Tokyo enforced smoking ban outside.


A signboard to inform the outdoor smoking regulation in Chiyoda, Tokyo.


Smoking is not allowed on a street, but OK in a restaurant?

Get Off Those Sidewalks, Smokers, and Go Inside - In many countries, it is illegal to smoke indoors, but legal to
smoke outdoors. In Tokyo, people light up with abandon in restaurants, *taxis and many offices. However,
now on some congested downtown sidewalks, red-and-white stencils mark zones where it is illegal to smoke
outdoors. Health-conscious Americans might suspect the new rules are an effort to shield nonsmokers from
secondhand smoke, or to put a dent in cancer rates. For Japanese critics, an outdoor smoking ban suggests that
officials in this tidy nation worry more about singed suits than sooty lungs. The rules, which apply only to premier
districts of central Tokyo, are intended not to promote health, but rather to cut the litter of discarded cigarette
butts and to reduce damage to clothing on busy sidewalks.

* A taxi in Tokyo enforced a non-smoking policy in January 2008. This is not a government regulation, but the decision was made
by the Tokyo Taxi Association. Behind that movements to smoking ban in taxis, there was a judicial support that said total smoking
would be preferable to avoid passive smoking.


(L) Smokers get inside of a restaurant to put light on cigarette to avoid a penalty in the street.
(R) This space for tobacco vending machine sponsored by the Japan Tobacco Inc. is the only free shelter
for a pedestrian can smoke without fear to get a ticket of \2,000 ( $18.0 ). A big signboard at entrance
represents that tobacco leaves protect a smoker from the penalty imposed by the ordinance.


A tobacconist set up a smoking booth for smokers in his shop, since the local ordinance prohibits
smoking on a sidewalk of the city. This is a scene in Tokyo was photographed in April 2013.
This tobacco shop has been closed business, and a new condominium is being built on this site, in 2021.


Manners in public spaces must come ahead of individual habits," said Masami Ishikawa, mayor of Chiyoda ward.
The ward is the nation's spiritual, political, commercial and media nerve center, encompassing the Parliament
building, the Imperial Palace, part of the Ginza, downtown banks, hotels and companies.

Chiyoda residents want the area to become free of cigarette butts on a very busy street," the 60-year-old mayor
added. "I hope the ordinance will prompt new rules on the nation's smoking culture. "With the measure here
winning widespread publicity, a host of other cities across the country had contacted the ward government for
advice for their own outdoor anti-smoking laws. However, despite the annoyance of a **$20 fine for smoking
on a downtown sidewalk in central Tokyo, Japan is likely to remain a smoker's paradise.

The government earns ***$17 billion in taxes from the cigarette sales, and tobacco tribe of lawmakers in
Parliament makes sure that there is no serious financing for anti-smoking campaigns. Japan is the world's
largest importer of cigarettes, about 83 billion a year. Japanese smokers also pay the near-lowest taxes in the
developed world, only ****$1.16 a pack. With *****600,000 cigarette vending machines operating nationwide,
the $2 pack costs the equivalent of eight minutes of work in Tokyo, compared with 20 minutes in Los Angeles
and 40minutes in London. Health advocates say the crackdown in parts of Tokyo may push some smokers
to quit. However, they concede that it may also simply force smokers inside, sparing dresses perhaps, but
exposing others to more second-hand smoke than before.
Source: James Brooke, The New York Times.

** $ 18.0
*** $22 billion earning from tobacco tax each year
**** about $ 2.7 a pack
***** over 800,000 cigarette vending machines
The numbers of new data are based on the current study and exchange rates in December 2009.
Revised by Junhaku Miyamoto,MD., in December 2009.

● Full story by James Brooke Tokyo, The New York Times. November 28, 2002......Deleted

　　
(L) A sign board placed on the pavement of Shinjuku streets, written in English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese.
(M) A sign board placed on the pavement in front of JR Ikebukuro station, written in English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese.
(R) A signboard says ' No smoking here, in the park'.
　
(L) No smoking on a street, but you can freely smoke inside and outside seats of a cafe shop, Shinjuku district, Tokyo.
(R) A lot of cigarette butts found in the red-light district, a few blocks from the Shinjuku Station.
In Shinjuku City, no actual penalty is charged to a violator and an inspector usually do not patrol at this area.
All photographs were taken in December 2009.

---

A campaigning parade to stop smoking in a street. Photographed in front of the Shinjuku Station, Tokyo,
the busiest train station in the world, in December 2009.

(L) In the designated smoking space near JR Sinjuku station, an information board was placed in front of a stand cigarette disposal.
It says that, please cooperate with our separation policy of smokers from nonsmokers, and asked smokers to practice
a good manner in streets.
(R) No smoking sign on the sidewalk in Shinjuku district
　
(L)(M) Many smokers put the light on cigarette at the designated smoking place in the East Gate of JR Shinjuku Station, Tkoyo.
(R) A signboard to inform that the streets of the total area of Shuinjuku City (Ward) is smoke-free.

A smoking area in front of Shinjuku JR station was moved towards the one end of a rail track side in April 2013.
A man standing in uniform is a tobacco inspector.
　
(L) A campaigning parade to stop smoking in a Shinjuku street.
(M) 'No smoking in Street' signboard is placed in front of the Shinjuku station.
(R) A designated smoking place in front of the West Gate of JR Shinjuku Station, asking smokers to practice a good manner.

(L) Smoking area near Ochanomizuin JR station (R) Smoking area near Shibuya JR station

Smoking area on the central reservation strip at Ikebukuro

Smoking area in front of Ikebukuro JR station was provided at the central reservation strip in June 2013.

Smoking area in front of West Exit of Shinjuku station was provided in the central reservation area.
It looks just like a zoo fence. This photograph was taken in September 2021.


Smoking Regulations in Japan is reverse to the world.
　　屋外喫煙規制は厳しく屋内でも分煙制度を支持し喫煙環境を整備
A campaign to stop smoking in the street in Shinjuku, Tokyo
Japan Tobacco Inc. is supporting aggressive street smoking bans in Japan,
　　　　in order to foil to prevent clean indoor air policy?
Japan's effort to curb exposure to secondhand smoking is one of the worst in the world.
　　　Health Ministry white paper 2016
The Tobacco Company: Japan Tobacco Inc. is trying to brainwash Japanese people.
Tobacco TV advertising by JT
The specific policies to hide cigarettes from people, including children, in order not to be stained by tobacco-evil


　路上喫煙ＮＯ、屋内喫煙ＯＫ
執筆　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 November 2008, and last revised in June 2013,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
Copyright(C) 2008 Junhaku Miyamoto, All rights reserved.