CBD Gummies and Drinks in Japan: THC Limits, Labels, Recalls

0.1 ppm. That is the THC ceiling for a CBD drink in Japan, one hundred times tighter than the 10 ppm allowed in a CBD oil, and it is the number that caught out the makers of Pillow CBD Night Drink in November 2025.

The searches behind this page are mostly Japanese ones (CBDグミ, CBDドリンク), so the guide follows what a Japanese buyer asks: which limit applies to which product, how to tell whether a maker is telling the truth, what the ministry says about importing, and what prefectural testers have found. Everything below comes from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), its Narcotics Control Department and prefectural press releases. It is general information, not legal advice.

Which limit applies: the ministry sorts by form, not by label

MHLW's Q&A of 23 October 2024 states that the class of a product "is not divided by use" such as raw material, food or cosmetic, but by its shape and ingredients. The practical result:

Two consequences surprise people. A "CBD drink" made with an oil emulsion can fall out of the 0.1 ppm class if it is thick or fatty enough, and a strong spirit with more ethanol than water is treated as "other", so 1 ppm. MHLW says it will not rule on individual products; the maker has to classify.

What 1 ppm looks like in one gummy

ppm here means milligrams of THC per kilogram of product. Verdex's arithmetic, for illustration, assuming a 4-gram gummy and a 50-millilitre drink weighing about 50 grams:

These are trace amounts, and the ministry's own notices add that it knows of no health harm from the products it has named. The limit is a legal line, not a dose. It also explains why enforcement works by lab test: nothing about such a gummy looks or tastes different.

Six named products in twelve months

Prefectures buy CBD products off shelves and websites and test them. The named cases so far, from the prefectural and ministry pages:

1. 2025-05-23

   Fukuoka names CBD EAST GUMMIES (strawberry), MHLW issues its own warning the same day (Red List entry).

2. 2025-11-17

   Tokyo names Pillow CBD Night Drink, a 500 ml soft drink sold in ten 50 ml bottles; its lab found THC above 0.1 ppm (Red List entry).

3. 2025-12-23

   MHLW names a CBD wax and a CBD liquid.

4. 2026-04-08

   Aichi names Plus Weed Wax CBD 50%; see our news report.

5. 2026-05-22

   Fukuoka reports NIGHT&DAY CBD&CBG&CBN GUMMIES above the 1 ppm limit, one of five products with a banned or over-limit substance among 11 bought from websites.

The May 2026 case is the useful one to study. The seller, VMC of Taito, Tokyo, said publicly that the action was not based on any health complaint, that it had third-party test reports showing compliance, and that it would retest the lot; it also raised the possibility of a false positive. Fukuoka published no measured value. Until one of the two sides publishes numbers, treat the ministry classification as the operative fact and the seller's report as unresolved.

Reading a test report before you trust a gummy

MHLW's own list of what an importer must show the Narcotics Control Department doubles as a checklist for buyers.

• Product class stated in Japanese terms: oil/fat, powder, water-based solution or other (gummy, solid, cream). A report that only says "gummy" or "beverage" is incomplete.
• Batch or lot number that matches the number printed on your pack. A report for last year's lot proves nothing about this one.
• Limit of quantification (LOQ) and detection (LOD) both listed. If the LOQ is above the limit that applies (1 ppm for a gummy, 0.1 ppm for a drink), "not detected" does not show compliance.
• Method named, for example LC-MS/MS, plus the date and the signature and title of the person responsible at the lab.
• A CBN or HHC line. Since 1 June 2026 CBN is a designated drug, and HHC has been a narcotic since 3 October 2025, so a "sleep gummy" containing either is banned whatever its THC value.

MHLW also publishes a list of laboratories that reported they can measure Δ9-THC in products, last updated on 6 August 2026. It says the list is self-reported and that testing elsewhere is not barred, so appearing on it is not a certification.

Importing gummies or drinks from abroad

A Western full-spectrum gummy is a product that often fails. Under the pre-check the ministry offers, the process is:

1. Get the report in the right form
   The seven items above, per batch, translated if the lab does not use the Japanese classes.
2. Email it as the importer
   The Kanto-Shinetsu narcotics control office takes requests by email only; the exporter or customs broker cannot file for you.
3. Wait one to two months
   The office answers per shipment and per lot, so a repeat order needs a new request.
4. Expect customs to test anyway
   A reply that a product is "not a narcotic on the documents" does not exempt it, and you may not advertise it as ministry-approved.

The check is voluntary; the penalty for importing a narcotic is not. Visitors carrying gummies should read our travel guide to Japan's limits, and anyone holding CBN products should see the banned-cannabinoids explainer.

If your gummy or drink is on a warning list

Buying from a listed shop is no guarantee, as shown by the products above. Sellers verified by Verdex in Japan are on the Japan hub when they qualify; most CBD sellers there are not yet reviewed.