Men's smoking rate in Japan at record-low 36.8%

Tuesday 10th November, 06:38 AM JST

TOKYO —

The smoking rate among men in Japan has fallen to a record-low 36.8% since the survey of its kind was launched in 1986, while the rate among women stood at 9.1%, dropping below 10% for the first time since 2001, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Monday. The rate among the men and women in total was 21.8% in the survey conducted a year ago, down 5.9 percentage points in five years.

The percentage of smokers who want to quit smoking was 28.5% for men and 37.4% for women. The ministry attributed the smoking rate decrease to rising health consciousness and introduction of ‘‘taspo’’ smart cards in July last year, which are only issued to people aged 20 or older and enable holders to buy cigarettes at vending machines.

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Latest 15 of 67 Total Comments Show All

zurcronium at 11:41 PM JST - 10th November

No drug addict smoker has the right anywhere to give cancer to someone else. If you want to commit slow suicide do it away for others.

Smokers are the most foul, selfish, dangerous people to be around. They throw their butts on the street without any concern at all as all they care about is getting their fix. He are like heroin users who throw their needles in the street.

For years smokers just assumed they had a right to kill others. No more. You all need to be tagged and monitored as its clear you have no concern for others or for yourself for that matter. It is just amazing to see smokers smoke around kids, contributing to lung cancer of innocents who happen to be around them. Or idiotic parents smoking in cars. Stupid is too good a word for them.
idicemic at 11:45 PM JST - 10th November

It's good the government is giving attention to this socially damaging habit. First the reported smoking rates, and now added tax for cigarette purchases. Now if only the cops would enforce smoking areas around stations and such (where signage clearly bans it).

--> Midnightpromise, show us a habit that's as invasive (2nd hand smoke) AND medically proven dangerous as smoking.
mnemosyne23 at 11:45 PM JST - 10th November

That's great news! But 36.8% is still a painfully high number. I expect this drop in smokers will level out as the taspo cards move into their sophomore year of service and beyond. It always amazes me how the Japanese -- a culture that prides itself on simplicity and cleanliness -- will so willingly pollute their bodies with tobacco and alcohol. It just makes no sense to me. Everyone has the right to choose if they want to smoke or not, and I'd never dream of telling someone they can't smoke, but you'd think with all the health warnings related to tobacco use people would start to get the message. It's unhealthy, it's unclean, and it's just not smart.
griff at 11:55 PM JST - 10th November

i think the tide is turning on the social acceptability of smoking. i remember one group of j-buddies where only one was a smoker and his smoking tendencies were looked down upon. sure this wasn't much the case in the past

i'm sure numbers for women will take longer to decline, though
usaexpat at 11:56 PM JST - 10th November

I guess raising the cigarette tax won't plug that hole in the budget afterall.
usaexpat at 11:56 PM JST - 10th November

As usual
usaexpat at 12:00 AM JST - 11th November

As usual the reactionary anti-smoking nazis are out in full force. Look if you smoke be polite about it and if you don't avoid smoking sections. There are far greater issues in this screwed up world than smoking. But of course condemning someone for a habit that you don't share is a convenient shortcut to thinking.
TravelingSales at 12:29 AM JST - 11th November

I think the 9% rate for women is credible. It's just that different groups smoke at different rates. Hookers, the mentally deficient and "roppongi redis" smoke at a very high rate. Regular girls much les so. I guess JT readers tend to hang out in certain circles......
bobbafett at 01:18 AM JST - 11th November

Most people did not start smoking aware that they could never stop. When I was young tobacco companies sponsored sports competitions and could advertise on TV and in Magazines.

The dangers of second hand smoke were not publicly wide known and as a teen smoking had all the rebel appeal I craved.

How ever after a few years of smoking I managed to stop but it was the hardest physical thing I have ever had to endure.

The intensiveness of the addiction leads me to believe that there is more than nicotine going on in there.

Since I quit I realized how bad it smells and I hate to go out and breathe it.

Its a hard hard thing to stop smoking because it seems to take months to feel semi normal again. The only thing you can say to yourself is "that what does not kill me makes me stronger" and then baton down the hatches for a few months.
kp123 at 02:16 AM JST - 11th November

It has come to the point that I have almost quit smoking while visiting Japan where friends request I not smoke in front them. They were all ex-smokers. What impressed me the most about Japan was the Ginza strip becoming a no-smoking zone. That ordinance was far more proactive than the States. All for the good although I still have personal issues about discontinuing to smoke.
borscht at 09:05 AM JST - 11th November

I wonder how this survey was conducted. If they asked people, "Do you smoke?" and the person said, "No," was that the extent? Because I have had several citizens of a certain island nation say, no, when in fact they smoke 'only one or two' in a day. That might explain the 9% figure for women.
kawabunga at 09:40 AM JST - 11th November

Often Japanese people comment to me that they can smell certain smells in different countries and give me various examples. They say they smell kimchi when they set foot in the Seoul airport. That the smell of bread is prominent in the USA. Then they proceed to ask me what Japan smelled like to me when I arrived. Smoke! This country smells like smoke. Not soy sauce, not mirin, just tobacco smoke. It reeks. Smoke, smoke and more smoke. Nasty. I cannot even pop into a conbini to use their ATM without coming out smelling like smoke. And NO ONE was in there smoking. They smoke outside but I have to pass them to get into the store! I have seen numerous times, a mom pushing a stroller with a baby, walking behind a smoker. No wonder so many kids in this country have developed asthma.

If you must smoke, find a smoking room or smoke in your car with your windows UP! Enjoy all of that expensive cancer stick and then keep your butt (both of them) inside your car!
Sarge at 11:07 PM JST - 11th November

When I was a little kid, I'd pick up cigarette butts off the street and sniff them. I thought they smelled good! That's how dumb I was back then.
flammenwerfer at 09:57 PM JST - 12th November

Look if you smoke be polite about it

polite smoker is an oxymoron, it really is mutually exclusive. A sealed room, or outside hundreds of feet away from others are places were you can enjoy your sad disgusting habit but otherwise.... Smokers really don't get it, how otherwise intelligent people can be so obtuse to what they are doing is truly mind boggling. Hopefully the huge tax hike will get put through by this new Govt and hopefully more smokers will snap out of the poisonous clutches of nicotine and everyone will be happy.
mi3mi3 at 10:21 AM JST - 17th November

Somoking is not really good for smoker and their around people. I know smoker cant stop smoking easly. But I think smoker who dont know rule for smoking are a lot!! I am glad that people who wanna quit smoking are not small. cigarett's worse point is the smoke. others get involved in unhealth. I dont like cigarett. But I know it help economy. I think people who dont know the smoking rule should quit. and people know the rule should keep smoking for our economy.