Yuuki dosed his mother, hoping that this would finally give her some relief.
Alternative medicine with psychoactive substances has been a difficult issue to explore in Japan. Like many countries, new compounds made their way into the country through headshops: historically these have been synthetic cannabinoids, but psychedelic compounds are increasingly appearing on the market.
This is an industry I knew well: I worked in Japan’s CBD industry from 2020 to 2025, and saw many psychoactive substances – primarily THC-like cannabinoids, alongside a smaller market for LSD analogues – rise and fall over the years in online and retail stores. HHC, for example, was openly sold in Japan from early 2021 until being designated a controlled substance in March 2022. Other compounds followed, each ban seemingly prompting a new replacement.
After several crackdowns, I thought the market had quietened. But Yuuki’s experience suggests otherwise; through him I found out about a world of psychedelic analogues: from LSD to psilocybin analogues, to unknown commercialised compounds with psychedelic effects.
A family searching for relief
Yuuki had hoped to get his mother, who currently suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), access to psilocybin-assisted therapy after reading about its benefits for patients across the US, Australia and increasingly more countries. But psilocybin is illegal in Japan. Instead, he found a pre-packaged mushroom analogue product for sale at a head shop in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighbourhood.
Having attended traditional mushroom ceremonies in Oaxaca, Mexico, Yuuki first tried the mushroom blend himself before offering it to his mother. For him, the effects closely resembled those of psilocybin mushrooms.
After his mother took it, he saw that some of her ALS-related pain subsided. While she remains seriously ill, bringing her some relief brought him joy – this was the least he could do for someone who raised him.
Yuuki’s father, the main caregiver of his mother, also tried out the mushrooms, noting he felt calmer and more energetic the following day.
These are anecdotal accounts, not clinical evidence; there is almost no research on psychedelic analogue use in Japan. But Yuuki’s story is a look into the obscure world of Japanese psychedelic analogues, a market of unknown risks and consumers operating within a highly punitive framework.
Inside a Tokyo headshop
Curious about Yuuki’s experience, I visited a head shop in Shimokitazawa, a Tokyo neighbourhood known for its music and vintage fashion. The shop could easily have passed for a clothing boutique, although the typical 420-themed clothes and items gave it away. At a desk in the back of the shop, I found a menu advertising the shop’s mushroom gummies.
Their packaging said the products contained no psilocybin. A staff member told me their effects were distinctly psychedelic, unlike those of cannabinoid analogues. When I asked about its active ingredient, he pointed to the English-language label which listed its “Desert Stardust” blend, composed of lion’s mane mushroom extract and “Seronoesin Extract” – a trademark-pending proprietary blend with unknown compounds.
As lion’s mane is not known to be psychoactive, it’s likely the psychedelic effects stem from this blend. Given its commercially protected status, its contents are unclear: the only information publicly available on Desert Stardust and Seronoesin Extract are from Road Trip’s own website, which states its products should not be mixed with serotonin blockers (like antidepressants), and that it does not contain psilocybin, psilocin or psilacetin (4-AcO-DMT).
In its own test purchases, The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has found some analogue products whose contents did not match their labels: products with brand names tested positive for 1S-LSD (a common LSD analogue); even other marketed LSD analogues like 1P-LSD and PRO-LAD were actually found to contain 1S-LSD.
The staff member told me customers – mostly men of all ages – often bought the gummies before going clubbing. Sold for ¥16,500 (around GBP £79), this commercial product seemed like a retail-ready psychedelic experience – albeit one whose contents and safety remained unclear.
The market moves online
Until spring 2023, the LSD analogue 1V-LSD was widely available for purchase – even sold on Amazon Japan. To see what had replaced it, I looked at an online store recommended by a friend working in the Japanese CBD industry.
On that site, I found pills marketed as psilocybin analogues, explicitly labelled “not for human consumption” and “for research purposes only”. Unlike Road Trip’s gummies, these listed a specific compound: 4-Pro-MET, a designer psychedelic. The retailer also operated a lounge in Kabukicho, Shinjuku’s nightlife district, where synthetic cannabinoids were a central attraction.
Some products presented themselves as recreational experiences; others adopted the language of laboratory research. Both remained accessible to prospective buyers.
The demand side
Japan’s reported lifetime prevalence of illicit drug use has historically been low. But recent surveys suggest some change: a 2025 survey conducted by Japan’s National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry reported the highest lifetime cannabis-use prevalence in its observation period. Popular streaming shows increasingly feature artists and celebrities openly discussing past drug arrests. That does not mean the stigma has vanished, but the conversation appears to be shifting.
I also spoke with Takashi Shiratori of Meiji University, whose research surveyed people using psychedelics in Japan. His findings, published in 2025, suggest a recent wave of first-time users coinciding with the circulation of LSD analogues. The study was one of the first large online surveys of psychedelic use in Japan.
Respondents reported greater anxiety and depressive symptoms than the general population, while their retrospective post-use symptom ratings were lower, sometimes in the range associated with remission. Because the study was observational and relied on self-reports, it cannot establish that psychedelics caused those improvements.
Despite its punitive regime for recreational use, Japan is no stranger to psychoactive compounds. Otsuka Pharmaceutical has invested nearly one billion dollars into a non-psychoactive MDMA-like compound, with others patenting other psychoactive compounds for medical treatment. It seems that both Japanese companies and citizens are keeping an eye on the medical psychedelic horizon, exploring and experimenting with new compounds.
Where the trip goes from here
Yuuki’s search for psilocybin-assisted therapy for his mother sent him to a head shop in Tokyo. While there’s some interest in Japan formally exploring this form of treatment, it’s still early days for most people to access it. Legal highs are filling in a mixed gap in the market – one shared by party-goers and potential patients.
Japanese regulators have identified genuine risks in the analogue market. My reporting uncovered no reason to dismiss those concerns. But I also encountered people using these substances in search of relief, connection or altered consciousness.
That tension may be the key to understanding why the market persists. Continued demand does not, by itself, establish that any particular analogue is safe. Banning one compound may remove it from shop shelves; but it doesn’t remove the demand or the personal hopes for relief behind it. The drug market will continue to trip its way past control efforts, all the while finding its ways into the hands of patients, partiers, and all those in between.
