I think people treat these laws as we treat our laws.
A law here is more about prosecuting someone to obtain justice, but over there, a lot of a law's purpose is to scare people and a preventative method.
I've always wanted to know how effective the scare tactic is in terms of statistics, but I've never gotten around to looking- anyone have any facts?
That being said, when we were flying to Japan, our teacher felt compelled to remind us that drug laws there mean huge punishments, huger if you're foreign.
The drug laws are tough, yes, but the slime that sell drugs to kids (dealing getting a larger sentence) and destroy their lives really should be in gaol.