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© KYODOSmoking-linked losses in Japan estimated at over ¥2 trillion
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thepersoniamnow
Good news! (since money is one of the few things that makes people make changes).
Ah_so
Yet seems higher. May it continue to drop.
Dman112
What about the intangible losses, like decreased worker productivity and second hand smoke related costs.
Darmstadt
Overblown. Japan has a lower smoking rate than Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Germany, and France, among others. These nations are not know to be blighted by health issues and have (behind Japan of course) the highest life expectancies on Earth.
Patricia Yarrow
ABOUT TIME THIS INFORMATION CAME OUT. Add it to ever article that tout the JT/LDP party line about "loss of income to restaurants and bars" and the income JT gives to the LDP. Add in lost productivity for addicts to constantly scurry somewhere to get their fixes and the stench and second-hand smoke. Jeepers, come ON, Japan and get on with it and make smoking indoors a flat-out ban.
Meiyouwenti
There are smoking-linked gains too. Smokers’ earlier deaths mean fewer pension and nursing care costs. Also smokers are paying cigarette taxes.
Patricia Yarrow
Meiyouwenti, that is the weakest excuse for supporting smoking of all time. Very narrow minded and ignores ALL the other evidence against it. Nice try.
Goodlucktoyou
Only 33000 die from second hand smoke, almost the same as suicide. 123,000,000 citizens in japan. Over 30% smoke.
wtfjapan
Nothing you can do about people who cannot live healthily
exactly obese and smokers alike
wtfjapan
There are smoking-linked gains too. Smokers’ earlier deaths mean fewer pension and nursing care costs. Also smokers are paying cigarette taxes.
well then you have the morality of it, let smoker continue so the government can keep earning tax from them even if it means they die early leaving heartbroken families behind or help them quit by making cigarette taxes higher and employers providing them quit seminars/support , Then they can die like the rest of us by natural causes.
wtfjapan
statistic show that on average life time smokers die about 14yrs earlier than non smokers but not mainly from cancer as many would assume but respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, like emphysema and strokes from hardening of the capillaries
Geeliez
Smoking ain't going anywhere, deal with it
Belrick
Very true. This is how my mother died. She smoked her entire life!
zurcronium
They are going to an early grave. But thank you for showing everyone once again how self absorbed smokers are and why they are so despised in civil society now. Pitiful addicts who kill others with their despicable habit and drain society of resources that could go to help kids rather than dealing with cancer created by choice. Sad.
Darmstadt
@Wellington
Haha well put!
Hallowed
I'm against smoking, but blanket bans and restrictions are unreasonable and unacceptable. The world should be liberalizing, not prohibiting, censoring, and banning everything. Are we to go back to the dark ages where everything is banned? People should beware of the slippery slope as it slides both ways
Hallowed
That's reasonable. Others in the insurance premium pool shouldn't have to pay extra for smokers' coverage as it is a lifestyle choice. I do believe health and life insurers already check for smoking though
talaraedokko
The question is, how much does Tokyu Hands government make on taxes? Is it covering the costs?
talaraedokko
The question is, how much does the government make on taxes? Is it covering the costs?
Nadège
Smoking should just be forbidden !
Jandworld
This piece of news is about cost to government, considers how to restrict another joy of life, how foolish it may be, by legislation rather than individual responsibility.
Mike James
@Meiyouwenti "There are smoking-linked gains too. Smokers’ earlier deaths mean fewer pension and nursing care costs."
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. The "gains" of pension and nursing are far outweighed by the absurdly high anti-cancer treatments, radiation therapies, nursing costs, doctor's salaries of treating the incurable (at the expense of other diseases), hospital costs, insurance payouts, as well as the human toll of young children having to watch a parent or grandparent die of emphysema, cancer or other preventable by-product of cancer sticks.
shallots
That's OK. Next generation (who are non-smokers) will pay for it later. No problem!
Pernod
They forgot to calculate in the loss of me not going to or spending money in smoking establishments.
smithinjapan
But hey, Tokyo, make the ban "optional".
smithinjapan
Pernod: "They forgot to calculate in the loss of me not going to or spending money in smoking establishments."
In taxes? Zero. I'm not paying for your cancer, bud.
smithinjapan
How about this as a compromise: people who smoke have to carry an ID to buy cigarettes -- and it must be validated by scan at all vending locations (with machines being phased out completely). People who apply for the card must register, and upon doing so forfeit all Nation Health Insurance coverage while paying double into it to cover the costs of second-hand related illnesses, since they cause them. If they do that, I'd be for allowing them to smoke. Also, establishments that allow smoking must pay extra taxes.
Serrano
I think the health ministry has not taken into account all the losses that would have been incurred by all the violent incidents that would have occurred if smokers couldn't keep their stress levels under control by getting their nicotine fixes. Another thing... if all smokers quit smoking and the number of cancer cases dropped sharply, there would be tremendous job losses in the medical and nursing industry. But with all the money saved, these people could be re-trained. Doctors could learn how to be carpenters. Hey, a good carpenter can make a lot of money!
Kaishu
Belrick
Cliffy
@thepersoniamnow
Money also affect the tobacco industries and they would like to change that more people will be smoker......
As long as they do not smoke next to me, etc. I do not really care. After all, they volunteer to blacken their lungs.
wtfjapan
Smoking ain't going anywhere, deal with it
nobody is stating it should I for one dont, smokers can choose to smoke if they like or not, Japan is still a reasonable free country, what is not acceptable is for smokers to have their habits effect the health of others around them when the choose to smoke around those people thinking their right to smoke supersede non smokers right to clean air. If we were back in the 50S when the majority of the population smoked then sure but its 2018 nonsmokers outnumber smokers almost 3 to 1 and being in a democratic country the rights and health of the majority outweigh those of the minority, laws to ban smoking in public places is coming it just a matter of time, smokers just need to deal with it or better still do yourself & your family a favor and quit.
Mlodinow
This information was available 30+ years ago, but I suppose I should be thankful accurate costs are now available in Japan. This Govt doesn't even breathe unless there is money to be made on the side somehow so better this info is known
wtfjapan
wow Japanese smokes more than French!
Cliffy
@marcelito
It is because it is a Japanese News site. Comparing to many countries and places I had been as a non-smoke and very sensitive to smell (I could actually smell someone smokes in the car in front of me on a highway about 10-15 meters away and speed away from perfume department), at least I do not need to practice holding my breath. As in China, HK, or even Quebec Canada, you would think smoking is a cure for cancer.
farhaan
Everything is fraud and fake. Japanese medical insurance is the biggest scam scheme.
Netgrump
As it is mind-blowing to assume that someone who recently died of pancreatic cancer was possible a smoker who spend his life in smoke-filled spaces :)
Netgrump
Now some more detailed on Smoking and Death figures by the American Cancer Society
attached.
Germany 1599,
https://s27854.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/pdf/germany-country-facts.pdf
Japan 1583
https://s27854.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/pdf/japan-country-facts.pdf
United States 1016
https://s27854.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/pdf/usa-country-facts.pdf
United Kingdom 827
https://s27854.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/pdf/united-kingdom-country-facts.pdf
Norway 552
https://s27854.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/pdf/norway-country-facts.pdf
Despite the high number of male smokers in Japan, with 33.7% way higher than men in other developed countries the death toll related to tobacco are lower than in the other countries in the fact sheets above. Only Norway, where they smoke according to the WHO list 552 cigarettes per capita, has a lower death toll for men.
Japan women however smoke less than their sisters in the other 4 countries and are the only country with less than 5% deaths related to tobacco compared to all others accept Norway [ 13.58%] who have to tobacco related death percentages above 15%.
So obvious smoking alone is not the only driver behind the tobacco related deaths in other developed nations.
Netgrump
...compared to all others who have tobacco related death percentages above 15% except Norway [ 13.58%]* ***
sf2k
Maybe stop smoking? Kinda?
Netgrump
Cigars is an alternative, and you can tell anyone that you don’t smoke cigarettes :)
zurcronium
Smokers are responsible? Hah, that is a good one. Look around any train station and see the litter created by smokers. Look where kids are playing and see smokers making them inhale their second hand smoke. Look at any restaurant that does not ban smoking see smokers while eating polluting the place. Smokers are not even responsible to take care of their own health, lets along care responsibly for others. The are addicts, just like any other junkies, and only care about their fix. They need help as they are not responsible for themselves
at all.
Schopenhauer
I quit smoking for a month. Do I feel better health wise? Not really. I am eating junk foods and drinking sugar water more often. When I was smoking I did not see ants around me. Now ants come near to me to get sweets scraps I dropped on the floor.
Wolfpack
If people want to risk their health by smoking- that’s their problem not anyone else’s.
sf2k
What utter nonsense. Second hand smoke disease is a quantifiable measurable thing so all those people affected deserved not to be.
Smoker's organs are more liquified than a non-smoker, so any surgery a smoker wants they cannot have and have to wait 2-3 weeks of not smoking so that their organs solidify. Hope it's not emergency
Smokers on average live more sickly lives and companies have to put up with billions in losses which is why some of the larger sane ones offer to pay for help to quit
Japan has banned everything addictive except nicotine, alcohol, and gambling. Take those things away and a population might start paying attention
Strangerland
How long were you smoking? If it's more than a year or two, it's probably going to take you months to start to notice the difference. One month is nothing. When I quit, it took almost that long just to clear ll the crap from my lungs.
Netgrump
So name a country where 'those things' are taken away.. :)
Patricia Yarrow
Netgrump, I would appreciate it mightily if you would not twist people's words. For instance, in another post, I did not "assume". I asked if the recently deceased had smoked. Big difference.
Fouxdefa
Except it is also the problem of anyone who inhales their smoke. Because of a smoking couple in the apartment below us my roommate with asthma sometimes had to use her inhaler in her own home when they smoked on their veranda. Asthma attacks can be triggered by tobacco smoke and they can be fatal. It's just not fair.
shogun36
I don't get the point of this article.
Is it talking about the fact that medical costs for people with smoking related health problems are expensive?
If yes, then, welcome to stating the obvious. If no, then what is the point here?
Netgrump
Someone died of pancreatic cancer and you asked in that thread if he had smoked and spend his life in smoke filled rooms didn't you?
So what are you assuming?
Netgrump
A poster above mentioned the smoking related gains such savings on pension costs and nursing when they die earlier and the fact that smokers pay taxes.
One can wonder if the tax benefits exceed the tobacco related medical costs and personally I 'assume' [no stats available] that most costs will be covered.
Patricia Yarrow
Netgrump, I am assuming nothing. Stop twisting my words or looking for nefarious undertones. I asked my question and that is all.
smithinjapan
Schopenhauer: “I quit smoking for a month”
Try two months at least, and try to muster some of that will power you’re using to not smoke and use it in turn to avoid finding a substitute vice. Eat nuts instead of sugary snacks, do some exercise.
zurcronium
Let's see, ants versus lung cancer. Think about it.