No more puff-puff in Tokyo? - and we're not talking SL!

[velotrain]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/world/asia/japan-tokyo-smoking.html

[katoftw]

Only a decade or more behind other 1st world countries.

[westfalen]

Times are changing. I can remember when you had to walk through several smoke filled cars on a Shinkansen to find the non smoking car.

[velotrain]

In 1988 a girlfriend and I were bicycle touring in England's Lake District.  We were at a farm B&B that evening, and had ridden to a restaurant in a town a few miles away for dinner.  This place had large, communal wooden tables.  As soon as our entrees arrived, the couple across from us lit up.  I asked if they'd mind not smoking while we ate our dinners, and they grudgingly put their cigarettes out.  However, as soon as we put our forks down, "can we smoke now?"

[Pashina12]

Between the ages of 14 and 24 I worked in restaurants; when they banned smoking in restaurants, receipts dropped significantly. It was interesting realising that smokers tended to linger longer, which meant they were more likely to then order dessert, or another post-meal drink or two, than non-smokers; after the ban this changed, as smokers too started being much likelier to finish their meal and leave at once.

 

I remember when I was 16-17 we could still smoke anywhere, 18-19 and flying to and from Europe, and we could still smoke on the plane. Interesting aside, the first age restrictions on buying tobacco were brought in a few months after I turned 16 - making the minimum age 16. This was raised to 18 a few months after I turned 18.

 

Even as a smoker I don't at all mind the banning of smoking in enclosed spaces (I don't even smoke inside at home), but I do think the extent to which it's being banned in outdoor areas is becoming ridiculous. The cars idling in the traffic downtown are doing more damage to your lungs than my cigarette is from 5 yards away...

[railsquid]

It's taken mere decades of action to force smokers not to impose their habit on others, and I wouldn't shed a tear if the filthy stinking habit dropped off the face of the planet altogether. OTOH I don't care if it's someone's particular vice, they can smoke all they want - as long as I never have to be inconvenienced by it.

 

The situation has certainly improved in Japan in the 10 years or so since I've been living here, trains and stations becoming pretty much all non-smoking, cafes etc. are increasingly adopting hermetically-sealed smoking areas; generally smoking is being driver out of public spaces into restricted areas (designated smoking areas, booths etc.).

[Sascha]

I found it very annoying that people would smoke in some  Restaurants in Tokyo. Here in New Orleans they have banned smoking in Casinos, Bars and Restaurants.

[JR 500系]

Here in Sillypore, we are also enforcing smoking at Designated smoking points, and no smoking within 5m from the bus stop/ taxi stop or the entrance of any building... There are even areas which uses a yellow box to demarcate the smoking areas... Eating areas are also sub-divided into smoking and non-smoking zones, which some has a perplex sheet to cover between the two... There was even a notation to ban cigarettes altogether, but due to the large taxes that the government receives from cigarettes I guess that doesn't pull through...   

 

Being a non-smoker, these measures are surely welcomed... while I do have friends with are smokers and have absolutely nothing against smokers, the smell of Tabaco really sticks to your clothes and hair...