Japan - people more aware of dangers of smoking cigarettes - dangers to smokers and those around them..

April 15, 2010 - Japan (CNN) - In Japan, smoking is a serious business. It's government business. But while state-owned Japan tobacco (JT)turns out cigarettes, it’s also adapting to a changing culture. (JT was a state-owned monopoly until 1985, the Japanese Finance Ministry now owns about half the firm. The company controls about 65% of the cigarette market in a country where about 40% of the male population smokes.)

Step inside Lunchan Café and you can see and smell change in the air; literally. Everything's non smoking. The restaurant is in Kanagawa, the first prefecture to go non-smoking in all of Japan. A new ordinance now mandates if you want to light up indoors you need a separate, walled off space.

Kanagawa's tobacco control unit says the only place you can smoke in this government building is outside, with the pigeons; amid the rooftop vents of the building.

More than 80 percent of men smoked right after the war, says Horie Nobuo. Less than 40 percent smoke nowadays. This is a big change.

But Japan is far behind other developed nations, says non-smoking advocate Koreyoshi Takahashi. Takahashi pays the price for Japan's decades long smoking culture. He can walk up a few stairs, but beyond that, what remains of his lungs cannot take much more. Doctors removed two thirds of his right lung, lost to lung cancer, caused by two decades of a two to three pack a day smoking habit. Everyone smoked he says, no one thought the government would sell anything bad for your health. But it was, and still is, Japan tobacco is majority-owned by the government.

Takahashi is suing Japan tobacco, he lost in the district courts and the case is on appeal. He doesn't expect to win, but hopes it will continue to force the country to change its laws. (Japan - plaintiffs have slim chance of winning against big tobacco..)

Tobacco is still on the market, he says, containing tons of cancerous material. And it's sold by the government. “It's unbelievable.”

Kazuhito Yamashita is the vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at Japan tobacco, also known as JT. It's a groundless opinion that the government's ownership of JT shares is delaying anti-smoking public policy, he says, adding that JT has been pushing for 100 percent privatization. He points out the non-smoking trend in Japan is happening and the company is adjusting to the new culture.

Smokers are finding fewer and fewer places to light up. Outside one train station, smokers are confined to "smoking" pens, paid in part by Japan tobacco. I don't like this, says Shinji Motegi, who says this is what animals at the zoo must feel like. “It makes me feel like a criminal.”

Responding to that customer complaint that there are fewer and fewer places to smoke, Japan tobacco has developed a smokeless cigarette, called "zero-style."
Instead of lighting up, you inhale a plastic pipe, the tobacco is inside in replaceable cartridges. It's not a way to hook consumers on another type of tobacco, stresses Yamashita.

This is a tobacco product, therefore there's a risk with it. It's our job to provide options for the customers who understand that risk and still would like to smoke.

Takahashi is fighting against the use of any tobacco products, calling it all poison. For his generation, smoking was a rite of passage into adulthood. Takahashi sees the non smoking laws as an awakening for Japan. That he hopes will mean a longer life for the next generation.

VIDEO:

Reference: Lighting up in Japan a way of life, Kyung Lah, CNN - Fox10tv.com, 4/14/2010.

Japan - some related news briefs:
Japan - 7 governors consider measures against passive smoking..;
Japan, Kanagawa Prefecture to ban smoking on beaches..;
Japan - Health Ministry set to urge all local governments to go smoke-free..;
Japan - TASPO (tobacco passport) cards to confirm legal age of cigarette purchaser..;
Tokyo, Japan - smokers find haven on smoke-free streets..;
Japan Tobacco - reacts angrily to governments decision to raise cigarette tax..;
Japan - tax increase, a pack of 20 cigarettes will increase by an average of 33%..;
Japan - cigarette taxes increase may be less than expected..;
Japan - prime minister calls for tobacco tax increase..;
Japan Tobacco growing popularity of its British cigarette brands..;
Japan - new government administration considering raising cigarette taxes..;
Japan - plaintiffs have slim chance of winning against big tobacco..;
Japan - convenience store sales fell in June 2009..;
Japan - tobacco control people upset with smoker-only cafes..;
Japan - Tokyo smoking cafes, people with children, those under 20 NOT allowed..;
Japan - Kanagawa - bans smoking in public places starting April 2010..;
Japan shelves tobacco tax hike for 2009..;
Japan - Ruling party plans tobacco tax hike in 2009..;
Japan Tobacco Starts Petition To Fight Tax Increase..;
How to get most smokers to quit?? - Keep On Raising The Price..;
Japanese lawmakers want to triple cigarette prices..;
Japanese tobacco giants focus on point-of-sales cigarette purchases..;
Japan - photos can be used to fool the age-verification cameras on some vending machines..;
Vending Machines - Japanese protecting their children from becoming life-long nicotine addicts...