Would you support a complete ban on smoking in public places in Japan?

After a year in the UK I got used to smoke-free bars and restaurants and haven't been back to an izakaya since. The restaurant and coffee shop owners who oppose the ban are too focused on losing smoking customers. The fact is there are lots of people like me who will come back when they put the smoking ban in place.

oh YES. Just last week I had someone walking in front of me, smoking this stupid cigarette. We were walking toward the same direction and the guy was some 20 meters away from me, still I had to go all the way to cross the street. When this isn't an option, the only thing you can do is to literally outrun the guy to get away from the smoke as soon as you can. People smoking is none of my business but I simply can't stand the smoke.

Absolutely. Its the right thing to do. It would also bring down the health care costs for Japan. Protect our children from second hand smoke. Smoking in public places is a sign of backwardness.

I would support a complete ban on smoking anywhere, make the production and sale of coffin nails a criminal act carrying a custodial sentence.

Filthy stuff, tobacco.

Smoking next to lecture halls can definitely go away at Japanese colleges. Open windows in the summer = smoky classrooms.

Also, they can definitely get rid of the smoking area beside my apartment building in the first floor of the staircase at my building. There's a day care attached to that staircase for crying out loud!!

It used to be common place to smoke on buses and other places, but smokers adjusted to bans. I've no issues regarding people smoking in their own space, but banning public smoking should have been done years ago. Although I've a feeling we'll end up with more inhabitable places like Hachiko.

Of course

Yes. Just watching people smoke annoys me.

Ah, duh, yes. Who wouldn't?

It will never happen!

Yes it will. Thank you IOC. Japan cannot do it by itself that is true as the oyaji types running this country are smokers. But it will happen so Japan can appear normal during the Olympics.

Absolutely, yes. In fact, I would ban smoking and the production of tobacco products. This smoking ban will never happen in Japan, though, and will never be enforced if it does. JT (not Japan Today) has too much pull in government.

I think smoking should be banned in public places and I believe this will come within my lifetime/time in Japan. There is a gradual shift this direction and over the past few years some districts (i.e. Minato-ku) have started to restrict smoking to designated smoking areas. There is one near my station and it is heavily used and I rarely see people smoking outside of that designated area.

I love good food and I am of the opinion that any self respecting chef would not want to have their client's taste buds ruined or messed up due to 2nd hand smoke.

I do see the libertarian point of view, however 2nd hand smoke does impact and annoy others.

As for alcohol....well.....that would be problematic for some (including me).....

Booked a ski trip some time ago. The day finally came and when we arrived to the hotel, bummer. The whole place stinks of the nasty smell. Rooms and lobby, disgusting! Booked a non-smoking bed at a capsule hotel the other day but once you get to the lobby, bunch of people smoking. Looking for a love hotel? Same sad story.

Going out at night looking for a good place for a date but before leaving my place I have an extra set of clothings in my backpack sealed in a plastic bag. Because I know most if not all places where you can have a drink and dance, reek of that nasty smell. Enjoying my super awesome tomato tantan men at this place and... someone starts puffing next to me. Change tables but then again on the other table, etc.

My point is, BAN it already!

Thunderbird The worst thing about what you wrote is that smoking whilst walking on the street is already banned pretty much everywhere I believe. I have to deal with it reasonably often too as I live deep in a residential area so people feel free to puff away as they're walking. It particularly annoys me as I sometimes see those people throw their butts away (on the ground, down a drain, in front of someone else's door, etc.) before reaching their own homes. At least stink up your own home if you're going to stink up the street.

Unequivocally yes! Smoking is disgusting.

100% yes.

In my home land, you cannot smoke in bars, restaurants, casionos, work places, public areas etc. It is great.

30 years ago people smoked in all those places and airplanes, classrooms at university etc. Times change, and in this case, for the better.

Prohibition has always shown to be a success in the world. Which is why there are zero incidents of people doing illicit drugs, right?

If people want to smoke, let them. If you want to create rules that prevent them from being a nuisance to others, that's fair. But it's ridiculous to ban tobacco altogether. If someone wants to harm themselves by smoking, that should be their right.

What good will banning something do if there's no enforcement or penalty?

it isn't my place to tell another adult how to treat or mistreat their bodies

It is if my tax dollars are paying for their health care

"Smoke-haters" are simply realists. There are many very many objectively true reasons to abhor smoking.

Health is wealth. It is the only wealth, ask a sick rich person. Smoking harms your health, removing or risking the most valuable thing you have.

Patricia Yarrow, you are totally correct. Smokers object to this because the voice of addiction is controlling their minds.

I definitely support for a ban on smoking in public places. Some researches show that even if non-smokes are 6-meter away from smokers, secondhand smoke drifts around them. The reason I'm supporting for it is not just secondhand smoke. Look at the street you are walking, especially in rural areas. How many cigarette butts do you find on it? It's terrible! Roads and streets are also pubic place, right? I think that smoking make people ill-mannered, though there are also well-mannered people who smoke.

Stink your own house or car out by all means but not anywhere around my family..

Total ban on public smoking! I wish it could be banned in mansions as well. At least there should be law that smoking must not cause a public nuisance anywhere.

People who live longer cost more to the system. Smokers cost less overall as they die younger.

Show me your data proving this claim, otherwise it just smoke and mirrors.

Strangerland, My wife's grandmother is 97 and hasn't gone to the doctor for anything more than a checkup in decades. She has cost the Japanese health system a hell of a lot less than it cost my home nation's government to treat my father's lung cancer and COPD, and she outlived him by almost 20 years and counting.

Looking forward to the day when smoking is banned completely from all indoors environments. Of course, no smoking in areas where other people are breathing outdoors. Many other countries have adjusted to this. Smoking is the worst part of living in Japan and Tokyo, and a complete and rational ban is the only long-term solution. Let's get it done right now.

It will never happen!

Grandfather smoked a pipe, he used to take half an hour filling it, with some of the strangest brands ,Gawiths Hoggarth ennerdale flake. I always knew he was in the room, because of the smell of burnt marzipan. Stopped for health reasons, playing bowls once he put the pipe in his pocket and set himself on fire.

Smoking is unsociable and unhealthy, particularly so for second hand smokers. It is natural for government and health watchdogs to want to ban the habit.

I would impose a rich tax ( Y2000 per pack of 20 ) but inform the public 12 months in advance of the date of which the rich tax will start. Every 6 months the Rich tax will double until nil product demand.

That's surely the only correct liberal position, theFu. Good. Otherwise it ends with puritan authoritarianism. And few would want that.

Just don't do it in the same room as people like myself who don't want to smoke. For me, people should be encouraged to tell someone who lights up in the company of non-smokers to learn some basic manners.

Let smokers have their places to have a ciggie away from others. The rabid anti-smoking crowd are irritating.

I certainly would bulk at an outright ban. I don't support a nanny state mentality. I also think that lecturing family and friends on their smoking and alcohol consumption is patronizing especially, when I do enjoy the odd gin and tonic.

In enclosed public places is one thing, in the privacy of one own space is another altogether.

Objections are pretty much what any addict would say to justify themselves.

I've been objecting, and I'm not a smoker.

Of course, nothing is more irritating and revolting than smokers, I just hate it.

What question next? Would you like to avoid getting lung cancer?

The Aye's have it. Meeting adjourned.

Smoking and vaping subject everyone around to the hazards of cancer, much less sheer stink. And the trashy butts everywhere. Why do smokers think they have the right to do this in otherwise pretty civilized Japan? Why smokers think it is alright to subject everyone around them is beyond me. It really reflects badly on them as well and they should be ashamed of themselves.

There is no controversy here. Objections are pretty much what any addict would say to justify themselves. No manners as Mr Nicotine, courtesy of Japan Tobacco and LDP oyajis in their debt, has consumed their brain. Smokers have NO rights -- period -- end of story. Meeting adjourned.

Jesh, if you dont like where you are, move.

Is it ok if I fart next to other customers in restaurants?

Far be it for me to tell people they should not get lung cancer. That's their choice and it helps to keep the population down. I just wish there was more respect for people who appreciate life (and food).

TheInterstat, thank you for the support.

Great comments by nearly everyone. Objections are empty air. Please, think about the staff in any smoking establishment. They are usually college kids trying to get by. As for those of you who do not patronize a favorite place because of the ashtrays, and have to race around idiots smoking in the streets, TELL THEM WHY you are avoiding them. Every time. It always makes my day to raise my objection to them, and they know they are doing something wrong. I try to be polite as can be, but silence is not helping educate them. Shame on them, JT, the LDP, and many thumbs up to those working to change this wretched situation.

Yes, no one wants to smell them or their smoke.

Get rid of them all.

They like the smoke that much, let them all smoke in one small enclosed room all day. They can do their work in there as well. Or whatever is they do.

My uni tried to ban smoking on campus so now all the smokers quit and lived healthily ever after. Nah. They smoke right in front of the building, drop their cigarette butts all over, and on rainy days stand undercover in front of the two entrance ways gifting their smoke to the whole building. And these kids are the future at least until the cancer takes them.

Cigarette smoke doesn't bother me much but strong perfume and Cologne will give me a headache in seconds. Can we ban that too?

"In fact, I would ban smoking and the production of tobacco products"

I once got a lecture from a rabid teetotaler about the dangers of alcohol - damage to your own body including alcohol related accidents, damage to others in the form of domestic abuse, the price paid by families with an alcoholic, those killed by drunk drivers etc. In my home country, the casualty wards are full of piss heads covered in blood after a punch-up or a glassing and those needing emergency treatment after poisoning themselves. I could also mention those choking on their own vomit in their sleep. An old classmate of mine was left a vegetable after drunks smashed his girlfriend's teeth in while playing football with his head.

Ban alcohol too?

And still Japan has one of the longest life expectancy. I am not saying smoking is healthy but do not overrate 2nd hand smoke hazard. Annoying, disgusting, smelly, ... most likely. But we cannot ban all the things we don't like. Otherwise nothing will be left. Tolerance and good manners are the keys for everything.

Serrano: I do not go to certain restaurants I would like to go because they do not have a smoking lounge or similar close to the dining area (not asking for a smoking section in the restaurant). Sometimes I just stay at home or invite tolerant friends for dinner. When they invite me they arrange an ashtray on the balcony. And what? I am happy!

So, telling other people which vices they are allowed to have and which they aren't is how you want to be treated? Nobody should be allowed to drink alcohol during the week. Let's change that law too. See the point?

And just for clarity, I'm not a liberal, I'm a libertarian. It isn't my place to tell others how to live their lives and I abhor when people and governments tell me how to live mine. Government interference in our lives is a bad thing. As an adult, I'm responsible for my own life, health, and daily choices.

You should be allowed to smoke anything of your choice, provided it doesn't harm anyone else who a) is an adult and b) is willing.

Harming minors or unwilling people is not to be allowed. Harm and dislike are different. The price of freedom is a little inconvenience from time to time. The same applies to church bells or calls to prayer 5 times a day. I find them a nuisance, but happily put up with both in the interest of freedom.

If I'm not harmed, it isn't my place to tell another adult how to treat or mistreat their bodies. They need to be responsible for their own actions.

I don't have a need to tell other people how to live their lives.

I don't believe I will ever see the day when the local yakiniku restaurant where I would like to eat but don't because they allow smoking will ever become non-smoking.

Am not sure, as there would be no places for smokers. If they can have designated zones only or something that might be better. Also, vaping in public places should not be banned

Tobacco and everything, including Vaping, yes ban it all, ban all of it. What they want to do at home this there affair, what they do in public is not. For the problem luser, send the idiots to tour hospital emphysema wards. Also add resources to departments of Environment and Public Health to go after air pollution producers.

Sad that it takes the Olympics and perceived international scorn to propose the idea to clean up the restaurants and cafes, equity rules and housing, all because company is coming. It shows that they know they should improve, but the oyajis have kept public health behind

with an elderly population, Japan can ill afford to keep treating the end results

Jo David, Smoking much? See you in 50 years with wheezing lungs and cancer. Freedom to die and freedom to live a very limited life. Freedom to be a clone to big Tobacoo. Feeling better? How many people in your life will hate you for your FREEDOM to blow 2nd hand cancer causing smoke their way? You.Are.A.Tool. Give it up and enjoy an addict free life.

Tricky subject. My wife is a smoker. I would prefer that she wasn't but she insists that she loves it. She certainly looks like she does when she sucks that thing with a coffee first thing in the morning. Who am I to judge?

Smoking is a harmful addiction to second hand smokers too. It is dirty, disgusting and uneducated.

Except for bars and izakaya restaurants, smoking should be banned at every public space in Japan. There's a reason why Starbucks took off in popularity in Japan: its strict smoking ban attracted a lot of customers, especially female--proof that a no-smoking food establishment does have a clear place in that country.

I would support privatizing public places, and letting the owners do whatever the hell they want.

i dont smoke (actually quit) but the whining and complaining is more of a nuisance than smoke. Jesh, if you dont like where you are, move. You have no right to tell another human how to live. Take a look at yourself and see that there are things that others may not like about you, but they dont say anything cause...its not their right. But smoke-haters are whining. grow a pair and move on.

NO !...People have the right to smoke or whatever activity that brings them pleasure...Even if it's harmful for their health..It's called FREEDOM ! ...I don't think you guys know what freedom is about....

It is if my tax dollars are paying for their health care

People who live longer cost more to the system. Smokers cost less overall as they die younger.

So if you are really worried about tax dollars, you shouldn't be anti-smoking.

It will eventually (and unfortunately ) happen.

No! Even as a non smoker, I have a lot of sympathy with smokers as they are caught by an addiction to nicotine which is highly addictive!