Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa stressed the need to provide a separate smoking room in public places.
Kanagawa Prefecture officially approved a waiter and waitress to work at a restaurant with full of toxic
tobacco-smoke.


Governor Matuzawa pointed out that the risk of side-smoke is higher in a small food facility.


Kanagawa's plan for smoking ban in public places

Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa said on April 15 the prefecture has compiled a basic plan for an
ordinance to ban smoking in hotels, restaurants and other public places to prevent passive smoking. In
2003, the centralgovernment introduced a health promotion law that encourages steps to prevent
secondhand smoke in public places. Likely to be subject to the total smoking ban are schools, hospitals,
department stores, government buildings, restaurants and bars, as well as pachinko parlors. The prefecture
may consider requiring　the owners of such facilities to remove ashtrays and warn smokers. It will also
consider establishing penalties for violators, including people who smoke at public indoor facilities.
Source: April 16, 2008 Japan Times

Tobacco firm recommends Creating Smoking Rooms.

The tobacco industries are trying to impede the introduction of smoke-free policies. They have done this by,
for example, casting doubts on the adverse health effects associated with exposure to secondhand smoke.
Further, cigarette firms will often try to promote alternatives to total smoking bans, suggesting environments
that allow both smoking and smoke-free areas or encouraging other solutions to smoking, such as ventilation,
rather than outright bans.
Dr. Maria Leon, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France, July, 2008

The Kanagawa Local ordinance for smoking restriction

The Kanagawa Prefectural Government has decided to exempt pachinko parlors from the proposed smoking
ban in the prefecture, the governor announced in January 2009.After receiving strong opposition from the
private sector amid tough economic conditions, Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa apparently has given up on his
initial proposal to adopt a total smoking ban in the prefecture. This is the third time for the governor to make
revisions to his outright smoking ban proposal since its introduction April 2008. However, under increased
criticism from private industries and the Prefectural assembly, the governor accepted the idea of including
an installation of separate smoking areas, in September 2008. In December, the government decided to
give smaller restaurants a three-year extension to meet the smoking ban requirements. Under the new
amendment, facilities such as pachinko parlors, which tend to have a high percentage of smokers as
customers, are excluded from the regulation. Additionally, although restaurants fall under the proposed
ordinance and must adopt a total or partial smoking ban, restaurants of 100 square meters or smaller, which
account for 70 percent of restaurants in the prefecture, are also exempted from the regulation.
Source: The Mainichi Daily News January 14, 2009

Requirements for a separate smoking room

In a restaurant bar, a separate smoking room shall be contiguous to, i.e. next to the restaurant bar area and
the entrance to such room cannot open into any　restaurant dining areas. No food or beverage service is
permitted in a designated smoking room at any time.

No employee of a bar or a restaurant bar with a smoking room may enter the smoking room
until at least 15 minutes after all persons, who are smoking to have left the room and the room is no longer
being used for smoking.　If bar owner or operator with an approved room for smoking is found in violation
of this rule on two or more occasions, the Commissioner will revoke your right to maintain a separate smoking
room in the bar: This document was expired in January 2006.
Source: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, The City of New York


This man said it is important to relax in a restaurant while eating by smoking.


The Kanagawa Local ordinance was watered down. Bars, restaurants and other
facilities now have the go-ahead to create separate smoking and non-smoking areas.

When Kanagawa Prefecture first announced the ordinance bill last year, it sought to impose all-out ban
on smoking in public places. However, both the tobacco industry and restaurants put up fierce resistance.
As a result, the ordinance was watered down. Bars, restaurants and other facilities now have the go-ahead
to create separate smoking and non-smoking areas.

Tobacco smoke damages the health of not only the smokers, but also those nearby. It can cause diseases
like lung cancer and heart problems. The damage to children is especially serious, as it could cause sudden
infant death syndrome and development disorders, so much so that smoking is now called a silent form of
child abuse.　According to a National Cancer Center estimate, some 20,000 to 30,000 people nationwide die
from illnesses related to involuntary smoking.

The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control urges the ratified countries,
including Japan, to ban smoking in public indoor spaces to prevent health hazards by involuntary smoking,
and urges countries to come up with the necessary legislation. The WHO says second-hand smoking is
hazardous, even in small amounts, and cannot be prevented by merely separating smoking and non
smoking areas.Creating smoking rooms, or installing air-cleaning devices, are expensive but not effective.
Reference:　The Asahi Shimbun, March 30, 2009

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is the first treaty negotiated under the
auspices of the World Health Organization. It was adopted by the World Health Assembly on 21 May 2003
and entered into force on 27 February 2005. It has since become one of the most widely embraced treaties
in UN history and, as of today, has already168 Parties.

The WHO FCTC was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence
-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. The Convention
represents a milestone for the promotion of public health and provides new legal dimensions for inter-
national health cooperation.
Source: Convention Secretariat WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Kanagawa Pref. New Anti-smoke Law, which may have an irrevocable
injurious effect on the future indoor clean-air act in Japan.

Kanagawa Pref.Gov.Matsuzawa, at the beginning, stated that the prefecture had compiled a basic plan
for an ordinance to ban smoking in hotels, restaurants and other public places to prevent passive smoking.
It would be the first such as local ordinance in Japan.

In 2003, the central government introduced a health promotion law that encourages steps to prevent
secondhand smoke in public places. Kanagawa plan was expected to spark opposition from owners of
restaurants and bars. However, Gov.Matsuzawa made a complete about-face, and limited the fields
of the total smoking ban are only 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 completely smoking rooms apart from the nonsmoking area. 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 is to authorize laborers to work in an enclosed
space with a toxic smoke-filled air. This is definitely against the purpose of the 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.

The Kanagawa's bill will be substantial with penalties, since smoking to ban in public spaces could end up
being just a slogan. Nevertheless, restaurants and bars that are smaller than 100 square meter,
which consists of more than 70% of total food business shops were excluded from this law. We feel
very much a concern about the prefecture approval of separate smoking room, in which laborers work,
might lead an irrevocable injurious negative result in the establishment of the future indoor clean-air act
in the country of Japan.
April 2009, written by Junhaku Miyamoto,MD.,PhD.

Under newly proposed Kanagawa Prefecture Law, restaurant workers are not protected from the secondhand
smoke. The New Anti-smoke Law abandoned to protect the employees' health in the places where they work.
This is one of the worst local laws to control smoking, and it should be abandoned.
Junhaku Miyamoto,MD.,PhD.

---

　 Tobacco industry promotes to establish a separate smoking room in a restaurant and
pub for smokers, trying to control the mind of all Japanese people by a repeated TV commercial.

　Japanese Government changed a tobacco policy, and recommended a total smoking ban
in a public indoor space. However, it changed to allow a smoking section in restaurants, etc.
after Kanagawa local anti-smoking law was enforced in April 2010.

　It is very dangerous to your health to work in a restaurant, which admitted smoking inside.

---

Do not repeat to commit a mistake of the anti-smoking ordinance
introduced by the Kanagawa Prefecture.
The Kanagawa Pref. New Anti-smoke Law is the world's worst ordinance
in view of the protection of workers.
Total smoking ban should be enforced in the public indoor spaces.

---

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Total Smoking Ban in Russia

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Leading Countries in Smoking Ban
　Italy 　Malta　 　Ireland 　 　North Ireland 　New Zealand 　Hawaii 　Australia
　USA/Canada 　Guam Island 　Denmark 　Sweden 　 　France 　
　UK 　 　Thailand 　 Taiwan 　 　Iceland 　 　Finland

神奈川県条例成立経緯 ( 日本語 )


Kanagawa Pref. Anti-smoke Law: irrevocable injurious negative effect on the future indoor
clean-air act in Japan.
神奈川県受動喫煙防止条例は将来の喫煙規制に対し深刻な悪影響を及ぼした
2009年3月執筆　2009年4月加筆 2009年11月加筆 2014年9月加筆　医学博士　宮本順伯
★This Web site is link-free.
This information was provided by the Smokefree Hotel and Travel.
The article was written in March 2009, and last revised in September 2014,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.