The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced a former principal of Tokyo's International School of the Sacred Heart's kindergarten-preschool and her husband to suspended one-year prison terms for smuggling marijuana into Japan.
Shirley Lane, 59, and her husband, Thomas, 62, both U.S. citizens, had pleaded guilty to sending a parcel containing 6.16 grams of marijuana addressed to her in late September from the United States.
Presiding Judge Toshikazu Ishii condemned their conduct but suspended the sentences because they had shown contrition.
The marijuana, sent by the husband at the wife's request, was found by customs officers at Narita airport.
The school dismissed Shirley Lane after the case came to light in October.
The Metropolitan Police Department alleges Lane conspired with her husband to airmail a package containing the marijuana from Florida to their apartment in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 22, according to a police official.
The husband, who mailed the package, which also contained clothing, was arrested upon his return from the U.S. to Tokyo.
Lane was quoted by the official as saying, "I asked my husband to send marijuana home." The American couple also admitted they intended to use the drug.