Smokers find new haven in Japan, but for a price

What? Smoking is bad, I think that's beyond dispute. Creating a nice environment in which to smoke legitimizes smoking. That's the point of this. I am a smoker I don't need encouragement and I would never encourage anyone to smoke. A disgusting habit that has no rewards at all. Smokers including me are or should be phirihars modern lepers not legitimized with "special" shops. It's an addiction! You should not encourage it, but offer medical assistance to overcome it.

Cricky, then let's demolish all bars, clubs and izakayas then. Oh, and every Dunkin' Donuts and McDonalds while we're at it. Let's take down every pachinko palour, video game store- hell, shopping's an addiction for some people, right? Goodbye, malls!

Jonathan Hunt: Every one of those addictions you mentioned can be enjoyed without inflicting the effects on others. I won't gain a single kilo by standing next to a fat guy munching a Big Mac. What people do to themselves is their own business, as long as they don't involve others. There should be another Golden Rule. Do unto yourself, but not unto others.

That said, I'm in favor of these Ippuku places, provided that they have proper systems to get rid of the fumes. It would certainly be nice to be able to enter buildings without having to pass through a cordon of stinking smoke addicts.

For a price? Yeah, I agree, but it's not money. You pay with your life! And those last few years can be real nasty. Each to their own.

This is a good thing as smoking and smokers should be confined to a cage. Away from doing harm to others and stinking up the area around them. Smoking should be banned everywhere and only allowed in designated areas where smokers can get cancer together.

Of course the tax on smoking needs to be increased as well, by at least 200% as that is the only way to get smokers who know they are poisoning others and themselves to quit.

If I may, Cricky: What? Drinking is bad, I think that's beyond dispute. Creating a nice environment in which to drink legitimizes drinking. That's the point of this. I was a drinker I don't need encouragement and I would never encourage anyone to drink. A disgusting habit that has no rewards at all. Drinkers should not be legitimized with "special" shops. It's an addiction! You should not encourage it, but offer medical assistance to overcome it.

I second Jonathan's point, and disagree with Alan, at least about alcoholism not affecting those around the addict. I would venture to say that I believe as many, if not more people have been scarred mentally and physically by what comes of drinking.

Getting tougher perhaps but Japan still has some of the laxest smoking laws of the developed world. They can all sit in their cars and homes and smoke their hearts out if they like. I'm glad Japan is finally waking up to the fact that non-smokers are sick and tired of putting up with smokers all over the place having free reign to smoke where they like. If smokers here had more consideration for non-smokers, things wouldn't need to change. As it is though, peopel light up pretty much anywhere they like.

I need a butt right now!

Jonathan Hunt.. Dude none of the things you mentioned should be encouraged. It all ends up costing tax payers. Smoking effects others, drinking also, domestic disputes violence jail? Smoking is a passive killer so passive TEPCO is relying on it to diminish it's responsibility for future cancers. Why? Why would it be a good thing to encourage smoking? Or as you said drinking fatty foods surly a governments no1 responsibility is the welfare of citizens...this is a fail. It encourages not discourages.

It’s getting tougher to smoke in Japan.....yeah right.

How many restaurants/bars etc still allow smoking? It’s an insult to all people who don’t engage in the filthy habit.

Smokers are ignorant of those around them who don’t smoke.

Smoking is a stinking, disgusting habit. I hate it when I see a beautiful Japanese girl light up a cigarette and start puffing away.

As usual, the non-smokers overreact with a flurry of tedious moaning.

It is so easy to spot the smokers on threads like these.

I'm all for holding people responsible for their health. Want to smoke? Great. Pay high taxes to cover your health. Want to eat like a pig and get fat? Pay higher taxes for your health care. Want to drink like a fish and destroy your liver? Pay higher taxes for your health care. OR... how about giving people an incentive to stop such destructive behaviour and lower taxes for those for are healthy, look after themselves and don't often use the health care system?

Raise the taxes of smokers, drinks, pachinko, junk food, fast food... No need to shut such places as there is a demand for them but make them cost more.

It is so easy to spot the non-smokers on threads like this.

Bloody hell! Someone wants to smoke a fag he now has the option of paying a daily, weekly or monthly fee to do so in peace. And still the non-smoker zealots harrass him/her. You zealots are no better than the abolistionists who got so frenzied about alcohol in the land of the free that it got banned. Made illegal. . Don't give me your bollocks about smoking hurting others until you apply the same principals to every other legally availible drug.

And be sure, when the self rightous have abolished tobbacco they will once again turn to alcohol. Then sports on Sundays. Then TV after midnight followed by an extra tax for those who do not attend church.

FFS, because you do not indulge in any particular vice does not make you *****ing holy. Get a life and keep out of mine!

SimondB:

And by the way, have you heard the new research about nicotine's adverse affect on spelling?

Abolistionists? Principals? Availible? FFS, you can't even spell tobacco!

I don't think anyone here is calling for the abolition of anything, just for the right to indulge or not to indulge. Smoking is one of the few vices I haven't taken up, and that's my choice, so if you smoke around me, just keep your bloody smoke to yourself.

I found it funny going into a Japanese hospital and seeing smoking areas in the middle of the floors. People with IV's on stands walking around smoking.

And be sure, when the self rightous have abolished tobbacco they will once again turn to alcohol. Then sports on Sundays. Then TV after midnight followed by an extra tax for those who do not attend church.

maybe true. maybe the holy roller puritans of a new and invigorated left in japan will copy those in America, who took the successful lawyer-ing against "big tobacco" template and have applied it to what you eat, how you light your home, transportation, even the kind of frikkin' toilet you can install in a private residence.

Regarding this "ippuku", it doesn't seem to be part of a counting pattern. That is to say, two and three cigs are not nifuku and sanbuku --- as far as I am able to Google up, anyway.

What if we use -fuku as a counter, and apply it to something else that is sucked or blown?

"Shigekun, nande kyou nikoniko egao shiteru no?"

"Nee, kesa, kanojou ni sanbuku hodo wo moraimashite yokatta kara da yo!"

"Sugoi naaa. Bokura amerika jin naraba, ore ga ima 'yuu da man!' to ieba ii ne."

LOL!

holy roller puritans of a new and invigorated left in japan.....

Here we go again. As soon as anyone suggests that smokers should act half-way responsibly, the nicotine lobby tries to turn it into a debate about nanny state versus freedom and the rugged frontier spirit. Well all smokers are addicted to nicotine and forced to cough up (pun intended) a big chunk of their earnings to tobacco companies and the taxman to feed the craving. So much for their freedom.

As if that's not enough they show a total lack of respect for people who prefer fresh air to fumes and clamor for them either to shut up and bear it or move on somewhere else. So much for non-smokers' freedom.

I think this bulls**t may have started when Ayn Rand used cigarettes with gold dollar signs on them as symbols of freedom and free enterprise in "Atlas Shrugged." I always found that troubling. Rand got lung cancer and heart disease and died, tragically cutting short a truly brilliant career. So much for her freedom.

I wonder how much money I would make if I'd sit out in front of my apartment and charge smokers for tossing their cigaratte butts in the drain or, mostly, beside it?

I see the lung-cancer supporters are out in force, giving a thumbs down to certain posts.

I don't given a d*mn whether people smoke or not. And if there are these select places where they can indulge in their cancer-inducing activities, then all power to them. But I do not want to breathe in the obnoxious fumes when I am in a restaurant (particularly family-friendly ones). And I do not want my money being used to treat illnesses which could totally have been avoided had people listened to doctors and used common sense.

Stranger:

It is so easy to spot the non-smokers on threads like this.

Yeah, I'm one. You betcha.

Yeah, good for you Pukey. I don't smoke either, but I take the side of the smokers, because the constant bleating of the anti-smoking crowd is more sickening than tobacco smoke.

Uff da.

Wow, some passionate exchanges on this thread. I just wish everyone were as passionate about the squirrels!

These ippuku places sure do have a lot of free features. Unfortunately the "background music" would send me scurrying away faster than the stale scent of old smoke. The article neglected to mention if they have tobacco shops in them/ or cig machines. I would imagine that's where they would make their money...

Only in Japan would you have some goofy thing like this....

Funny how some of these smoking lunatics label everyone who opposes their oppression as a "puritan".

What if someone is a beer-guzzling, motorcycle-riding womanizer, but doesn't like cigarette smoke? Still puritan?

Fact is, you are careless and inconsiderate. Not only do you make bad air, but most of you litter. And start fires.

You know, how about when you see an attractive woman, who don't you just go ahead and fondle her breasts? If she doesn't like it, she must be a prude! Just a few hundreds of years ago, you could get away with that, but now the world is suddenly run by all these damn puritans. Don't do this, don't to that, geez.

Fact is, people who disregard the rights of others will say anything in defense of their beliefs.

Heck, they will even go to war. What was the Civil War in America? A bunch of loons thought it was okay to enslave another human being, and were willing to actually march into battle and die for this.

So of course it's hardly surprising that some smoker thinks it's his or her right to puff in your face, or throw butts onto your balcony, etc.

Smokers are usually thick people anyway.

I have no doubt that in some point in the future smoking will be illegal. As always NY will set the pace, then the rest of the world will follow suit. With my full support.

Whether to smoke or abstain is a matter of choice. In Ireland the work place, pubs restaurants,cinemas ect, smoking is forbidden. Pubs now provide a sheltered area where sm okers may light up usualy in the back of the hostelry in a pleasant garden patio area. A gas heater in the winter provides for a pleasent area in which we gather. Passive smoking does compel others to inhale to inhale the smoke so I am happy that the rules for non smoking areas is vigorously imposed. I do not think prohibition will work or be tolerated. I can smoke, get into my car and drive safely, the same can not be said for the drink driver. After smoking a cigarette, I will not go home and cause conflict with my family or neighbours. So if the antismokers regime want to tell me how to live my life, will they put the same energy into the prohibition of alcholol? PS, I also enjoy the odd tipple

I'm all for holding people responsible for their health. Want to smoke? Great. Pay high taxes to cover your health. Want to eat like a pig and get fat? Pay higher taxes for your health care. Want to drink like a fish and destroy your liver? Pay higher taxes for your health care

How about actually completely privatizing healthcare, so those that don't take care of their health have to pay more? I am fed up with paying ridiculous health taxes so smokers can get a hospital bed! Smoking shouldn't be subsidized (ie health tax) or taxed (Tabacco tax).

Note, Tobacco tax also takes money out of the economy that could have been spent actually trying to grow the economy through savings and investment too! The government screws up everything it tries to fix, this is not exception.

So, having a private company offer services like this is GREAT, if there isn't the insensitive ( or lack of disincentive) to get addicted in the first place in place from this centralized planning government we have.

For those who do not enjoy passive smoke in restaurants, look at the tables and see if there are ashtrays on them.

Ashtrays means the place still welcomes smokers, so stay well clear.

I can smoke, get into my car and drive safely,

There are plenty of stories about drivers losing control of vehicles after dropping a lighted cigarette into their laps, or after being blinded by the reflection of a lighter flame in the windscreen when driving at night. Add to those incidents all the fires started by drivers tossing butts out of their windows. Some have even set fire to their own cars after lighted butts have blown back inside the vehicle (see John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles). The only safe way to do anything in car other than drive is to pull over and park.

the constant bleating of the anti-smoking crowd is more sickening than tobacco smoke.

Stranger:

I dare you to go and say that the in cancer ward of your local hospital, or better still in your local hospice.

Alan, yes I agree with you there are idiots out there with no concern whatsoever for the safety of others.There are stupid ignorant people who discard lighted cigarettes in areas unsafe to do so. These same people smokers and none smokers usualy portray the same disregard for others in all aspects of their daily lives. It is a matter of a persons individual character. Persnaly, and I can only speak for myself, I carry a small disposasal container in my handbag. I totaly abstain from smoking in an area undesignated to lighting up. Like I said forcing people to inhale passive vapours is absalutely unacceptable, but I would not appreciate anyone attempting to force me to quit

I think that having these types of places is a positive sign that smoking is on a downward trend. Whether you smoke or not, you have to admit it's not a healthy habit. The only thing is, it seems that there are still plenty of places that allow smoking, so I am wondering if there is even any point to any of this? Most internet cafes still allow smoking, most restaurants, pubs, etc. allow smoking. There is no surcharge for these places.

I have taken the advice of many smokers and have stopped going to restaurants that allow smoking. Very limited choices, in my opinion. Often I end up just going to a place where there doesn't seem to be many people which lessens the chance of smokers.

Smoking is a slow suicide

Has anyone in the comments gone through the chemo therapy process for any lung cancer at all? Better question: Do you know anyone who has been subjected to the chemo therapy process for any smoking related cancer at all?

It's disgusting and in the end it's totally unfofilling and disgraceful.

Smoking should be a right and a choice right?

Nice post Alan, indeed smokers cry for freedom as pitiful addicts that they hopelessly are. No different from a heroin junky really looking for their next fix thinking they are free to get their fix. Except of course heroin junkies do not make others get lung cancer as the selfish, clueless smokers cause in others.

It's funny: even the best sushi restaurants in the US fail to attain authentic flavor.

And I blame it on the lack of cigarette smoke...

Bah, people have a right to smoke if they want to in designated areas. Banning smoking hasn't been the greatest success in southern Europe, it has merely pushed drunken smokers into the streets in front of bars making it an even less pretty and rowdier a sight (and of course the bars that simply don't care).

Having smoking areas and smoking bars just makes sense. If you don't want to be around smokers then you choose not to enter, I don't need the government making that decision for me.

Having smoking areas and smoking bars just makes sense. If you don't want to be around smokers then you choose not to enter

Exactly! The problem is non-smokers want to make every bar and restaurant non-smoking.

Pure f'in genius. Still, only 36 smoking spots in ALL of Tokyo? When, oh when, will smoker realize that they are really a problem? Really, Yes, "Stranger in a a Strange Land", Non-Smoker sure as heck DO want to make every bar and restaurant non-smoking. As any rational, not speaking from their addiction person would. Smoking is an addiction! It harms everyone in reach of that cancer cloud, including hapless staff and wait persons. The most selfish habit imaginable.

Someone had an interesting idea of all bars and restaurants, heck, every establishment, post a symbol on their door if they allowed smoking or not, so people would know before they opened the door, if the place was safe to enter.

Frankly, I am longing for the day when Japan will follow other countries who have successfully negotiated their way into NON-SMOKING in bars and restaurants.

As an ex-smoker, I can appreciate both sides of the question. Special smoking places are a good idea because NOTHING will stop someone who is addicted. I definitely prefer these new "smoke havens" and hope the smokers use them rather than have them puff away as they walk down the street. As for smoking while driving, a friend of mine died in a car crash, caused by a truck driver throwing a still lit cigarette butt through the "sun-roof" of the car just as it was passing the truck. I have also received not only smoke but cigarette butts thrown out of car windows while riding my scooter. If I manage to "catch up" with them at a red light I always ask if they couldn't afford the "option" of having an ashtray installed in their car.

JoshuYaki,

An interesting point. Myself, watched both my Grandfathers smoke themselves into an early, much regretted, and bereaved by their spouses and family EARLY GRAVE. A terrible way to go.

Oh, and let's NOT FORGET the beloved Grandmother who smoked herself with packs a day into a sad, emphazema laden grave, which she embraced with a check to the Cancer Society and drowning death in the hotel swimming pool. That, my friends, is harsh, harsh reality. No glamor involved. So, keep your danged smoker's cancer cloud out of my way.

I know the true costs of smoking. Includes the most fore-shortened lives of my grandmother and grandparents. I wish I could talk to them, and change their ways. I miss them.

What is the point of putting my name in quotation marks, Ranger Miffy? That kind of thing and the rest of your uber-whining post only serves to further prove my point that the anti-smoking crowd are just a bunch of big babies who cry when they don't get their way and want impose themselves on everyone else

There could be two types of bar/restaurant. One for smokers and one for non-smokers. It's the only reasonable option and the one that smokers support. Only the non-smokers want it 100% their way.

Selfishness indeed.

(Btw, I'm rational and not speaking from an addiction to nicotine.)

Ranger, you are not the only one, my grandfather always smoked liked a chimney but I loved him and yes, all of that nasty smoking did him in, so I can understand your pain, smoking is a horrible ADDICTION, whether you love JAMES DEAN or not, no matter how COOL Hollywood tries to portray smoking, it is BAD! DA ME DA ME!

@TMarie, I know I will regret this someday, but I ACTUALLY agree with your above posts and even went out of the way to give you a thumbs UP! We both hate smoking??

Pretty soon its going to be illegal to smile, because it might offend another, possibly leading to stress that could end in a stroke.

I see smokestacks on the horizon and exhaust spewing from diesel trucks. But smokers appear to be enjoying themselves and I think that is one hidden reason why people want to crack down on it so bad.

Some limitations on where you can smoke is fine, but some people are really going overboard.

Ippuku was founded on the philosophy that smokers and nonsmokers alike should be able to enjoy the neighborhoods where they live and work, and they thought that a dedicated paid smoking area might facilitate that.

Bingo. Some of these people with their never-ending griping about cigarette smoke need to start chasing diesel trucks with a filter in hand. Maybe we should paint smiley faces on those trucks to give them some incentive?

(Btw, I'm rational and not speaking from an addiction to nicotine.)

I don't smoke either and I hate getting cigarette smoke in my hair and clothes. But you know what I hate worse? Enemies of freedom.

< Special smoking places are a good idea because NOTHING will stop someone who is addicted>

But SOMETHINGS are proven to be a deterrent for many people from starting to smoke (or an incentive to quit); one of those things is not being able to smoke in public places. These comfortable gathering places could possibly be an incentive to some to start smoking or start smoking again.

If you don't want to be around smokers then you choose not to enter, I don't need the government making that decision for me.

Why should smokers decide what places the majority of the public can enter? The majority need the government to maintain and protect the right to breathe non-poisonous air in public places.

smokers appear to be enjoying themselves

Yeah, both my heavy-smoking parents had a great time coughing up their lungs every morning and wheezing for years before they died horribly premature deaths. And my brother had a real ball dragging an oxygen tank around everywhere he went (not that he was getting out much in the end) to get even a bit of relief from the emphysema that made his life hell before lung cancer sent him to an early grave.

My parent's and brother's smoking habits deprived me and my other brother of people we loved dearly, and deprived my kids and their cousins of doting grandparents and a dear uncle. Never mind the non-smokers complaining about passive smoke in public places. If you have family that love you, smoking is one of the most selfish things you can do to your loved ones. If you have family and you smoke, you should be ashamed of yourself, not whining about not being able to slow-kill yourself in public. You make me angry.

The majority need the government to maintain and protect the right to breathe non-poisonous air in public places.

More like the minority need the government to maintain the right to smoke and enjoy themselves in SOME public places.

If you have family and you smoke, you should be ashamed of yourself,

There are plenty of less than perfectly healthy lifestyles. None of which require one to be ashamed of him/herselves.

The anti-smoking crowd's moralizing hyperbole knows no bounds.

There are plenty of less than perfectly healthy lifestyles.

Smoking is 'less than perfectly healthy'? You deserve a prize for understatement.

None of which require one to be ashamed of him/herselves.

And smoking isn't one of them. If your parents and siblings are dead, you have no spouse, no kids and no friends, go ahead, slow-kill yourself.

But not in public.

And smoking isn't one of them. If your parents and siblings are dead, you have no spouse, no kids and no friends, go ahead, slow-kill yourself.

But not in public.

Thanks, but your permission is not required, and some public smoking areas are, whether you like it or not.

Yeah, both my heavy-smoking parents had a great time coughing up their lungs every morning

Not every smoker smokes like a chimney and not everybody has genetic predispositions to conditions caused by cigarettes either. Instead of cracking down on people who smoke in moderation or who don't know things they can't know, it might be a lot more fair to push for moderation rather than run with an absolute ban mentality.

Losing loved ones to smoking-related diseases - it must be a terrible thing to have to watch them suffer through. I would be angry at them too. But spitting this frustrated anger at strangers who smoke doesn't help anyone.

Here is proof that segregating smokers, without banning smoking outright, has helped the situation tremendously - the results of a 5-year ban on smoking inside, in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18628811

not everybody has genetic predispositions to conditions caused by cigarettes

It's a bit of lottery really, isn't it? You could get cancer after smoking for a week or stay healthy after smoking for 50 years. You never know until it's too late. I have chosen to avoid that particular risk, which is why I get resentful when people impose it on me by smoking around me.

Instead of cracking down on people who smoke in moderation or who don't know things they can't know, it might be a lot more fair to push for moderation rather than run with an absolute ban mentality.

I agree that an absolute ban would be terrible idea. We certainly don't need a nicotine front in the war on drugs. My basic view is that adults should be free to indulge in whatever they like provided that they don't infringe upon rights of others. Unfortunately most smokers just don't seem to get that last proviso.

I don't smoke either and I hate getting cigarette smoke in my hair and clothes. But you know what I hate worse? Enemies of freedom

I quite agree - the smokers are the enemies of YOUR freedom - the freedom not to have to breathe poisonous fumes.

I have not read all comments but from my world view. I need to smoke, I want to smoke, I LOVE TO SMOKE! I have never pushed people to smoke and have gone out of my way to tell people they don't smoke, DON'T EVER START! I don't drink - AT ALL! Never needed alcohol, never wanted to but have always like alcohol. I almost NEVER DRINK! If I do it just COSTS AND COSTS.... so, I prefer to smoke and drink caffeine.

My doctor is of the opinion that if it is mentally and physically too stressful to stop smoking then I should smoke if I want. This agreed we still do extensive bi-montly physical checks on my body in general and lungs in specific.

I agree with japanese idea of not smoking in most places and never walking etc. but I could never see myself paying any amount to smoke. It is a fresh and very Japan thing to do but if I need to smoke I will find a place I can smoke at and if I can't I will wait until I CAN!

@Patrick

I sympathise with you as a fellow addict. I'm not a smoker but I've got my own daemons. Problem is, if we're honest about it, we'd both be happier and healthier quitting. Although, at least for the first couple of months, your doctor's probably right.