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I walked around with a sign that said ‘no smoking at my table’ to every meeting I attended. Then many lawmakers who didn’t enjoy the smoke began sitting near me. That’s how this started.

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Health Minister Yoko Komiyama, who advocates raising the tobacco tax in Japan until the average price for a pack of cigarettes is about 700 yen to cut medical costs. Komiyama began advocating anti-smoking measures when she became a lawmaker in 1998 and found other legislators smoked in the parliament buildings and at meetings. (Bloomberg)

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Good for her! Don't sit at my table and bitch about the smoke; just shun me - as a smoker, I approve of this!

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I sincerely hope this tax will go through!

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When governments raise taxes on cigarettes, they always say that they're doing it to pay for the increased healthcare costs incurred by smokers. That's fine. So do the smokers get an ID card that provides them access to the healthcare supposedly being paid for by cigarette taxes? Yeah, i didn't think so.

I quit smoking 2 months ago (and wish everyone else who smokes would quit), but I smoked a pack a day for 32 years. That's a lot of money spent on taxes that were supposedly collected for healthcare. I'm 51 and in very good health. And it sure would be nice to reap some measure of benefit from the many thousands of dollars I've paid in taxes over the years.

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John Becker,

dont worry, your taxes will go the cancer your second hand smoke caused in others around you while you smoked for 32 years. 44,000 people per year die due to second hand smoke. You no doubt contributed to that total in the last 32 years.

Feel better now about your tax payments? You may have quit smoking, good for you, but you still have the smokers selfishness going strong.

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"No smoking at my table"

What about the smoke drifting over from all the other tables?

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