Smoking in Japan

[3] This is the lowest recorded figure since the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare or Japan Tobacco began surveying in 1965.

A proposed tobacco tax hike in October 2020 will increase the price range to ¥450 to ¥570 for typical brands.

[11] Establishments with a ¥50 million capitalization or lower and up to 100 m2 floor space can allow smoking if they put up a warning sign.

[11] Mandatory indoor smoking bans apply to schools, childcare, hospitals, clinics and government administrative buildings throughout Japan.

Many of the wealthier wards of Tokyo, such as Shinjuku and Shibuya, are applying various kinds of outdoor anti-smoking bylaws.

Chiyoda-ku banned smoking while walking on busy streets from November 2002, the first local government in Japan to do so.

[18] The government's advertising ban based on the "motherhood" argument was watertight until the tobacco industry was privatized in 1985.

[18] "The manufacturers were very successful in providing cool images to the consumers," said Ministry of Health and Welfare technical officer Yumiko Mochizuki in 1998, when asked to explain the steady rise in female smokers.

[21] United States maker Brown & Williamson sells Capri cigarettes in Japan in slim white boxes with a flower-like design on the cover.

Cigarettes can be bought in tobacco stores and at vending machines, and public ashtrays dot sidewalks and train platforms.

[24][25] The ads were displayed in a wide variety of formats ranging from placards in the subway to postcards to beverage coasters.