Actor Arrested on Weed Possession Charge, Pulls out of TV Show

Actor Kento Nagayama, 34, was arrested on June 16 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of violating the Cannabis Control Law, according to a source involved in the investigation. Nagayama is suspected of having had cannabis at his apartment in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, reported The Japan News. As part of a search carried out by agents of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on Thursday night, the police found the cannabis in Nagayama’s room. He is being investigated by the police for how he obtained the drug.

As a result of the arrest, Nagayama has bowed out of his upcoming TV show Dear Shining Prince, according to Yahoo! Life Singapore. He was to play Fujiwara no Takaie, a real-life Japanese regional governor around the turn of the 1st century. While Dear Shining Prince has already started filming, the report notes Nagayama has not started filming his scenes yet. The production has not named a replacement as of press time. 

Japanese actor Kento Nagayama arrested on suspicion of marijuana possessionhttps://t.co/QeCtfEgiFK

— The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) June 17, 2023

In 2007, Nagayama made his acting debut. Since then, he has appeared in a number of movies and television dramas, including the 2010 film Sofutoboi (Softball Boys), for which he received the Japan Academy Film Award for the best new actor award. In addition, he will play the character of Keisuke Baji in the live-action film Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween – Destiny, which is based on the popular manga series Tokyo Revengers. The film is scheduled for release on June 30.

In 2021, marijuana use was criminalized under revisions to Japan‘s cannabis control law. In 2022, the National Police Agency (NPA) reported that the number of arrests for marijuana-related incidents in Japan dipped for the first time in nine years, but remains relatively high, according to The Mainichi. During 2022, the NPA reported that 5,342 people were arrested, a decrease of 140 compared to the previous year. Among those arrested, 912 people were younger than 20, a decrease of 82 from the year prior. 53.4% of the arrests were young people in their 20s, and 17.4% were young people in their 30s. Since those under 30 made up 70% of the arrests, there are fears that the use of this drug is on the rise among young people. Of those, 160 of those arrested were university students, 150 were high school students, and 11 were in junior high school.

A total of 4,054 of those arrested for marijuana possession were first-time offenders, accounting for around 75% of the total number of arrests. Of those arrested for distribution of marijuana, 225 were arrested for cultivating, 184 for receiving, and 74 were arrested for smuggling marijuana into the country. Based on the NPA’s analysis of 911 suspects arrested between October and November 2022 for simple possession, 52.1% began using marijuana before they turned 20, up from 36.4% in 2017.

The study also revealed that 59.6% of people who used marijuana started out of curiosity or amusement, while 18.4% used marijuana in “the mood of the moment.” Furthermore, 79.5% said that marijuana has virtually no or absolutely no negative side effects. Young people may be easily able to make use of social media in order to get marijuana, according to the NPA. The agency promises to continue to remove social media posts that advertise the sale of marijuana and educate the public about the drug effects.