In the months before the 1948 Cannabis Control Act, Emperor Hirohito visited hemp farms in Tochigi prefecture. The prefecture's cannabis museum keeps a 1947 photograph of the visit, and its director says the Emperor came to assure growers that they and their livelihood would be protected from the coming ban.[1][2] Licensed growing did continue — Japan still had some 25,000 hemp farms in 1950 — before collapsing under licence costs and synthetic fibre.[1][2]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Japan here.
References
- Stars and Stripes — Reefer gladness, a brief history of hemp in Japan (archived 2022)1947 Hirohito photo and assurance account; 25,000 pre-ban farms; licence costs and chemical fibres
- Wikipedia — Cannabis in JapanHirohito assurances for industrial hemp; 25,000 farms in 1950 and later declinearchived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.