An anesthesiologist at Keio University Hospital has been arrested for allegedly smuggling a so-called dangerous drug into Japan from Britain, police said Tuesday.
Kimiaki Ai, a full-time doctor at the Tokyo hospital, admitted to importing the drug called Rush but said he did not know he was breaking the law, the police said.
"Dangerous," or kiken, drugs contain chemical agents that produce effects similar to illegal narcotics. Japan banned the possession and use of such drugs, previously called dappo, or "loophole" drugs, in 2014.
Ai, 49, is suspected of importing 10 small bottles of the liquid drug from Britain by mail on Sept. 28 last year, police said. Rush contains isopropyl nitrite, a substance the government considers as having hallucinatory effects and which requires prior approval to import. It is allowed only for medical purposes.
Police raided Ai's house in Tokyo on Monday after the customs office in Kawasaki detected the drug in the bottles mailed to him.
"We'll respond strictly if the charge is true," Hideyuki Okano, head of the university's medical faculty, said.
Rush causes feelings of intoxication, and a large dose can prove fatal by affecting one's ability to breathe, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.