The regulations will make our business operations impossible. Why does the government plan to impose restrictions that could lead to the closing of small shops in local areas ahead of the Games?

Oh, cry me a river! Every other modern country has done this and there hasn't been much or any major fallout. People just go outside to smoke, that's it. While the rest of the customers can eat and drink without being gassed to death. Grow up Japan!

Can someone please explain to me how a ban on smoking in public places disproportionately impact "small shops in local areas"?

If it is about small shops then why not let them choose? If people don't want to eat there then they need not. If they don't mind, or want to smoke themselves, then they can visit the shops that permit it.

Can someone please explain to me how a ban on smoking in public places disproportionately impact "small shops in local areas"?

Because old people will visit small shops in their neighborhood and just hang out and smoke, eat and drink for hours. They are probably thinking that if these people can't smoke, they'll stop coming.

I have never heard of people leaving a restaurant because they cannot smoke . I have however seen people leave because someone was smoking.

Let the market decide!

What utter garbage, if anything the ban on smoking may in fact increase business as parents might be more liable to take their kids to a restaurant that is smoke-free. More families eating out, more money in the cash register. The ban here in the UK didn't effect business at all, smokers soon got used to stepping outside for their dose of nicotine.

I would spend more money by enjoying more smokefree establishments, and I am NOT alone!

Wow, it's a bit dispiriting to find commenters here are not happy to let the shops decide themselves. They want to impose a regime on the shops, presumably based on their own predilections rather than anything else. And for Para Sitius to suggest there was no effect on pub closures by a ban on smoking in the UK is pretty disingenuous. At best it is equivocal. At worst there is a relation between them. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-11228475 If you wanna go to a smoke-free environment, perhaps with your kids, then go to those places that would seek your custom under a regime of free choice. That's what I would do. Not seek to impose my view on everyone else. Too many closet fascists here.

Patricia Yarrow, may i join you? I almost never go out anywhere because I don't want to choke on smoke.

Smoking is a filthy, smelly, disgusting, unhealthy addiction, that kills you and those around you and it's time smokers were stopped from inflicting this on everyone else. In Japan, around 15,000 deaths a year are linked to passive smoking. That is 15,000 people die young because selfish drug addicts deliberately poison them. How is there even a discussion? If 15,000 people were shot dean in Japan every year, there would be an outcry. But 15,000 people slowly poisoned to death every year, and if you object you're apparently selfish. Again, how is there even a discussion? Ban the product completely.

They can hand out free nicorette gum to customers that have the urge instead.