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Public smoking regulations may be on horizon for Tokyo

8 Comments
By Junji Yoshida and Fred R Hirsch

Japan has long been dubbed a “smoker’s paradise” due to its lax smoking laws and deep-rooted smoking culture. Its longstanding unwillingness to pass stricter smoking regulations puts Japan far behind other developed nations, nearly all of which have implemented wide-ranging public smoking bans.

However, public smoking regulations may be on the horizon. On Sept 8, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that it’s planning to propose a ban on indoor smoking in certain buildings, such as restaurants, hotels, airports and more. This movement appears to be the result of many factors, both local and international. Leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) has strongly advocated for a public smoking ban, a standard practice dating from the 2004 Athens Olympics. Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike has long pushed for the ban. Western tourists, who are attending the Olympics or are visiting for other purposes, now want and expect public places to be smoke-free. Additionally, a study of tourist reactions to the smoking ban at the international airport in Bangkok found that 99% of respondents, including both smokers and non-smokers, supported the smoke-free policy.

Secondhand smoke, which remains unregulated and rampant, poses a real danger to people across Japan, which is why this proposed ban is so important. The overwhelming majority of lung cancers are caused by cigarette smoking or secondhand smoke. Comprehensive secondhand smoke laws would save lives, because preventing exposure to cigarette smoke would significantly decrease the number of deaths from lung cancer.

While the number of smokers in Japan has steadily declined over the years, 18.2% of adults in Japan remain smokers, including 28.2% of men and 9% of women. At its peak in 1966, nearly half (49.4%) of adults in Japan smoked, including a staggering 83.7% of men and 18% of women. More than 70,000 Japanese people die every year from lung cancer, and the Japanese health ministry estimates that 15,000 people die every year due to diseases related to secondhand smoke.

An important factor that has hampered the progress of a smoking ban in Japan is the connection between the Japanese government and the revenue from cigarette sales. In addition to receiving billions of Yen annually in cigarette tax revenues, the government owns a one-third stake in Japan Tobacco (JT), the third-largest global tobacco company. Passing measures that may reduce this revenue stream has led to blockages of anti-smoking measures.

One of the popular arguments used to oppose a smoking ban is the assertion that a ban on smoking in public places adversely affects restaurants and other businesses. However, this has been disproven by a number of studies. Research from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the WHO found that smoke-free policies often have a positive impact on businesses in the hospitality industry. In New York City, restaurant and bar revenues increased by 8.7% from April 2003 to January 2004 after the city's smoke-free law was enacted.

In fact, smoking generates significant costs to the economy – about 15% of the aggregate health care expenditure in high-income countries can be attributed to smoking. Researchers in Canada found that the cost of tobacco use, including secondhand smoke exposure, totaled approximately 17 billion Canadian dollars in 2002. Reducing smoking and secondhand smoke will provide many economic benefits, primarily by mitigating excessive burdens on the Japanese health care system, which is already grappling with the high costs of a rapidly aging population.

In an effort to draw attention to the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke not only in Japan, but around the world, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer is hosting its annual World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama. There is great irony in that attendees will be staying in hotels and eating in restaurants that permit smoking, exposing themselves to the dangerous secondhand smoke they hope to eliminate.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to gather public opinion on the issue until Oct 6, and will likely propose the regulations to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly at the end of March 2018. Gov Koike and other members of her party even plan to introduce an act that would discourage families from smoking inside homes with children. It appears that Japan is making important progress and finally acting to prevent thousands of additional needless deaths as a result of secondhand smoke. We are encouraged that Tokyo may join its peers in implementing smoking bans to protect the lungs and lives of its citizens.

Dr Junji Yoshida is a consultant, Division of Pulmonology at the Tokyo Midtown Clinic and Fred R Hirsch, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and School of Medicine, and CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

© Japan Today

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8 Comments
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If these bans remain virtually unenforced, as the current ban on smoking on sidewalks, parks, etc, why bother? I guess it's a way for Tokyo to claim that it cares about the health of it's people, and limit the exposure of visitors to the stench of tobacco smoke, even if people continue to smoke as they did before. It's a lot like laws requiring bikes to use the street, or laws against the practice of price fixing, these exist in principle, but no in practice.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

A lot of restaurant and bars owners still oppose this claiming they will lose business, and this may well result in weak or unenforced laws. If a compromise must be reached, I would suggest allowing bars to permit smoking if they have a "smoking licence" which could be quite expensive. After all, so much in Japan requires a licence. The cost of such licence could be increased in the future.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In western Japan they recently marked the 10th anniversary of their ban on smoking on sidewalks. Over a decade, can you guess how many people were cited and fined for smoking on the sidewalks? Zero, none, nada, zilch.

Every day and night the stinkers walk by, smoking as they step over the signs on the ground telling them not to smoke. Every morning the sidewalks are littered with hundreds of cigarette butts, tossed on the ground the night before. I love telling these first-class douchebags to put out their cigarettes, or to pick up their butts when I see them toss them on the ground. Surprisingly, they always put out their cigarettes, or pick up their butts. I was a police officer in America for 10 years, and I can sound quite threatening when I want to. Too bad the local police are too afraid to do the same.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Sangetsu03.

Not in my part of western Tokyo, cleaned up the city well compared to how bad it was 20yrs ago.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Here in Scotland the ban started with indoor public places, including the top deck of buses. People were initially up in arms about it, but gradually there was a cultural shift. There is no smoking allowed in any public building or any business premises... this includes vans and cars owned by companies. Passengers are not permitted to smoke in taxis. Recently a law was enacted that drivers with children in the car are nor permitted to smoke, even if it's their own car with their own kids.

According to Scottish Government statistics the percentage of adult smokers had declined from 31% of adults in 2003 to 21% in 2015. Ten percent drop in 12 years - Japan can and should do the same.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I think in almost every case study where this has happened, there was no real decrease in businesses that were screaming that they'd be bankrupt if such a ban was to take place. We have lots of good data from countries which have adopted such standard and overall I think the results have been positive for everyone except cigarette manufactures.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

There's plenty of places to go to avoid cigarette smoke. If people are truly, honesly worried about health concerns, how about vehicle emissions/climate change/war?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There's plenty of places to go to avoid cigarette smoke. If people are truly, honesly worried about health concerns, how about vehicle emissions/climate change/war?

In the US at least more people die from second hand smoke than from vehicle emissions, climate change, and from war. So it would make sense to prioritize second hand smoke above those other issues.

I wouldn't be surprised if the same was true in Japan where second hand smokes kills more than war does in Japan, or climate change, or vehicle emissions.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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