FLOODED BY IMPORTS, JAPAN FACES UNPRECEDENTED NARCOTICS PROBLEM

YUNOTSU, Japan: Yunotsu is a typical, wind-blown village on Japan's western
seaboard, its main road leading past rickety old wooden stores to a dock lined
by rocking fishing boats.

But police fear Yunotsu may be typical in a more ominous way as well -
as a coastal point of entry for an unprecedented flow of smuggled
drugs feeding the worst wave of abuse Japan has ever seen.

Yunotsu, population 4,000, hit the national spotlight in early March
when police pulled 550 pounds of amphetamines from the hull of a
fishing boat docked here. The haul was the fifth-largest in Japanese
history.

"I've seen one or two grams before, but nothing like this," said
police officer Yoji Horie. "This is a quiet little town. We became
famous overnight."

The bust has alarmed many because authorities believe it is evidence
that Asian producers - in this case, North Koreans - are getting
increasingly involved in supplying narcotics to Japanese.

Examples abound.

In October, a sting on the island of Kyushu netted 1,243 pounds of
amphetamines smuggled on a Taiwanese boat. It was Japan's largest-ever
seizure of the drug.

"The illegal drug trade transcends national borders, and is something
no one nation can solve by itself," said a recent report by the
National Police Agency, which is strengthening ties with foreign
governments to combat smuggling.

For Asian suppliers, who can produce amphetamines in labs from
relatively easy to obtain ingredients, Japan is an attractive market.

Along with being by far the richest country in the region, Japan has
lots of hard-to-patrol coastline. Its "yakuza" criminal underworld is
also well-organized and well-funded, and ready to provide a sales
network for smuggled drugs.

Police believe the yakuza have been working more closely in recent
years with gangsters abroad, and say the results are clearly indicated
in the explosion of drugs confiscated before making it to the streets.

Last year, the total amount of amphetamines seized was a record 4,347
pounds, worth an estimated $1.1 billion on the street.

The 1999 haul was almost four times that of 1998 and greater than the
five previous years' combined.

Amphetamines aren't Japan's only problem. Police seized 1,214 pounds
of marijuana last year, almost six times the 1998 haul. Paint-thinner
sniffing among teens is a perennial concern, as is the use of cocaine,
heroin and "magic mushrooms."

But no other drug rivals amphetamines in Japan. About 2.5 million
Japanese, or 2 percent of the population, are estimated to have used
amphetamines.

That rate puts Japan roughly on par with the United States, according
to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, although amphetamine abuse
is outpaced in the United States by cocaine and heroin.

Much of the onus for stemming the flow of drugs in Japan has fallen on
the coast guard, which has responded by increasing patrols and
bolstering its supply of night-vision goggles and other surveillance
equipment.

Spokesman Hirotaka Mikubo acknowledged, however, that much more is
needed.

"We're eager to expand our resources," he said. "But we're held back
by the budget."

Japan's drug problem is less visible than in many industrial nations
because harsher punishment and a heavy social stigma push addicts and
their families to conceal abuse, said Hayato Isobe, a counselor at the
Asia-Pacific Addiction Research Institute.

Abuse of amphetamines here has deep historical roots.

Methamphetamine - a potent form of amphetamine known as "speed" - were
invented by a Japanese scientist looking for new plant-derived
medicines in 1888. Toward the end of World War II, kamikaze pilots
injected it before flying off to their deaths.

Amphetamines, like cocaine, increase energy and reduce hunger. The
drug, usually sold in crystal form, is highly addictive and abuse can
lead to paranoia and death.

While past abuse tended to be found among truck drivers, prostitutes,
gangsters and others battling fatigue, experts believe the current
wave is led by younger people. More teen-age girls are becoming
addicted to the drug after starting off by using it as a diet aid.
Rising numbers of teen-age boys, feeling bored with school or work,
thrive on the artificial sense of purpose the drug provides.

Japan's prolonged economic troubles have also added to the
problem.

High unemployment, in particular, is a factor behind the increase
among adults, said Kiyoshi Nagano, a psychiatrist at the Saito Clinic
for substance abuse in Tokyo.

Health officials, meanwhile, are concerned by the potential problems
posed by the tendency of amphetamine users to inject the drug, which
provides a more intense high than other means of ingestion.

While the AIDS virus is still less common in Japan than in the West,
intravenous amphetamine abuse could facilitate its spread if needles
are shared, said Mitsunobu Imai, a virologist at the Kanagawa
Prefectural Institute of Health outside Tokyo.

A more pressing issue is hepatitis C, a contagious disease that can
destroy the liver. About 60 percent of Japanese amphetamine users who
shoot up carry the virus.

But Imai said the high incidence of that disease bodes ill for the
country. "If HIV were to ever spread within this group of people, the
disease could get out of hand," he said.