Reword and rewrite the following article in HTML, use a hip journalistic writing style and make the heading statements in H3 or bold font where necessary: 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 Canada’s approach has been expansive and fast-moving, Japan’s feels like the measured heat of an onsen, with careful preparation, slow absorption, and respect for the process.
Tokyo is not just a city; it’s a living system. More than 30 million people move through it daily with a level of coordination that feels almost choreographed—have you seen the Shibuya Crossing, often referred to as the “Shibuya scramble”? The Shinjuku Ward is widely recognized as one of the most intensely dense and bustling urban places on Earth. Trains arrive on the second. Streets are largely immaculate, and there are rarely trash cans anywhere to be found in public! Courtesy is ambient. You are constantly aware that you are being observed, but not in a hostile way, but in a communal one. Behavior matters here.
That awareness becomes especially pronounced if you come from a cannabis culture, like the United States.
Cannabis in a Culture of Restraint
Despite Japan being one of the world’s largest consumers of tobacco, you rar
