Smoking Bans
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Unlike in Europe and North America, where smoking bans apply to many restaurants, bars and public areas, smoking is possible almost anywhere in Japan, like in China. There are few anti-smoking laws, as many politicians and the Ministry of Finance itself have interests in Japan Tobacco.
Many of the wealthier wards of Tokyo, such as Shinjuku and Shibuya, are applying various kinds of anti-smoking laws. They have designated special smoking sections in areas and it is punishable by fine if caught smoking outside these areas. Chiyoda-ku banned smoking while walking on busy streets from November 2002, the first local government in Japan to do so.
In 2007, Kyoto set the smoking ban area on the street. The prohibited area is expanding. On the Kyoto Prefecture's report in 2010, the prefecture has the big goal, "to make zero opportunity for the people to suffer from passive smoking in Kyoto prefecture."
Read more about this topic: Smoking In Japan
Famous quotes containing the word smoking:
“As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)