Attitudes towards smoking in Japan are at best, strange and at worse - frightening.
Most Japanese smokers I have met here seem to be blissfully unaware of the dangers.
I feel this is different from attitudes back home in the UK where smokers generally say "I don't care, it's my health I can do what I want, it's my choice" etc etc.
Whereas in the West people know the dangers (but do it anyway), in Japan it feels like we're in the 1950's again, I half expect to see a TV commercial showing a doctor recommending a healthy pack of cigs everyday to keep fit!
A common (pessimistic) statement I often hear from foreigners is how Japan is "50 years ahead" in many regards such as technology and transport but "50 years behind" in much simpler things we would take for granted as common knowledge/practice in the West.
I think smoking attitudes is one of the latter.
Some examples in everyday life:
*People can smoke in most hotels, smoking and non-smoking rooms are generally the same thing, just with a quick airing out of the room beforehand.
*Smoking carriages on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train). If you are unfortunate enough to sit in an adjacent carriage, you will stink of smoke.
*Non-Smoking sections in restaurants are a joke. The difference between smoking and non-smoking? A half-metre wall.
Of course there are some Japanese people against smoking, and there have been some goverment regulations against it too.
Recently for example all JR Train Stations have become smoke free. Before April 1st 2009, there was a confusing time schedule of when and where you could smoke, usually near the end of the platform between 9.00am-4.00pm (non rush hour times).
This is one of the few successes for the relatively small anti-smoking group in Japan.
Scarily, there is an even larger movement called "Anti-Smoking Fascists" who actually appose any forms of anti-smoking laws!
Most anti-smoking signs seen in Japan are more aimed at etiquette and littering, rather than health reasons: "A cigarette is at the exact height of a child's eye" and "if you drop a cigarette butt, someone else has to clean it up" are the strongest worded signs you'll see.
Remember it is a country where cigarettes cost about 200Yen, (£1.40/$2) and 29% of the population smokes, that's nearly 30 million people. (Among the highest in the industrialised world)
If you are a non-smoker coming to Japan, be prepared to feel like a minority.
Final Word:
Of course, if you are a smoker sick of being told where you can or cannot smoke, you are probably booking your ticket to Japan right now!
But for ex-smokers or non-smokers like me, Japan is a nightmare. You often feel like there isn't a single place you can go to escape cigarette smoke, and the attitudes that Japanese smokers have are frustrating and antiquated.
If you are used to a smoke-free lifestyle in your home country, be prepared to be an ignored minority with seemingly no rights in Japan.
VERDICT: LOW POINT
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