World No Tobacco Day

Good job Mom, ever wonder why your baby is aways sick. Look in your hand for a small clue.

It looks as though Tobacco Ma Ma has exceeded the structural integrity of that baby cart. I guess nicotine can cloud your brain. Happy World No Tobacco Day!

That's when I lit up!

lovely way to ruin the few green spaces most have, put up a smokimg lot! DOH!

Double DOH for you mom!

This mother is a loon, smoking around the kid, I mean, c'mon!! They need to impose a 70% tax hike, that'll really take out the bite to curb smoking.

I started smoking when I was 16. Smoked a pack a day until I was 36, and quit cold turkey. I am a lazy loaf who could give a rats a$$ about my health. I quit for the money, and to stop filling the pockets of greedy big tobacco bastards.

If a weak guy like me can do it, NOBODY has an excuse not to stop. Smokers are LOSERS

Debucho

Yep, I agree! IMHO

In a densely populated city like Tokyo, there is absolutely no place where people can smoke without inflicting their filthy, dangerous fumes on innocent bystanders. They should get their nicotine fix from patches or snuff.

Wow... a somewhat picturesque background and rather green area, set up for mothers-of-the-year and oyaji, while probably a little ways down the street there's a 'park' set up for kids that is nothing but dirt, a worn-out slide, and a bench. I'm with Debucho, and went through a smoking period very much the same (though perhaps less volume)... anyone can quit, and they can quit easily. Anyone who says they cannot is weak.

Bag lady looks like a great mom. Leave her alone.

I used to smoke 40 a day. 3 fags (that what cigarettes were called, in the days when gay meant happy) in bed before I got up! Gave up in 1980 when the cost of a pack went up to 70 pence (UK)! I'm not paying that!

Took 5 years to lose the urge. Hardest part was passing on the joints....

Its so nice that we still have groups of people that are socially acceptable to hate.

I don't smoke but I also don't care what other people do to their bodies. So many people concern themselves with what other people are up to and are quick to want to "tax" a behavior they don't personally agree with. If more people minded their own business the world would be a better place.

Celebrated with a Davidoff

anyone can quit, and they can quit easily

It was not easy, but a little willpower for about three months and you are free from years and years of wheezing and always wondering where the exits are so you can go out and smoke.

Smokers are weak losers.

I don't care what other people do to their bodies. I just hate it when I sit on the terrace of my favorite cafe enjoying nice, spring weather and someone's smoke wafts into my iced coffee set.

I don't smoke but I also don't care what other people do to their bodies

Warallthetime: If you let them smoke near you, it's your body they're doing it to. Like you, I don't care what other people do to or put into their own bodies. I only object when they inflict their habits on me, and I doubly disapprove when they do it around children.

I smoke. I enjoy it. Nothing like having one after a nice meal, or while having a few cold ones. I hope Japan's oyajis continue the trend so that I can still enjoy smoking in restaurants and bars. It's a rarity this day in age.

Good parenting 101 - take your baby into a smoking zone. On another note, it will be a good day when they finally get rid of smoking in restaurants. It will be nice to be able to completely taste and enjoy food again, without the whole ash aroma.

Japan's cigarettes are cheap! Australia it is 1200 yen a pack, America is it around 800 yen, Japan still has some of the cheapest smokes in the world IMO.

Alan, I find avoiding smokers is quite easy. I don't make a habit out of standing within close proximity of people exhaling smoke in my face.

warallthetime, I concur!

I find avoiding smokers is quite easy. warallthetime: I hope you'll share your techniques for avoiding these ubiquitous smoky pests. Do you find sarcasm helps?

If you're in a restaurant just starting your meal, and Silvertongue lights up at the next table, do you simply walk out? Or do you just suck it up?

Glad I now live some where that actually has real No Smoking laws and enforces them. Hated Japanese restaurants where no smoking areas are separated from the smoking ones only by a head-high partition. And where, as pointed out, all public places, like this park, are just havens for smokers. Like the health minister from New Zealand said a few years back -- Japan is a dinosaur when it comes to smoking.

What always gets me in Japan is when you go out to eat and they ask you which section you want to sit, smoking or non-smoking duh, like it really matters, so if I stay on the non-smokers side, that means the smoke from the smokers side won't flow over to my side? Why on earth people don't get this? Our local AEON (about 2 years old) has a cancer enclosed room for smokers where they can sit and wallow and light up all they want, breathing them vapors and leaving us non-smokers with cleaner, fresher air and tastier food. The older shops should try to install these enclosed environments. Yeah, smokers have rights, but so do I. Either somewhere faaaar away or in an enclosed room where they all belong.

when i quit i did a lot of reading on it. nicotine addiction actually creates false anxiety in your nerve system, and makes you think having a smoke relaxes you. people who are not addicted are calm naturally, and anxious naturally.

when I smoked, I fooled myself into thinking i enjoyed it, but all smokers actually do want to quit. they are in denial because they are lazy.

quitting smoking is easier than dieting. your body needs food and dieting is limiting intake. your body does not need nicotine, but nicotine is such a powerful drug it fools you into thinking you need it.

again, we wont complain if a fat person chows down on a big mac. go for it! but smoking affects people around you, which is why people are so against it, self-centered smoking losers.

Yes, I've also considered smokers weak people. Japan is still a smoker's paradise, so I'd rather stay at home and enjoy a meal there than have to breathe in second-hand smoke. It is horrible how Japan encourages children to smoke through product placement, not asking for ID, and advertising aimed at youth. Another of Japan's many problems.

Thats not fair, if you can have no smoke day,we should have all smoke day where smoking is allowed absolutely everywhere... one day exposure will not kill you and will be right and fair for all!

Yes, Alex Einz is a smoker AND he runs full marathons! A well-balanced smoking individual.

Thats not fair, if you can have no smoke day,we should have all smoke day where smoking is allowed absolutely everywhere... one day exposure will not kill you and will be right and fair for all!

There is a day, April 20th

we should have all smoke day where smoking is allowed absolutely everywhere...

I absolutely agree. Smokers should be able to smoke anywhere.

All I ask is that you keep all of your smoke to yourself and away from those who don't want to share your habit. I don't know how you do that, but that's your responsibility since you're the one who likes to light bonfires in your mouth.

Come to Kanagawa! There's a law on restriction of passive smoking, so nowadays I have no trouble taking the kids to local restaurants. It used to be that the smokers had the best seats even at McD, but now they are squashed together in one isolated little booth. Sorry smokers, but I like it that way.

The perfect picture of a Japanese mother. Just puffing away cause she took the baby from the father.

Tokyo has better manners compared to Osaka. Sorry Osaka (seems like 8/10 guys are heavy smokers). Even the skin textures look different in both places (tar) and white dress shirts look yellow by 9PM. Streets are way cleaner in Tokyo too...

I could go for a "Smoking Manners" day. That would sit well with me.

But a "No Tobacco" day? Even as a non-smoker, no. What's next? A "No Kissing" Day for people who rue seeing people kiss? A "No Chewing Gum" day for those with a Singaporean bent? A "No Peanuts" day from people with allergies?

I got an idea, how about a "No Japanese Cedar" day. The pollen of that evil tree seems to be messing with more respitory systems in Japan than some guy smoking a cig on the roof during his break.

Didn't even know there was a "World No Tobacco Day"

Suggest WHO employ a new PR agency to get the word across...

I need a cigarette now...

warallthetime: You make it sound like you can simply see a suspended, unmoving cloud off smoke far off in the distance and push it out of the way if it floats towards you, but the fact of the matter is that in most cases (save for you avoiding establishments where smoking is permitted) you cannot avoid second hand smoke if someone lights up around you. This is especially the case with train stations, city offices, and department stores, etc. putting astrays in front of or WITHIN entrance-ways to the building, or people who light up in front of you on a narrow sidewalk (often you smell it before you see it), etc. What's more, you defend avoiding a slight tax increase on tobacco in favour of paying extremely high tax costs to support medical care for smokers; and before you say "alcohol and cocaine costs taxpayers, too!" keep in mind that two (or three) wrongs don't make a right (and I'm all for an increase in alcohol taxes if that suits you).

Fact is, a smoker is not only playing with his/her health, but yours and your children's. Many also simply throw their butts on the ground, and smoke where it is not 'permitted' without a care in the world.

Ban smoking.

I must not have gotten the memo. Have a nice dip of Skoal in right now.

@delrennich. . It is horrible how Japan encourages children to smoke through product placement, not asking for ID, and advertising aimed at youth. Another of Japan's many problems.

Because you are not a smoker, you do not know this I guess, but children inJapan cannot buy tobacco - selling tobacco to children is prohibited by law. To buy tobacco you need a specially issued ID (when you buy from vending machines) or a document showing that you are not underage.

I do not think that it is difficult to avoid smokers - some of my friends smoke but whenever we go out together, they always smoke at the designated places only. So as I do not go to those places, I have no problems with their smoking.

No Smoking Day? Guess Japan forgot to spread the word around. Saw a lot of people puffing away on the streets of Tokyo ... and nobody told them to put their smokes away .,..

Silvertongue and you exactly right, and I know loads of folks who enjoy a nice beer and a ciggy after the run, in Kanagawa even! I think people just grasping to bullshit issues to forget how screwed up everything else is...they will probably go after mini skirts after they are done with smokers and then we are all doomed

I say ban smoking in all restaurants and tax them so it's 10000 yen a pack.

Restaurants will be much nicer, and people will smoke less. Haven't met anyone who is glad they started. They'll all fight for their rights, complain about being persecuted, come up with examples of smokers who lived to 100 etc, and say how they can give up anytime, and don't mind a year or two off their lives, but when they're in hospital in the last stages of cancer they all change their minds.

It's just a stupid, disgusting habit that annoys and harms other people.

Congratulations to the ones here who were able to stop. You made it sound easy, but I know people who are convinced it's almost impossible.

Not to mention that although smokers all say how considerate they are, there are cigarette butts everywhere.

Just read your post Smith. I was too easy. Yeah, ban smoking. I'm tired of going into a restaurant that looks good on the inside but then realizing that the best seats are in the smoking section.

Ban cancer sticks.

Disclosure - recently went to the funeral of a person who smoked for decades and always said people have to die sometime so why not enjoy smoking. Painful watching them die with no desire at all to smoke, but in need of all the 40 years of money that went up in smoke. In the end, she wished she had another five years and the money she wasted on cancer sticks. Sad. But, you can't tell a smoker - until they get sick or can't afford it anymore.

Instead of no smoking day, why not have a no smoking month or year and see what it's like.

For all those who think it's impossible and impractical, there was a time where people screamed blue murder when they wanted to ban smoking on plane flights. Now it's hard to believe they ever allowed it. And from what I remember, the Japanese were the last to comply.

Problem is, that many Japanese think that smoking or holding a cigarette is cool, you see it in the photos, in movies, print. The overall image for many people in Asia is cool, yeah, they know it's bad for your health, but when you are a bad boy, riding that Harley...uhhh Yamaha with that leather jacket, you need to look like Marlon Brando and having a cigarette between your lips is cool. A few movie directors a few years ago said that they were not going show people smoking in their movies because they didn't want to give off that impression that smoking is something that should be admired. Nat King Cole used to believe that one of the reasons he had such a great voice and sang so well was because of his smoking. The man smoked 3 packs a die and died because of it. Same thing with the hip hop artist "Ai" she's a long friend of mine and her mom and my mom have been close friends since they were in their early 20's. Anyhow, Ai was never a smoker until a few years ago, I saw her puffing on a cig, I asked her "why are you smoking?" she replied "I have too much stress and one day my manager told me to have a cigarette, he said, it'll calm your nerves" and since then she has been smoking. Now for anyone that listens to her music from her early work and her most recent can probably hear hear voice changed quite a bit, it's always been a bit raspy, but it got slightly heavier. So I think people if you want to change the image of smoking, start with the government, if I am not mistaken, they support the tabacco industry. But on the other hand, smoking has gotten a little bit better, when I came here in 1999, it was green light everywhere. I hardly went out, but nowadays, I do see a glimmer of hope, small, but growing, ever so slowly glimmer of hope that people are getting the message: smoking is not cool!

@bass4funk, Strangely enough I think smoking does look cool. Casabalanca and movies like that wouldn't be the same without it. And I liked the comedians of yesteryear who told jokes between puffs. But not everything that looks look is good.

"if I am not mistaken, they support the tobacco industry"

They own it...

Thanks for the fascinating post.

Less litter to clear up yesterday then? As another put it "losers" and selfish throwing away their butts anywhere they like.

Kind of a hypocrite sign in Japan.. considering the Japanese government owns Japan Tobacco :P

When a country has a socialized style of health care I notice that people start worrying about what other people are doing to themselves. IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. If we are to make it our business then tax everything from high calorie food and drink to fat people themselves. The modern male is such an effeminate nelly whinging about his or that. I don't like tobacco smoke. If I go to a bar I deal with it. I don't want the whole bar atmosphere to cater to me and ban it altogether. I can't remember a time when I was eating out and was subjected to tobacco smoke. Pick a better establishment or deal with it. Most people are probably unaware of GMO and chemicals in plastics of food they consume and yet freak out over brief exposure to second hand smoke.

but number of smokers and tobacco sales worldwide are still exploding. all these efforts are useless.

I think if smokers want the freedom to walk around and puff away they should wear a full-head helmet (like a fishbowl space helmet of the 50s) with an air tank. Then we won't have to breathe in their noxious smoke.

Too Draconian? lol

waralltime:

Most people are probably unaware of GMO and chemicals in plastics of food they consume and yet freak out over brief exposure to second hand smoke.

Well, sorry, but there's no bitter taste in GMO food, and I can't taste the chemicals in plastics, but Jesus can I smell the stinking cigarette smoke. A lot of us find it uncomfortable.

herefornow:

Hated Japanese restaurants where no smoking areas are separated from the smoking ones only by a head-high partition.

Count yourself lucky there was a partition. I had to have lunch in a family restaurant with colleagues after a meeting. The smoking tables were round the corner. And yes, the smell was strong.

I find it so strange that most Japanese seem immune to the smell. Last time I went to a restaurant with a NJ friend, we left after one minute because the smell was so bad. And I made it a point to tell the waitresses we were leaving because of the smoke.

Tobbacco = Lose-Lose

we left after one minute because the smell was so bad. And I made it a point to tell the waitresses we were leaving because of the smoke.

I bet she was really bothered

This is Japan...People can smoke in restaurants here.....like it or not, it's allowed So if you don't like it, go home and pull your face and whine to the waitress there

gogo ... 4:20 baby wooo! hahaha good one.

All of the non-smokers seem to be out in force..... Well I AM a smoker. Why you might ask? Well thats easy, I'm addicted. Who do I have to blame - Myself. So before you all start throwing things at your computer screens yelling about how filthy and gross me and every other smoker is. Ask yourself, what are you addicted to? Then ask yourself why. Then ask yourself do you even want to quit?

I have the will power to quit, I have given up much harder things before. So smoking shouldn't be all that hard - I just don't want to cause I enjoy a smoke with a beer. Why should I be denied of that right? On the flip side why should you have to put up with it? You have the right not not have to inhale my second hand smoke? It's oranges and apples. Except some people like oranges and some people like apples. The only thing that can be done is to split them up into groups. IE - Smokers sections.

So yeah, yeah... we get it, you don't like smoking.

Although I do have to feel bad for you guys sometimes - Japan is like a smokers paradise compared to other countries.

Why should I be denied of that right?

jessebaybay: Like you I have my addiction. Mine is single-malt scotch. But while you inevitably share your addiction with anyone within 100 meters or so, I can indulge mine all day without harming anyone but my liver. Sure, drunks in cars are a threat, but then so are smokers in cars, so let's just agree that we're talking about stationary smokers/drinkers.

Smokers like to portray this debate as a matter of personal freedom or give and take. But your answer to anyone who complains is to say "If you don't like it, get out of here," or in the case of warallthetime, to call them effeminate

Ask yourself, what are you addicted to?

I'm addicted to throwing rotten eggs, soft tomatoes and dirty looks at people who blow smoke into the air I breathe.

Then ask yourself why.

Because smoke-laden air makes me wheeze and cough, and I don't like doing that.

Then ask yourself do you even want to quit?

Quit wheezing and coughing, yes. Quit stopping people smoking in my presence, no. Why should I be denied of that right?

when I smoked, I fooled myself into thinking i enjoyed it, but all smokers actually do want to quit. they are in denial because they are lazy.

My 6 level mahogany humidor and impressive collection of antique and handmade pipes seems to refute your point. I love smoking cigars and pipes and, if I should find myself in Dearborn or abroad where such things are popular, hookah. I don't like cigarettes though, nasty little things on their own and then to make things worse they put a filter on it. If I wanted nicotine I'd just buy patches, no, I desire thick wafting blankets of smoke.

I'm addicted to throwing rotten eggs, soft tomatoes and dirty looks at people who blow smoke into the air I breathe.

Oh my, you're one of those people that starts loudly coughing even though I'm half a block away aren't you? Well if it's any consulation I'm equally offensive to cigarette smokers.

you're one of those people that starts loudly coughing even though I'm half a block away aren't you?

No, I'm one of those people who end up at the doctor's and off work for two or three days when some 'why should I be denied my right to smoke' plonker insists on lighting up whenever and wherever and wafting thick blankets of smoke in my direction.

Your collection of antique and handmade pipes may look pretty and may have historical value, but I think impressive is in the eyes of the beholder.

No, I'm one of those people who end up at the doctor's and off work for two or three days when some 'why should I be denied my right to smoke' plonker insists on lighting up whenever and wherever and wafting thick blankets of smoke in my direction.

Well then you should have no problem with me. I've never once smoked inside of an eating or drinking establishment aside from those that operate with cigar and pipe smokers as the intended clinetele (my favorite of which was put out of business by such a ban). I contend that I am entierly avoidable. If you are that sensative to the toxins I produce I would also suggest moving outside of the locations I normally inhabit as the average air quality in Detroit, Hong Kong, and Tokyo is about on par with my smoke and its actually impossible to avoid that. My smoke produces roughly 10,000 parts per million in potentially harmful particles in the area in which I exhale, Tokyo has roughly 1700 on average, Hong Kong has considerably more in addition to an extra 50 ppm of sulfur which is far worse than what I produce.

And considering my smoke disburses rather rapidly you'd have to be unconfortably close to recieve the full 10,000 ppm benefit, if you're within 5 feed its about 2000, outside of that you're getting next to nothing but the smell. So please forgive me if I have limited sympathy for ruining the amazing scent of garbage and smog. If, however, you find me smoking in the pristine wilderness I offer my sincerest apologies.

Your collection of antique and handmade pipes may look pretty and may have historical value, but I think impressive is in the eyes of the beholder.

My statement was made primarily because another poster seemed to indicate that I had some deep desire to quit. I take offense to that. I've been blessedly immune to the plague of 'smokers guilt' that has plagued cigarette smokers who apologize at every instance or spin a tale of how desperate they are to quit whenever the topic comes up.

Anti-smoker's are the biggest whiners on the planet. Luckily, I don't have to listen to them because I gave up tobacco a year ago. I still smoke pot, though. ;)

Anti-smoker's are the biggest whiners on the planet.

And smokers are the biggest overgrown babies. They are aware of nothing but their own selfish needs. They like to put inappropriate things in their mouths. And they blithely pour out stinks and foulness that others have to clean up.

The thing is, What I said was true.

The thing is, What I said was true.

Mmm, no, what Alan said is true.

Hmmm, no, what I said was true.

Those anti-smokers don't know where to stop. Or is it that they don't want to? Rather than letting us have a handful of licensed smoking bars and leaving us alone, they want to force their rules on everyone. That's just as rude and obnoxious as the worst example of a "smoker" you bring up...

Anyway, long live Japan and i hope the lawmakers there will be more sensible than here in the US

I asked several smokers if they weren't going to try to refrain from smoking on this day. The universal response was they didn't know anything about it.

Hmmm, no, what I said was true.

That's a very powerful argument Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land. Did you read the JT article a few weeks ago about how smoking reduces intelligence?

REMzzz: I don't want to stop anyone smoking. I approve of smoking because it raises the average intelligence of the human race by killing fools. All I ask is that you keep your smoke away from me. You choose to smoke. I choose not to. I don't inflict my vices on you. Give me the same courtesy. Simple as that.

That's a very powerful argument StrangerinaStrangeLand. Did you read the JT article a few weeks ago about how smoking reduces intelligence?

That is an incredibly witty comment, Alan. You must be very proud of yourself.

I guess you didn't notice that I said I didn't smoke (tobacco) a few comments previously.

This article is about smoking tobacco, and I'm assuming the article you so wittily referenced was as well.