One afternoon earlier this month, Masamitsu Yamamoto showed up at the Tokyo District Court to attend a session of his criminal trial for an alleged violation of the Cannabis Control Law.
The 58-year-old resident of Kanagawa Prefecture, however, does not fit the typical profile of a drug case defendant.
The former restaurant chef has advanced liver cancer and was arrested on suspicion of drug possession last December. He said he had never run into trouble with the law before then, and maintains he used cannabis as a medicine of last resort after exhausting all other options and failing in his attempts to get access to legal cannabis treatment.