JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Do you support same-sex marriages?
( 58 )
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Do you enjoy watching movies in 3D?
( 24 )
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Do you support torture as an interrogation method if the objective is to prevent a terrorist attack or capture criminals?
( 73 )
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Would you like to see all U.S. military forces removed from Okinawa?
( 95 )
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Should Japan be pledging funds to the IMF, Mekong and for other causes overseas?
( 11 )
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1
Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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2
Lady Gaga's Indonesia concert canceled after threats
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3
Oceanographer says beachcombers on West Coast may find bones in tsunami debris
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4
New Jersey town's monument to Korean sex slaves upsetting Japanese officials
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5
241 civil servants file suit over salary cuts
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- Business Teaching Positions - Part-time - Kanto Region
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥3,000 ~ ¥5,000 / Hour
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- National Relief/Substitute Teacher - summer start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥275,000 ~ ¥300,000 / Month
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- 営業パーソン
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tochigi
- Salary: ¥240,000 ~ ¥350,000 / Month Negotiable
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59 Comments
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0
Triple888
It works. Where i'm living it's already the norm.
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Kommentator
That smoking is still allowed in public places is totally screwy in this day and age. Ashtrays should go the way of the spitoon.
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Sarge
I agree with the Kommentator.
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CoolCali
I keep my spittoon in the corner, and my Copenhagen in the fridge. My cigars are in the humidor. Don't like it, too bad. I'm sure all of the non-smokers who comment here have nasty, dirty little habits that the rest of us don't want to know about. Personally, I like the fact that smoking is still legal in most places around Japan. A bar without smoke is like fishing without beer. On the other hand, smoking in public buildings/places like offices, schools, and trains I do not condone.
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Gloobey
Whilst that may be true, none of those habits involve anyone else breathing in your second hand poison. Face it, you and your kind are soon to go the way of the dinosaur and the dodo...and it's been a long time coming!
...and I am an ex smoker, BTW.
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Sarge
"A bar without smoke is like fishing without beer"
Nah, a bar without smoke is a good place to have a drink.
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LFRAgain
That we're able to keep those nasty habits to ourselves should provide a fool-proof object lesson.
Here, here.
Ban all public smoking immediately if not sooner.
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HonestDictator
I'm all for this, but at the same time some folks who want to smoke the wacky tobaccy (in the US) think these rules don't apply to them when its just as bad if not worse in other ways.
I can't describe how many times I've been coughing up someone elses bad habit (both normal cig smoke and funky skunk) walking in a park, near office buildings, and everywhere else. It gets in your clothes, hair, and of course your lungs and affects you without your consent.
I really wouldn't care what people want to smoke, as long as I don't have to deal with the side effects of their choices. But as long as I am confronted with their choices I'll certainly be up in arms about it.
Remember, "Your rights end at the end of your nose"
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my2sense
the day they get rid of nasty butt bins next to conbini doors is a step fwd to civilization....
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dolphingirl
Sarge said, 'Nah, a bar without smoke is a good place to have a drink.'--Exactly! Only people that smoke think that drinking and smoking must go together! And gosh, if people in Canada can step outside the bar for 3 minutes for their nicotine fix when it's 30 below, surely Japanese can do it too. It's not gonna kill them...oh, then again it probably will.
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bicultural
We need more of those ventilated smoking rooms, like in movie theaters, airports, etc.
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Beelzebub
I've noticed that some Japanese smoke while drinking (or after drinking) as a way of holding down the contents of their stomachs. Having considered the various repercussions, I have concluded that this is one time when I'd rather they do smoke. Under normal circumstances, however, I'd prefer people didn't.
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TheQuestion
I've never had a problem with the smokers in Japan, few more chain smokers than I'm used to but hay, to each his own. Just as long as they don't close down the Supernova I'll survive next time the boss sends me over.
I'll still miss the thickness of the air whenever I enter another establishment though. Nothing beats that lungful of smoke when you just want to disappear into the crowd with a couple friends and a shot of whiskey. Darn shame the way things have been going.
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paulinusa
A week before smoking was banned in bars where I live in the U.S., I stopped in for a beer at a local bar. There was only one seat available and it was next to a chain smoking guy. The best thing that day was that there was sign above the bar notifying of the upcoming law, and I never saw that guy again. Let him drink and smoke at home alone.
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Carcharodon
Absolutely.
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Mittsu
What is it with posters to JT. Ban smoking. Lots of very reactionary views. Who exactly does smoking outside harm except the smoker?
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HonestDictator
Mittsu it takes time for any smoke to dissipate. A person could be smoking half a block or more away and others can still run into the exhaust from the smoker's lungs. It would be nice if smoke just goes straight up and dissipates in a few seconds but it doesn't.
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Nessie
No. Nonsmoker here, but enough already. Common courtesy should be enough.
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sameoldjapaN
I think it should be up to the owner of the bar and restaurant if he or she should allow smoking in his shop. As a non smoker myself I think non smokers too need to relax a bit in regards towards smokers.
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Ah_so
Japan will eventually go with the rest of the developed world towards a non-smoking culture. This is really a debate about whether it will be a few years or a decade.
What a ban could do for Japan is create a more al fresco culture and promote roof-top bars and the like. However, it would totally kill off a lot of the tiny city-centre snack/karaoke bars that the older men like which are often 7 floors up. I will not miss them, but their clientele will.
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thedeath
i don't get what smoke doing with hamberger, anyway i can tell my self not eat it if i worry of it danger, but i can not tell my self not to breath for too long! either tell the smoker to keep all the smoke in their lung.
everyone has the right to breath fresh air.
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sameoldjapaN
To a certain extent yes. I am saying too many people are jumping on this anti smoking crusader band wagon which is resembling more and more to a modern form of the witch hunt. If you are that concerned about your health then why not try to lead a healthier form of life style? It is easier to change yourself than to try to change others. Not to mention, why is it that Japan which is a smoking friendly country have people who live longer than any other country in the world? So instead of pointing out about how far behind Japan is compared with other countries, maybe it is the other countries which lags behind Japan and that those people have no right to tell how Japan should run their country, after all, Japan is doing very well health wise compared with most western countries.
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thedeath
this is about "smoking ban in public places". smoke is not only related to health issue, but to also the smell can be very distracting and annoying for some. it is just a simple manner in public.
i don't think any can do that. people just compare some time complain which is common. the move to ban smoking in public place came from with in japan by some good japanese that basically care. it is not the result of any gaijin telling japan to run their country. don't be so angry at anyone complaining.
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liammorimoto
The Japanese public tend to be very respectful - with regards to smoking in public. While a smoking ban does exist in many countries across the world, smoking illegally illicit s such things as throwing butts away at random, and looking like a renegade.
Don't ban smoking. We don't need 'bans' in japan, just good common public sense.
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TheQuestion
Some people are distracting and annoying. I can almost understand wanting a ban for health purposes but I've been around plenty of people that don't need tobacco to smell awful.
Vastly overrated.
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Pukey2
Won't stop people from smoking in public places though. I've seen so many Japanese continue smoking on the station platforms.
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paulinusa
So many comments from smoker's advocates here indicate they still don't get it( and probably mever will )
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TheQuestion
What's to get? Some people don't like being around the fumes, I fully understand that, I just don't particularly care.
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KnowBetter
In general and I mean general smoking should be banned outright. What good does it serve? Taxes? Nope! Taxes collected do not cover medical cost so it's a loss there. Smokers tend to butt out anywhere they can leaving the world to be their ashtray so another negative point there. Smoking STINKS outright and even if there's no smoke there's toxins that cling to the smoker's clothing so yet another negative. Claims that smoking keeps your weight in check is total BS unless you're lucky and develop cancer and hopefully die quickly to spare your family and friends the suffering of seeing you wither away. So all in all smoking is a real downer. What was the point of smoking again? Oh right, because your friends all do it or you want to look cool... grow up already will you!
Your right to smoke ends where my right to breathe clean air begins.
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LFRAgain
Unless you're the one with asthma.
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thethudelh
If you are trying to get a ban in all places I think it is wrong. I am saying that if people want to smoke let them. Its their body. Where I lived they just banned smoking in all restaurants. I think that it should be up to the restuarant's owner to decide if he will have smoking.
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Sarge
I don't want a smoking ban in restaurants. That would ruin my fun of squirting my water pistol at smokers' lit cigarettes.
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SimpleLife
NO, no no no no no We need our right to smoke wherever we want. I think the system is good like this.
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thedeath
yeah, i know some really stinky person don't really mind awful smell from another people.
people with mental just like that help confirm that social need law to help keep order even with a very little thing like manner. because some time it can be difficult dealing with those having no manners or concern for others.
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TheQuestion
Unless somebody is going out of their way to bug me I generally smoke outside anyway, last time I actually remember lighting up in a restaurant was 08's 10-K, what a night...but I digress. If my cigar bothers you than lord gave you legs to walk away or you could ask me to move. Either's acceptable. But I'm sure as hell not going to walk around assuming everybody in my immediate vicinity is asthmatic and I have yet to induce an episode in anybody. If I'm dining al fresco I may be tempted to pick a nice little corner and smoke but hay, that's how I relax, if you've got a problem you should talk to me about it, not pass a law.
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thedeath
you sound like a nice guy now. and that is what people generally do in the other place i has been except china and japan.
well what if i got an answer like,
if by law that particular place is not a non-smoking area, i or any non-smoker would never ask smoker to move. we play by the same rule. it is the rule of manner and respect one another right.
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YongYang
@TheQuery, no, we have legs because they have feet on the end of them shoed with big boots. Don't smoke.
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borscht
Smokers, who are addicted to a drug and can't stop, need pity and sympathy for their poor life choices. That they are ruining their own health is, to quote, 'I don't particularly care' but when they insist I join their addiction, I must respectfully decline. That they place the burden on me to ask them to move rather than accept this responsibility as their own further indicates a lack of consideration that resulted in a ban on smoking in public places. And commercial flights but a certain addict needed a mid-flight fix in the US recently resulting in many tax dollars spent on jets, law enforcement, and time wasted by everyone on board.
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yyuichi
If you were in public spaces, have to take care of other people, I think. Not only smoking, but also chattering in loud voice, pushing someone in crowded trains, etc. are often saw in Japan. I heard that the tax charged on cigarettes will be increased, I hope it will help us to live here.
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TheQuestion
My comment was mostly in reference to those complaining about the smell. Like I said, if somebody comes to me, politely, and asks me to move chances are I'll do it, if a restaurant owner doesn't want me smoking in their establishment I won't. I take issue with any government regulating normal, non-threatening, non-confrontational behavior.
Your concern is touching.
I've never asked anybody to join me, cigar's are expensive and I only get the time to properly appreciate them once or twice a month. If cigars aren't your style than they aren't your style, no skin off my nose.
If you don't approach me I don't know it's a problem. The people who pass these bills seem either 1) Obsessed with my health to the extent that they must prevent me from engaging in such self destructive behavior because, despite my status as a working citizen, I must be protected. Or 2) Incapable of actually summoning up the courage to approach me.
Face it, these laws are just the result of a society that is both afraid of confrontation and that they must save anybody who willfully ignores their schema for how somebody should act.
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Gloobey
...are you any chance a smoker?
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cleo
If you read this thread, you know it's a problem.
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TheQuestion
Was I to subtle?
How does a small cross section of JT posters constitute a problem? Some people don't like smoke, fine, but some people do. If a man smokes in a bar and only other smokers are around to breathe it why should anybody care? I'm not saying one should have free reign to blow smoke rings in the faces of others, I'm just pointing out that legislation like this severely oversteps what can easily be regulated by interpersonal communication. If you don't like me smoking near you, talk to me, it's not that hard.
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LostinNagoya
TheQuestion: smokers should not smoke outside their home, out of education, respect for others.
I once watched a movie where this woman, chic, refined, smoked only inside her own bedroom. That's what educated people are taught to do. Don't force your tastes upon strangers.
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TheQuestion
To date I have never been in a circumstance when my smoking offended anybody, in the rare instances where I have been asked to move I have. What's not respectful about that? If my neighbors are playing the music to loud I don't call the cops, I go over and ask them to turn it down. People love the idea of making things they don't like illegal, it's just lazy.
I can't recall any instance where I've done anything that would constitute forcing my tastes upon anybody. I don't breath smoke in people's face, I don't offer them cigars, heck I only smoke a couple times a month and that's mostly on my porch and in cigar bars anyway. These ban's have almost no effect on me, but they unnecessarily regulate behavior so I'm dead set against it.
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LostinNagoya
This is in the same level of "I don't think that my kids bothered anyone inside the plane, as no one complained..."
Well, so you are a conscious smoker TheQuestion, and you are alone at that. Unfortunately. For if every smoker behaved like you, smoking woulnd't need to turn into an illegal activity, as it has.
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borscht
By smoking near me without getting my permission first, you force me to join you as smoke tends to flow in the air. If it hovered only around the head of the smoker, there would be much less of a problem.
However, if you only smoke on your porch and in cigar bars (do they exist in Japan?) you are, as LostinNagoya writes, courteous and alone in your behavior. Thank you. It is for the vast majority of uncourteous and boorish/rude smokers that these laws are being made.
This is similar to the argument motorcyclists had to protest helmet laws. In their case, however, I supported them because they were usually only killing themselves. Cigarette smoke in public places isn't so discriminatory.
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TheQuestion
Well I sure would have. If something bugs you, complain about it. Face the person and address the problem. I do it on a regular basis.
So if some people have a problem with an activity it should be illegal? I say no.
Then ask the smoker to move or move yourself. People make this so much harder than it needs to be.
Whenever I find myself in the area there is a superb one called Super Nova in Osaka. And there are several in other major cities.
Neither are most carcinogens that float around major cities.
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SiouxChef
Oh the drama. Did you type this from your fainting couch?
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twoyen
I am not a smoker, but I agree that it should be left up to the individual restuarant and bar owners if they allow smoking or not. I like the idea of a flat out ban on smoking in public places, but private businesses should be left to make that decision on their own.
I believe there is a definite market for snoke-free bars and restaurants, just as there is a market for ones that allow smoking. (I would just not be giving my business to those that allow smoking) Let the market decide what the consumers really want when it comes to businesses. But as I said, (and to stay on topic) I do fully support a ban on smoking in public places.
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thedeath
that interesting, fist you say it like "non-confrontational" is the way to go for you but next you come back and comment about the society that afraid of confrontation. i don't really know now if confrontation or non-confrontation is your perfecting choice.
face it, some people don't even care even if they know some of their action bother another. that why the law is there to prevent thing from going out of hand.
and in the real world we are living, if it is no law telling people not to smoke in public and someone try to tell you to leave or stop because you smoke. i am sure you won't leave. people can always find a reason to keep doing what they want to do with out "care" of other.
that bring me to the next point you made.
it clear that people have problem with smell from smoke. that why they complain, and you later use it as a point to say that they "complain about the smell" and that give you a reason to say something like you don't care.>>
what about if you don't smoke in public or if you can keep all the smoke within your lungs when you smoke in public, then no one will get bother by the smoke and smell, result in on-one will "get out of their way" and tell you any thing that might piss you off.
happy ending solution, non-smoker won't be bothered, smoker won't be pissed.
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Disillusioned
Banning smoking is not the issue. The issue is, giving police or another Gov. body the man-power to enforce it. Smoking is banned in train stations, but every day I still see at least two or three people lighting up at the end of the platform. Smoking is banned in many cities and towns with signs everywhere, yet there are still smokers wondering around puffing away. And then, there is the ever present collection of butts outside train stations. Smoking in restaurants is disgusting and should be outlawed, but again, who is gonna enforce it? I guess t he only saving grace is, smokers are a dieing breed, literally!
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bakabakabaka
LOLOL Thanks for the laugh. I have never met a smoker in a public place who was respectful, Japanese or not. By the mere fact of smoking up where a nonsmoker is, it is extremely disrespectful.
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