Japanese view on marijuana?

Question:

Yesterday I sent a Japanese friend I know from YouTube a message titled Japanese weed. This is what I said.

"Hey man. I know this is a random topic to bring up, but I was talking to my girlfriend, and she said that in Japan, they're way more strict about weed. She said she didn't know a single kid who smoked it and that it's not common for students to do it casually over there. Since I know you're Japanese and smoke weed, I just had a few questions. How did you get into it? How many people do you know who do it? How much does it cost over there and where can you get it if drug laws are so much stricter over there?"

He responded with this.

"My cousin imports from the U.S. I dont know how he does it but it gets here pretty fast like usually a 3 to 5 day process. I just smoke with him I dont know how it cost him to purchase. Its very high grade stuff too like lavender kush and even sour diesel. We have a very low down area we go to to get super duper high :) His moms basement lol. You'd be surprised actually how many Japanese guys like us smoke marijuana. Its actually very common. We just duck the law using similar American methods :) and btw Japanese weed sounds epic lol."

Some of what he said contradicts what my girlfriend said. If you are Japanese, what is your take on it?

Answer:

Japan used to be a lot more free regarding drugs, but then again so did the U.S., if you go back a couple centuries.

It's not as common in Japan to smoke marijuana as it is in the West. I would say the vast majority of Japanese university students never try it.

It does exist though. Some people smoke it. It's grown in Japan, but it's rare. It's not very socially accepted.

One time I ordered tempura udon in a small town in Japan. I could've sworn that one of the pieces of tempura was a piece of marijuana. I can't verify that it actually was, but weird things happen in Japan sometimes.

Before going to Japan the first time I was warned strictly about not mentioning if I had ever tried marijuana or not.

Different people live different lives. I'd say your girlfriend has a more realistic take, and your friend who smokes up, just lives in that world, so he sees it differently. To him it might seem like a lot of young guys smoke marijuana, but to other guys, they'd wonder what you're talking about. You'd probably be more likely to find someone who's eaten a sparrow than smoked a joint.