TOKYO TO HOST INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONFERENCE

Senior police, customs, maritime safety, foreign and health officials from
some 20 countries will assemble in Tokyo in mid-January to discuss ways to
stimulate cooperation in an antinarcotics crusade in East Asia, government
sources said Tuesday.

It will be the first time Japan has hosted such a large-scale conference on
drug problems, the sources said. Although Japan hosted the Asia Drug Law
Enforcement Conference in February, its participants were basically limited
to regional police officials from Japan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam and Cambodia.

The sources said hosting the January meeting reflects strong government
concern about a growing number of drug-abuse cases in Japan and is also
aimed at demonstrating the country's determination to play an active role
in addressing the drug problems in East Asia as a whole.

According to sources, senior officials from Japan, China, South Korea and
Southeast Asian countries will participate in the conference, scheduled for
Jan. 17 and 18, as full members. The head of the United Nations
International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) and senior officials of the
World Customs Organization are also expected to participate. Senior
officials from some other industrialized countries, including the United
States, Australia, Britain and France, will also attend, but only as
observers, the sources said. The sources said that after holding a joint
opening ceremony, the conference participants will split into four groups:
police officials, maritime safety officials, customs officials and foreign
and health officials.

They will discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in cracking down on
illicit drug production and trade, and also in curbing the growing demand
for illegal drugs in East Asia, the sources said.

China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia concluded a memorandum
of understanding with the UNDCP in 1995 on stepping up cooperation in
addressing the illegal manufacture, smuggling and abuse of drugs. The
so-called Golden Triangle region, which comprises parts of Myanmar,
Thailand and Laos, is notorious for cultivating huge amounts of opium.

The number of stimulant drug-abuse cases has been rising sharply in Japan,
especially among schoolchildren. According to the National Police Agency'
there are an estimated 2.18 million amphetamine abusers.

Alarmed about the current "third wave" of drug abuse sweeping the country,
a government panel chaired by then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto adopted
in May 1998 a "five-year strategy for preventing the abuse of drugs."

The government strategy, which represented Japan's first long-term program
to combat drug abuse, called for increased international cooperation,
especially with Japan's Asian neighbors, as well as for more education and
a crackdown on drug smuggling into Japan.

While many other industrialized countries are particularly concerned about
the abuse of such narcotics as coca, cannabis and opium, putting controls
on stimulants is the biggest task facing Japan, where about 90 percent of
drug-related offenses involve stimulants.

There are two kinds of stimulant drugs - amphetamines and their more
powerful crystalline derivatives, methamphetamines. The bulk of stimulant
drugs smuggled into Japan are manufactured in mainland China and Southeast
Asia.

As part of efforts to implement the government's five-year anti-drug
strategy, Japan announced in June 1998 a decision to pay the full cost of a
$370,000 project proposed by the UNDCP aimed at curbing the rise in the use
of illegal stimulant drugs, particularly among the young, in Southeast
Asia.

The announcement was made at a special session of the U.N. General Assembly
on narcotics held in New York in June 1998. The special U.N. session
adopted a political declaration calling for, among other things, concerted
action among U.N. member nations to achieve significant progress in the
fight against narcotics, including a reduction in the trade of illegal
drugs, over the next decade.