Continuity and change in drug treatment: Regimes of control in Japan

This article examines the development of illegal drug control in Japan. Focusing on the area of drug treatment, a theoretical explanation is offered for how and why a previously punitive configuration has shifted towards a more complex one including both inclusionary and exclusionary approaches. In doing so, it argues for theoretical engagement with the relations of power which structure political competition in the governance of illegal drug control.

Using conceptual tools adopted from urban regime analysis, the article discusses the dispositions, resources, and schemes of co-operation that have shaped the development of drug treatment in Japan since the end of the Second World War.

Contemporary manifestations of drug treatment are indicative of a disruption to a dominant 'penal-moral' regime and an ongoing transformation towards a 'medico-penal' regime.

Contemporary illegal drug control in Japan, especially at a tertiary level, demonstrates both continuity and change from former approaches, with manifestations of policy exhibiting similarities as well as differences from other countries. In accounting for these patterns, conceptual frameworks centred around the political competition to govern problems of illegal drug use provides a useful way to explain how drug policy regimes become variegated across different contexts.