For all the many world-leading things Japan is good at, the country is still lacking a bit when it comes to drugs and combating addiction.
The zero-tolerance country has had a weird outlook with drugs for ages, which has roots from a post-WWII drug addiction problem. Overwhelmingly severe penalties to those commit drug offences, yet the number of Japanese youths using cannabis is rising and measures to deal with illicit drugs have been downright comedic.
That brings us to Japan’s latest attempt to deal with its drug problems. A recent print ad was spotted in the Kagawa Prefecture that teaches kids to say no to drugs and eat udon noodles instead.
もう既にキマってるでしょこれ pic.twitter.com/ygLvrxZmeU
— ??ｅ? (@thisi2internet) March 8, 2019
I’d make a “what were they smoking” joke here but the Twitter user who shared that glorious ad already did it by writing in the caption “drugs are clearly already being taken here.”
As for what that ad says exactly, here it is the translation (via SoraNews24):
How to Say No to Drugs
Use our SUTEKI (wonderful) method to say no:
Slurp udon instead of slurping drugs
Use caution when picking what you consume, like choosing good tempura
Take some udon instead of taking drugs
Eat the udon happily
Kindly go home after you’re done eating
Instead of another white powder, have some wheat flour
If you’re confused by this, you’re far from the only one.
That’s just one of many questions we have about the ad.
Firstly, why? What does SUTEKI even mean? Who is the target for this ad besides udon lovers? Does this mean udon haters will fall into a drug-filled hole?
Okay, to be fair to the poster, udon is absolutely delicious and I would happily eat that all day instead of taking drugs.
Now there is something of an explanation as to how this ad came to be. Apparently it was the result of a competition to create a drug awareness ad using the “SUTEKI” acronym, and seeing as how the Kagawa Prefecture is famous for its udon, some genius decided to combine the two things.
Good point.
As funny as the poster is, drug addiction in Japan remains a serious issue and I don’t think an ad telling people to eat udon instead of doing drugs is the solution.
But look, if Japan can figure out a way to get robot dinosaurs to run its hotels, it can figure out a way to fix its drug addition problem.