Japanese police hired a video game attorney to fight youth marijuana use

Japanese video game powerhouse Capcom announced last week that it was loaning its hit character Ace Attorney for a campaign aimed at preventing young people from using cannabis. The company announced Thursday that characters from the popular video game series are being used to fight cannabis use by young people as part of a collaboration with the youth crime prevention awareness campaign of the Osaka Prefecture Police Department.

Every year since 2013, Capcom has worked with the Osaka Prefecture Police and law enforcement agencies in neighboring prefectures to develop and implement crime prevention awareness campaigns. That year, the company received a request from Osaka Prefecture Police to use the popular Ace Attorney characters for the first time in a marijuana abuse prevention campaign “that has seen a marked shift towards younger ages,” according to one Declaration from Capcom.

The campaign will feature characters from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, which was released in July, in flyers and posters to be distributed to educational institutions, community police stations and train stations across Osaka Prefecture. The artwork features the classic Ace Attorney ‘Einspruch!’ also the word “no” in big red letters.

Courtesy Capcom

“Capcom hopes to support crime prevention activities in Osaka and throughout Japan with the production of 6,000 original posters through this program, which will produce 6,000 original posters and 4,000 original flyers enclosed in individually packaged face masks,” the company wrote in a December 9 press release.

The company’s support for the campaign is part of its program to promote regional revitalization efforts across Japan by harnessing the power of its intellectual property to engage people in four areas including economic development, cultural awareness, preventive education and voter turnout. The company has carried out various initiatives since 2009, including the conclusion of the first comprehensive agreement between a video game company and a local government agency, working with the Kansai prefecture police on prevention activities, and raising awareness of gubernatorial elections.

Popular Japanese video game series

The Ace Attorney series, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, features courtroom fighting games in which players take on the role of defense attorney fighting for the lives of his wrongly accused clients. Since the first game in the series was released in October 2001, Capcom has built the brand through a comprehensive, cross-platform marketing strategy and used it in media such as animated television shows, stage performances and orchestral concerts. The Ace Attorney series has become one of Capcom’s most popular, with cumulative shipments totaling 8.6 million units as of the end of September.

Cannabis in Japan

Although cannabis has been grown in Japan for thousands of years, the nation prohibits the import, export, cultivation, sale, purchase, and research of cannabis buds and leaves for recreational or medicinal purposes under the Cannabis Control Act of 1948. The production of hemp, the used in some Shinto religious practices is legal, and non-THC CBD products have been available since 2016.

Japan has some of the strictest penalties in the world for violating marijuana laws, including prison sentences of up to five years for simple possession. The penalties for selling, growing, and owning cannabis for sale are even more severe, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison.

Despite the risk, cannabis is the second most popular illicit drug in Japan after methamphetamine, according to a 2019 survey. About 1.8 percent of people reported having used cannabis in their lifetime, compared with about 44 percent of Americans. Although efforts to reform cannabis prohibition law have gained a foothold in other East Asian countries in recent years, the Japan Times reported in 2021 that “political momentum to legalize cannabis” is “essentially non-existent” in the nation.