reflects a different philosophy entirely: patient, deliberate, and deeply conscious of social cohesion. Where …
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Author: Bob Hoban / High Times
