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Abstinent Nation, Addicted Empire: Opium and Japan in the Meiji Period

During Japan’s Meiji period (1868–1912), policymakers launched an ambitious campaign to build a rich and strong state, distinct from a supine and inferior “Orient.” The exclusion of the opium trade formed the basis for the depiction of Japan as an abstinent nation, fundamentally different from, and superior to, the “addicted” polities of Asia. But when Japan acquired its first colony, Taiwan, in 1895, the drug-free nation found itself ruling a large population of opium smokers. The ideological baggage of narcotics, as well as concern for Japan’s international image and financial predicament, resulted in the decision to create a government monopoly over the sale of opium, and to provide medical treatment to addicts in an effort to “civilize” them. By the end of the Meiji period, Japan’s drug suppression policies had helped to transform the state from the object of Euro-American imperialist designs, into a legitimate, even model, nation and empire