Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
A doctor has apologized after saying that people should smoke themselves to an early death to save the country money on elderly care, according to his hospital. "It is clear that medical costs will increase if non-smoking spreads," the doctor said last week, according to Ida Hospital in Kawasaki City. "It's better that people smoke a lot and die early."
The man, whose name has been withheld, made the comment at a gathering of doctors, the hospital said Thursday. "The hospital president has reprimanded him severely," said Tetsuya Yamamoto, a public relations official of the hospital.
"He said it was a careless remark and sincerely regrets it," the official said, adding that he was being sarcastic as the doctor is a smoker himself.
The doctor's comments angered activists. "It was an outrageous remark that should not come from a doctor who is supposed to protect people's lives and health," Bungaku Watanabe, who heads an anti-smoking group, said in a statement.
Japan's overall smoking rate is declining. The rate for men was 39.5%, still high among developed countries but half of the rate of four decades ago, according to a 2008 survey by Japan Tobacco Inc. The rate for women was 12.9%, down from 15% in 1968.
Several municipalities in central Tokyo and across Japan have banned smoking in public places except in designated areas.
Kawasaki City is located in Kanagawa prefecture, where authorities are studying whether to ban smoking in all bars, restaurants and other public places in what would be a first in the country.
© Wire reports
17 Comments
Login to comment
Pukey2
Sounds like an Aso type of comment. May I suggest this doctor start smoking (if he's a non-smoker) to set an example.
Stonefish
Is this really the fault of the doctor? Or is it just a beat-up?
I can easily imagine this being said in a light-hearted/ironic/sarcastic way as a throwaway line.
DO people really believe this guy thinks we should try to reduce life-expectancy in Japan?
Come on! Light(en) up!
sf2k
I can see where this could be misunderstood. He could have mentioned traffic accidents or even suicides. All of this is an issue not of the vulgarity of the comment, but of population control and balance in a country dealing with a growing imbalance of a healthcare crisis. However even in this context with an aging population this will naturally solve itself since there are not enough being born to replace Japanese living now, smoking or non-smoking.
cleo
about as confidence-inspiring as a vegetarian purveyor of fine meats
bushlover
Funny thing. I agree with this doctor. I think smokers should smoke themselves to death and get it over with.
likeitis
Could the sarcasm be any more clear here? Come on, it was a joke. But so many Japanese just cannot understand sarcasm.
And smokers could use the shock anyway. If they come to realize that they are slowly poisoning and killing themselves through doctors making comments like this, they might stop smoking and save the government money by dying quickly one night in their sleep, like so many old people who are not cancer ridden do. By smoking, they increase the odds of long hospital visits.
Apsara
I don't see that that would necessarily save the country money anyway- sure smokers tend to die earlier, but all the extra medical treatment they need while doing it must cost money, and the taxes on cigarettes aren't high here.
All those old men I see who obviously smoked at least a pack a day for decades and are now towing around oxygen tanks with them are obviously costing the taxpayer more money than a healthy person of the same age.
Brunobear
Smoking is the mother of all holocausts! It is tragic to see family and friends die in their forties. Hundreds of millions have died a slow painful death and it probably runs into billions over the centuries. What's more the pay to do it and deliver enormous excise revenue to our Governments. Maybe we should have a "voluntary holocaust victim" award! Their children and grandchildren will be able to tell friends they are the descendant of one. We can open a museum for them in each major city and have survivors tell their tragic stories. We can send bus loads of school kids to indulge in the melancholy. Don't smoke!
GJDailleult
Long hospital visits, extra medical treatment for smokers? Somehow I think 10 years of geriatric care is a bit more expensive than a guy collapsing on the street from a heart attack. The anti-smoking movement has long used the increased health care costs argument and implied that non-smokers never get sick and live forever, when the reality is they of course don't live forever, and often require many years of costly medical treatment in their old age. He is right to say medical costs will increase, but a it's a big, crazy jump from there to recommending smoking as a cost saving measure.
Betting
I wouldn't mind betting that it was an outburst resulting from simple frustration. As more and more hospitals close due to various reasons (e.g. lack of funding, lack of people wishing to enter the profession etc.) things are becoming really tight, but it a field that deserves more attention from the government. But Japanese administrations fumble the ball consistently here. Therefore this doctor has just reached his boiling point and blown up, instantly regretting the remark. I don't know the situation, obviously, but I think that is what might have happened.
chinpira
While I agree that smokers should smoke themselves to death (and quickly!) his comment is flawed. An increase in non-smoking will decrease medical costs for the elderly.
frontandcentre
If I was a doctor and had to deal with patients who had made themselves ill through their personal habits, I might take the same view - even if I was a smoker myself.
I think it's ironic that Japan still has the world's highest life expectancy despite the percentage of smokers here. Somebody once told me that Asians are genetically less susceptible to lung cancer, but I'm not sure if that is a fact or just something someone made up
medievaltimes
Japan is so rigid and uptight. A little sarcasm is healthy. But I'm sure he will have to bow at 45 degrees, write an apology and copy the ethics manual by hand.
ebisen
He is 100% right... Why should money I paid for my health insurance should go for treatment of smokers? The faster they die, the cheaper for everybody.
Dennis Bauer
Likeitis ever watch japanese comedy, sarcasm is almost non-existant in Japan IMHO
kmwee
Beside the longer life and higher medical cost, these non-smokers are denying billions of Yen in tobacco tax. In Singapore the tobacco tax is about ten times the cost.