Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Historians have explored Japanese drug manufacture and trafficking in Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. They have pointed out that in the same decades a domestically oriented morphine industry developed as result of Japanese efforts to achieve self-sufficiency. However, little attention has been paid to the development and impact of this industry. This article argues that the Japanese morphine industry had a significant impact on Japanese agriculture, promoted the rationalization of production processes in factories, and stood for a modern medical consumer culture. It was not until the 1930s and 1940s that poppy cultivation and morphine manufacture increasingly relied on resources and labour from the colonies. This also reflected a shift to a war economy. Drugs were then mainly produced for the military and found their way onto black markets in Japan and Northeast Asia.
Source: Itinerario
Author: Judith Vitale
Institution: University of Zurich
Language: English
Topic: Japanese History and Culture
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W7128439651
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