Japan's smoking population falls to record-low 25.7%

Friday 24th October, 06:00 AM JST

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briantokyo at 12:28 PM JST - 24th October

A pack or Marlboro in Europe can be as high as 700-800 yen.
Noripinhead at 03:04 PM JST - 24th October

That's still over a quarter of the population! And almost 40 percent of all Japanese males. Holy smokes!
mark_in_japan at 03:15 PM JST - 24th October

I need to find this information in Japanese and print it out so I can show it to restaurant owners who always claim "our clientele want to smoke". 25.7% of the overall population can't account for much of a higher percentage than that of restaurant goers. I wish that non-smoking Japanese would stand up for their rights and tell restaurants that they want a non-smoking environment to enjoy their food--not a lame, non-solution like separate sections which does nothing in reality to prevent secondhand smoke. Smoking has no place whatsoever in a restaurant. And let's get prices up around 1000 a pack as has recently been suggested by a government panel so we stop subsidising smoker's health problems.
soldave at 03:21 PM JST - 24th October

Noripinhead makes a good point. A quarter of the population smoking is a hell of a lot, and almost 40% of Japanese males smoking is crazy high. Wonder how it compares to other countries. No doubt a comparison would result in a "keep on topic" comment from above.
Altria at 03:38 PM JST - 24th October

Ah, the good old days of 50%+ are gone, thanks to overregulation by the govt.

Still, shareholders should rest easy - Altria is expanding into many new and exciting overseas markets.
Noripinhead at 03:46 PM JST - 24th October

I'd like to see a breakdown of those figures. I suspect the majority of males who are smoking are in their 30s. Fewer "young" Japanese (I mean that in the Japanese sense, meaning 20-something) are smoking these days. Lots of J-men quit before they hit 40 for health reasons. But those 30-something guys are smokestacks.
meanmutha at 03:54 PM JST - 24th October

Osaka stinks of tobacco. I have never seen a people or men, prominently keep the pack in their shirt pocket for display. Adding, most Asian smokers, if anyone has noticed, keep the cigerette close to their face and westerners away, the opposite. As if they think theyre being thoughtful, but they are a rude smoker. The Chinese are worse. Hence the bad male skin here. As I say, 40 yrs behind the US and EU. Most of these guys will go early and they stink 24/7. I know western smokers and they dont tend to reak as bad...some I cant even tell. Anyway, nothing really changes here...
helloklitty at 05:06 PM JST - 24th October

Good news: Fukuoka just banned public smoking.
elbudamexicano at 09:21 PM JST - 24th October

I wish all of TOKYO made smoking while walking prohibited! These nicotine addicts who walk around with their lit cigarettes are not only smelly but scary! Their lit cigarette is 700 degrees celcius and many times at the same height of a small child! Very,very scary if a poor child were to be burned by these nicotine addicts!
cow76 at 10:34 PM JST - 24th October

Altria, if overregulation is responsible for cutting the smoking rate in half, please, give me overregulation.

Smoking kills about half the people who do it and 25% of the total population has stopped smoking since then. By my calculations, that's slightly over 16 000 000 lives saved.

Still a lot more can be done though, namely: higher taxes.
gonemad at 11:57 PM JST - 24th October

I need to find this information in Japanese and print it out so I can show it to restaurant owners who always claim "our clientele want to smoke".

If what I suspect is right and this statistic includes minors and if you consider that probably many elder people have quit smoking and are not the typical clientele of the restaurants, then it's certainly not wrong to assume that at least the majority of male restaurant clients is in the smoker's camp. Very few guests will be women with no male companion.
cracaphat at 01:17 AM JST - 25th October

Who's making up these numbers for women ? Cause it's so much higher.Women are just more discreet about it.People lie in surveys all the time.
Ranger_Miffy at 05:11 AM JST - 25th October

I wish there was not smoking indoors anywhere. Including internet cafes. Love these places but can't hang out as I have to flee when the first chain smoker lights up. Plus it reeks. Same for reeking smokers sitting next to me on the trains. I move to another seat if I can. Oh, and no, I don't have a light for franz75-san, either. Sorry dude. Kindly stop smoking as soon as you can.

Anyway, the smoking scene is getting better in Japan. Suppose the Japan Tobacco and government link is diversifying their income streams?
gotubadboy at 05:53 AM JST - 25th October

Okay, when J.T stops it's ads in all major media, signs, newspapers, vending machines near schools, and paying millions of yen to it's pupets in the government, then we should see these numbers drop sharply.

Someone once told me Japan is smokers heaven, and it will continue to be so as long as J.T. is in business.
angeljapan at 02:53 PM JST - 27th October

I refuse to go out with friends to clubs in Japan because people are allowed to smoke in them. When they make clubs and bars in Japan smoke-free like in Austin, TX, then you'll see me at the club. Cigarette smoke pisses off my lungs. Meanwhile pipe smoke doesn't do that.... Huh....

And I agree with Ranger_Miffy about how Japanese smokers stink. There's a teacher at my school whom, whenever he comes back from a smoke break, I can smell half way across the teachers room!