JR-East bans smoking at Tokyo-area stations.

Most metropolitan East Japan Railway Co. train stations will go to smoke free, and platform ashtrays
are being removed from 201JR East stations on 17 lines, including the Yamanote, Chuo, Sobu and
Keihin Tohoku lines. The smoke-free zone covers a radius of 40 to 50 kilometers. Most railways
running through Tokyo had already prohibited smoking by the Law established in 2003, which
requesting public facilities to take measures to prevent exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

We received many complaints from nonsmokers who were very concerned about the tobacco-smoke
released by smokers," a JR East spokesman said of the carrier's December decision to initiate the ban.
Dr. Manabu Sakuta, chairman of the Japan Society for Tobacco Control said dividing smoking and
nonsmoking areas is not enough to prevent exposure to passive smoking; If one person smokes, the
secondhand smoke can reach a radius of 7 meters," he said. "This means separate smoking areas are
not effective in preventing smoking from other people's tobacco-smoke.

At Shinagawa Station in Tokyo, smokers who gathered around an ashtray at the end of the Keihin-Tohoku
Line platforms were resigned to the loss of their tobacco stand. I come to Tokyo often on the Joetsu
Shinkansen, which is completely nonsmoking since 2007. I can manage," he said. It used to be hard
when the bans started since 2003, but now it's clearer where we can smoke. So even if this is gone,
I'm sure we smokers will find somewhere to go.

Source: Japan Times, April 1, 2009, written by Setuko Kamiya


(L) No-smoking sign plate at Nasushiobara station of JR-East
(R) Kanagawa ordinance adapted the system to divide a public space into a smoking and a non-smoking.
　
(L) An information board is notifying the total smoking ban in JR platforms.
(R) The triangle space, where the designated smoking place was present.
　
(L) This woman is very pleased she will not breathe in the tobacco smoke with a bad smell.
(R) This smoker thinks the ban is a good thing, since he will quit smoking after the restriction.
Source： NHK TV broadcast on April 1, 2009.


Kanagawa Anti-smoking Ordinance

Kanagawa* plan was expected to spark opposition from owners of restaurants and bars. However,
Gov.Matsuzawa made a complete about-face, and decided the fields of the total smoking ban are limited to
schools, hospitals, department stores, government buildings and some other public places. He indicated that
the prefecture might allow and promote creating the facilities to introduce the smoking rooms completely
separated from the non-smoking section. The grand mistake of the policy of Kanagawa Pref. is to abandon
a total carpet smoking ban and to create a separate smoking room for smokers. A further serious mistake
Gov.Matsuzawa did was to authorize laborers to work in an enclosed space with full of toxic smoke.
This is definitely against the purpose of the indoor clean-air act: anti-smoking law. He completely neglects
the health of employees who work in a smoking space.　Gov. Matsuzawa only considers a health of the users
of restaurants, bar, pachinko parlors and other public places.

This comment was written by Junhaku Miyamoto, MD., PhD, in April 2009.

* Kanagawa is a medium-sized prefecture located at the southeastern corner of the Kanto Plain, wedged
between Tokyo on the north, the foothills of Mount Fuji on the northwest, and the Sagami Bay and Tokyo Bay
on the south and east. The eastern side of the prefecture is relatively flat and heavily urbanized, including
the large port cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki.

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Kanagawa Pref. New Anti-smoke Law would have an irrevocable injurious
　　　negative effect on the future indoor clean-air act in Japan.
Kanagawa Pref. New Anti-smoke Law abandoned to protect the employees' health
　　　in the places where they work.
Do not repeat to commit a mistake of the anti-smoking ordinance
　　　introduced by the Kanagawa Prefecture.
Smoking booth of Odakyu Electric Company was closed in March 2007.
JR Shinkansen Tokyo Station
JR's N700 superexpress train
Smoking ban in the railway trains of the world
The use of 'smokeless tobacco' allowed in JAL. However, it was refused by all other
　　　internationally-operating airlines.
No-smoke snuff tobacco could cause oral cancer.
The background of heavy defeat in the 2010 election occurred in Democratic Party.


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


All railway trains should be completely smoke -free.
Travel by Train

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Smoking ban in the railway trains of the world


喫煙所を廃止するJR東日本と新設する神奈川県
2009年4月執筆 　2009年12月英文一部加筆 2010年7月索引加筆
禁煙席ネット主宰　日本タバコフリー学会顧問　医学博士　宮本順伯
This article was written, and photographs were taken by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.d.,PhD.in April 2009.