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Smoking, vaping to be banned at Tokyo Olympic venues

63 Comments
By STEPHEN WADE

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How about banning smoking and vaping indoors everywhere permanently in Japan?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

then it comes down to an ethics debate, let smoker continue to smoke so they can die early costing the health system less, or help them quit so they can live longer healthier productive lives and help employers save on productivity since smokers are on average less productive than non smokers.

That's one way of framing it. The other is letting people live their lives the way they want, even if they are hurting themselves, providing assistance if they choose to look for it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

End of life care ends up costing more than the smokers do.

then it comes down to an ethics debate, let smoker continue to smoke so they can die early costing the health system less, or help them quit so they can live longer healthier productive lives and help employers save on productivity since smokers are on average less productive than non smokers.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Smoking, vaping to be banned at Tokyo Olympic venues

In other words, after the Olympics are over, it's back to business as usual.

Get back to me when they decide to ban smoking in restaurants. Then, I might stop rolling my eyes and think of Japan as a country in the 21st century.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

how about ban it at all venues forever

2 ( +2 / -0 )

That doesn't support smokers costing more to their insurance.

It's actually been shown in multiple studies that smokers die earlier, and cost less to the system than those who live to an old age. End of life care ends up costing more than the smokers do.

https://www.mcmha.org/smoking-affects-health-insurance-premiums/

"The health insurance companies face a double-edged sword when it comes to insuring smokers. Not only will they typically pay more for health claims, but they also collect less in premium revenue since smokers have a higher mortality rate than non-smokers. Insurers must build both factors into a smoker’s rates in order to make the funding adequate to cover claims by the insured and a profit for the company at the same time."

0 ( +0 / -0 )

love these people saying that smokers cost to their health care insurances... Show the real numbers, facts and no aggressive emotion please!

.

There you go.

https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/smoking-employees-cost-6-000-year-more-study-finds-6C10182631

That doesn't support smokers costing more to their insurance.

It's actually been shown in multiple studies that smokers die earlier, and cost less to the system than those who live to an old age. End of life care ends up costing more than the smokers do.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The best way to get rid of smokers from an area where they shouldn't be smoking is to just let the loudest fart you can muster rip. If they freak out just tell them you didn't see a sign that said no farting unlike the sign that says no smoking right there. Second hand farts, no where near as bad as second hand cigarette smoke.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I love these people saying that smokers cost to their health care insurances... Show the real numbers, facts and no aggressive emotion please!

There you go.

https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/smoking-employees-cost-6-000-year-more-study-finds-6C10182631

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I love these people saying that smokers cost to their health care insurances.

Can anyone shows me the profit from the tobacco taxes vs. the cost of the smokers?

Not mentioning the saving on the retirement pension because of early death of smokers?

Show the real numbers, facts and no aggressive emotion please!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Raise the cost of cigarettes up to 5000 yen a pack, today.

Sure, raise the cost of a pint of beer to 25000 as well. Anything to deny the proles a bit of enjoyment in their lives.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

God I wish Japan was Scotland.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Excuse me why if its sold in Japan its your national currency but sold in Australia you assume its American currency, we're not Okinawa you know !

FYI the currency in Okinawa is YEN!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

You know "vape" is short for vapor, right?

You inhale the vapor from the pen, and exhale it into the air around you.

It's visible. It has an aroma. And, it often contains harmful chemicals, either from the contents of the capsule or from the components of the pen itself, which is usually made in China often using hazardous materials.

You wanna vape? Go ahead. Just do it in your home, in your car, or in one of those smoke-filled fish bowls on train platforms and at the airport. Knock yourself out.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Here in Scotland we've had a smoking ban since 2006. You can't smoke in a public building, in any place where food or drink is served, on public transport (including taxis), stations, people who use vans or cars for their work can't smoke in them, and recently they introduced a ban on smoking with any passengers under 18 in private cars.

What Japan is proposing is a fraction of what we have... it doesn't nearly half way. Japan needs to do more.

When I'm in Japan I don't even go into izakaya - you can smell the ciggie smoke as soon as you slide the door open... same with some yakitori places. Some restaurants have booths (my hotel also recently installed a smoking booth)... but where you have a mere glass partition... do they not understand that the smoke wafts around the partition? It's useless.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Raising the cost will not cut down smoking. People will simply find new ways to add smoking into their budget.

I think I have to disagree (and I'm pro-smokers-choice). Smoking rates have been shown to go down as prices increase, though there is a point of diminishing returns. Price increases will not eliminate smoking, but it does cause a reduction in smokers.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Raising the cost will not cut down smoking. People will simply find new ways to add smoking into their budget.

I don't smoke but in New York, the prices of cigarettes rose from $7 to $15 per pack and they were forced to add all those throat cancer images on their cartons. Tobacco industry suffered for one quarter and then they hit much higher profits the remaining quarters.

I don't care if people smoke. I would just feel more happy if they limit where people can smoke. I am tired of always having to walk up to someone and telling them in Japanese, do not smoke here because children are playing in the park. I always have to do this when I take my daughter out to the park to play.

They can smoke around schools, children areas, and in restaurants where children frequent. There have been far too many times I see little children in Yakitori places filled with cigarette smokers. You won't stop people from smoking, but I would appreciate it if they changed where people can smoke.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I always feel like smokers are treated like 2nd hand citizens here anyways.

That is because they are.

Raise the cost of cigarettes up to 5000 yen a pack, today.

And then things will slowly work out on its own by the time 2020 comes around.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

footage from Japanese TV network TBS showed Kim taking a predawn smoke break at a train station in China, a woman who appeared to be his sister, Kim Yo Jong, holding a crystal ashtray at the ready.

Now I can understand, smokers are really awkward, especially about denuclearization

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Vape, sorry.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@above, cos if cape was allowed the cash cow could stop.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

which is roughly usd20.00 or $20.00. The article's correct. $, esp on an international news site like JT, often/always refers to the American dollar rather than aud, nzd, cad etc.

Excuse me why if its sold in Japan its your national currency but sold in Australia you assume its American currency, we're not Okinawa you know !

Ours are expensive on purpose to help pay for their eventual hospitalization .

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

It's all about presenting a false reality, isn't it Japan. Come down like the Gestapo on smokers while the world is watching, then back to smoke-filled restaurants after everyone has left.

That said, I think that it is way overboard to not designate smoking areas in the venues, especially the outdoor venues. It's a basic convenience that smokers have a place to go where their smoke does not effect non-smokers.

The net result of this are that a lot of smokers will be really peeved off and will not enjoy their experience here when they realize they have to walk 3km to legally smoke.

Besides that, why bring vape into this like its a cigarette? It's not. Most vapes smell better than 95% of people.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Where is it $20? The price of 1 package of Marlboro cigarettes in Sydney is AU$31

...which is roughly usd20.00 or $20.00. The article's correct. $, esp on an international news site like JT, often/always refers to the American dollar rather than aud, nzd, cad etc.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

As a smoker, I have no problem with this at all. It's a great idea.

and it great too see that many smokers are considerate and not selfish about who is affected by their habbit.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Nobody is forcing non-smokers to go to a restaurant smoker free. 75% of them are like that.

same old BS agruments they used in the 80s 90s. smokers are a minority , non-smokers shouldnt be dictated where they can and cant breath fresh air because recalcitrant smokers think its their given right to smoke wherever they please . Its been scientifically proven that passive smoking kills smokers and non smokers alike, its a non smokers right to be able to enter an enclosed space and not have to be subjected to health risks posed by smokers. Smokers need to smoke outside, plain and simple.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

And where buying tobocco is easy as to insert coins in a vending machine on many street corners...

Not unless you have a TASPO card you can't!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

And where buying tobocco is easy as to insert coins in a vending machine on many street corners...

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

In a crowded country like Japan where just walking down the street means passive smoking....!

1 ( +5 / -4 )

In the great words of Homer Simpson,"I am in flavor country"

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I missed the part where they told us the cost of a pack in Japan.

There are some brands that are cheaper, and some a bit more expensive, but the average cost for a pack of cigarettes here in Japan is ¥480 per pack, and that was after a ¥20 per pack increase last October.

Also prices are controlled, so it's the same price in Tokyo as it is in Okinawa.

BTW, holding a cigarette doesn't require much dexterity.

For most of us here, neither do using chopsticks! And I have seen far too many people doing it too!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I’ve never seen anyone eating with chopsticks in one hand and a cigarette in the other. You’d have to be a really dexterous person to be able to do that.

Really? You've never seen that in Japan? How about one burning in the ashtray, while eating? It's quite common.

BTW, holding a cigarette doesn't require much dexterity.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Have you ever seen somebody trying to lit up a vape stick?

You know "vape" is short for vapor, right?

You inhale the vapor from the pen, and exhale it into the air around you.

It's visible. It has an aroma. And, it often contains harmful chemicals, either from the contents of the capsule or from the components of the pen itself, which is usually made in China often using hazardous materials.

You wanna vape? Go ahead. Just do it in your home, in your car, or in one of those smoke-filled fish bowls on train platforms and at the airport. Knock yourself out.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Vaping and denshi-tobacco are different things. The former uses some sort of liquid, the other heats up tobacco instead of burning it.

Yes, the problem though is you and everyone who is asking about this or commenting forget that this needs to be understood from Japanese.

Yes vaping is different, however vaping, denshi-tobacco, and "regular" tobacco, are all considering smoking here in Japan.

Feel free to get as technical as you want however this article should have been written more clearly to state ALL tobacco smoking would be prohibited. Including vaping, which in Japanese is considered a type of denshi-tobacco,

Have you ever seen somebody trying to lit up a vape stick?

Read the above comment!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Good!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

In the picture, they are not socialising and chatting, each is standing apart, with dried leaves between their lips, on fire so the maximum pollution goes into their lungs.

In this country (Australia), we give them all the nicotine they want, orally by spray or gum, the Government still gets its revenue and the patient doesn't get the lung cancer, win win.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Never seen anyone try and light up a toothpick instead, have you?

Have you ever seen somebody trying to lit up a vape stick?

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

As a smoker, I have no problem with this at all. It's a great idea. I didn't find the need to smoke whilst attending the London Games, as we're not all 24 hour chimneys on the go.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

So are there any penalties for lighting up at the Olympics?

It should be classified as assault. Then I could punch someone for lighting up and it would be okay.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Smoking is cheap in Japan compared to other developed countries. A pack of Marlboro cigarettes costs about $5. In London and New York it's about $14, and in Sydney it's $20.

I missed the part where they told us the cost of a pack in Japan.

Reporting. Not even once.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Don't worry, this will be turned around again like before. Either way a law/rule without teeth. Business as usual. Also, it should not be BECAUSE of the Olympics, it should be because of the health of the citizens and nation wide, but again....that requires logical thinking.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Eventually Japan will join the late 20th century regarding smoking bans in public places.

Not likely brother, considering it took them THIS long to decide to ban smoking and vaping at Olympic venues....

10 ( +12 / -2 )

The Japanese government has a large stake in tobacco. It owns a third of the stock and is the top investor in major cigarette company Japan Tobacco Inc. The industry was a government monopoly until 1985, and is a huge source of tax revenue.

There is the problem right there! How on earth can the government have a major stake in an industry that is ultimately destructive for its citizens. What incentive is there for them to increase legislation banning smoking! You just can't make this stuff up!

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Euro Dude...

Have you ever actually been to Tokyo?

Smokers and their smoke and rubbish are all over the place (odd isn't it.. almost no rubbish except for cigarette butts.. almost like those people are selfish and self absorbed oblivious to everyone else around them) have an oddly privileged place in Japan still.

12 ( +16 / -4 )

Iqous still smells....

Japan its time.. smoking has to be and should be "difficult" for the people who choose to do it to themselves.

What about Smokers rights.. booo whoo..what laugh.. Im all for individual rights until they effect someone elses.. just like Im free to punch the air till I reach your face... smoking by its very nature is very difficult to keep to yourself. Even if you go outside from everyone the smell on your clothes can trigger peoples asthma and allergies, and is just gross.

Price has to go up massively, and I argue the age of legality to buy cigarettes should go up every several years too.

I might seem harsh but lost a Grandfather and two uncles to smoking and seen my sister nearly die in an asthma attack because of peoples selfish desire to puff their lives away.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Because the only people who call it "vaping" are foreigners, here in Japan it is still considered smoking tobacco, even by it's name, 電子たばこ denshi-tobbaco

Vaping and denshi-tobacco are different things. The former uses some sort of liquid, the other heats up tobacco instead of burning it.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Why is vaping banned? Except for the iquos, they have no smell or second hand hand smoke. What's next.. No toothpicks in your mouth?

Because the only people who call it "vaping" are foreigners, here in Japan it is still considered smoking tobacco, even by it's name, 電子たばこ denshi-tobbaco

Never seen anyone try and light up a toothpick instead, have you?

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Japan grow up and just ban smoking, oh i forgot those giant brown envelopes would stop coming, woops i forgot again Japan Tobacco is partly state owned, whats that nasty word beginning with a Fasc...

4 ( +13 / -9 )

The city's smoking policy will be reviewed in five years. But more regulation will always face tough opposition despite the fact that smoking has declined in recent years.

Meaning that the current regulations will only stay in place until the Olympics and Paralympics are completed!

4 ( +7 / -3 )

The cofeeshops in Tokyo and also most of the restaurants are smoke free already. 

75% of them are like that.

Hahahaha! No.

You definitely haven't been to Tokyo (or the rest of Japan).

15 ( +18 / -3 )

Despite tougher laws enacted last year, smokers can light up in some restaurants and bars. 

Sorry but what was that? What laws are those? And can still light up in SOME restaurants and bars!? Who wrote this?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

I’ve never seen anyone eating with chopsticks in one hand and a cigarette in the other. You’d have to be a really dexterous person to be able to do that.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Vapors are as harmful to others as toothpicks, and have no "fruity" smell. Living in an air polluted city like Tokyo, you people sure can moan about vaping. You're anti smoking stance has reached pathetic levels.

-14 ( +7 / -21 )

Good, smoking in publics is annoying. It's annoying to walk through a cloud of smoke and just as annoying to walk through a cloud of fruity smelling "vapor".

11 ( +18 / -7 )

Why is vaping banned? Except for the iquos, they have no smell or second hand hand smoke. What's next.. No toothpicks in your mouth?

Reductio ad absurdum is a weak-sauce argumentative strategy and failed miserably here given toothpicks aren't equivalent to tobacco.

2 ( +12 / -10 )

Good. If YOU want to inhale smoke / “vape”, sure, I have NO problem with that, but I do NOT want me or mine left in a cloud of chemicals that have just left your body, from your lungs, with no choice but to breathe said cloud of chemicals in. Selfish beyond words.

13 ( +24 / -11 )

Organizers say the prohibition is tougher than regulations for the last two Summer Olympics in London and Rio de Janeiro.

Nonsense. No smoking in public buildings in the UK. You can still smoke in bars and restaurants despite the so called strict laws in Tokyo. It's disgusting.

10 ( +20 / -10 )

Why is vaping banned? Except for the iquos, they have no smell or second hand hand smoke. What's next.. No toothpicks in your mouth?

-10 ( +13 / -23 )

Eventually Japan will join the late 20th century regarding smoking bans in public places.

4 ( +13 / -9 )

The price of 1 package of Marlboro cigarettes in Sydney is AU$31

https://www.expatistan.com/price/cigarettes/sydney

6 ( +10 / -4 )

and in Sydney it's $20.

Where is it $20? It costs $32-$35 a pack in Sydney

5 ( +11 / -6 )

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