3 Arrested Over Smuggling 1 Ton of Cannabis Into Japan; Cannabis, Worth ¥5.2 Bil., Smuggled from Vietnam to Tokyo Port

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:05 JST, August 14, 2025

Three Vietnamese nationals have been arrested on suspicion of violating the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law after about 1 ton of dried cannabis, worth about ¥5.2 billion, was seized after being smuggled into Tokyo Port.

The Narcotics Control Department of Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare made the announcement on Wednesday.

It is reportedly the largest amount of an illicit drug ever seized in Japan at one time.

One of the people arrested is a 51-year-old woman living in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture.

According to the announcement, the woman, conspiring with an unidentified person, is suspected of hiding about 1,046 kilograms of dried cannabis in a shipping container and smuggling it onto a cargo ship from a port in Da Nang, Vietnam, to Tokyo Port from May 26 to June 5.

The two other suspects, both men, are suspected of holding the smuggled cannabis at a builder’s yard in Tochigi Prefecture on June 18. The three were arrested in June and July, and they were subsequently indicted.

Tokyo Customs found the dried cannabis, which was divided into about 5 kilogram bags, in 200 of the about 1,500 imported boxes labeled charcoal, and reported it to the narcotics control department. The two men were then arrested after they received the packages at the yard, and the dried cannabis was seized.

As the packages were set to be sent to a business in Osaka, the department suspects that the woman is the main person to receive the drugs in Japan and that an international smuggling ring might be involved.