Recovery Advocacy in Japan 2020 Update

One of the many purposes of this blog series is to offer factual and visual evidence of the worldwide cultural and political mobilization of people in recovery and their families and allies. Toward that end, I occasionally highlight recovery advocacy efforts in countries other than the United States.

In 2007, I conducted a lecture tour in Japan that included meetings with drug policy makers, recovery mutual aid groups, addiction treatment organizations, and individuals and families in recovery. I will forever remember the graciousness, warmth, and commitment of the recovery advocates I met during that visit who have since provided me with regular reports on recovery advocacy activities in Japan.

The most visible centerpiece of the Japanese recovery advocacy movement in recent years has been the hosting of annual recovery parades in numerous Japanese cities. Due to the pandemic, the parades this year will give way to an online forum. To remind us of a day in the future when we can again take recovery advocacy to the main streets of the world, I am sharing images from the 2019 Japanese recovery parades. In 2019, recovery parades were held in seven cities across Japan with more than 1,000 participants. The images below are from the recovery parades in Hiroshima, Kansai, and Yokohama.