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Jun 10 2011 10 Comments

Japan’s still very relaxed smoking regulations

Coming from a land where it’s often said that rules are meant to be broken, means living in Japan can sometimes be more than a little frustrating; a country where rules, regardless of their validity, are invariably adhered to.

And yet for all Japan’s inflexibility, when it comes to tobacco, it’s still pretty much anything goes in many places. Almost nostalgically so in fact.

Sure, many restaurants don’t allow smoking anymore, or at the very least have designated areas. Plus public buildings, train stations etc. are totally smoke free. But head just a little off the beaten track, away from the glitzy stores and chain restaurants, and it’s often a very different story indeed.

So much so that as even as a kid, when visibility on the top deck of a bus used to be down to a few feet because of all the smoke, I still don’t recall our butcher enjoying a ciggie as he served us.

Japanese smoking

Categorized: Food and Drink, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. winnie says

    6/10/2011 at 5:46 pm

    Nice shot!! 🙂
    Can see that the man is immersed himself in the smoke by his cigarette.
    And all the items may smell of tobacco.

    After staying in Japan for almost 1 year , it seem like Japan have ton of smokers too.
    Although there are Posters or advertisement like” Please do smoke while walking”(Forgot where I saw it), still have many do smoke while walking. 🙁

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/10/2011 at 9:19 pm

      Thanks.

      Yeah, there are a lot of smokers still, but at the same time a lot of areas do ban smoking on the street. Even though you could just pop in to a bar and have a cigarette there instead!

      Reply
  2. NihonBurp says

    6/10/2011 at 6:24 pm

    That is one thing that surprised me how popular smoking is in Japan. As a non-smoker I have welcomed the smoking bans in the UK but going over to Japan reminded me how much I hate smokers in restaurants. But as you mentioned it seems more and more restaurants in Japan are adopting a no smoking policy.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/10/2011 at 9:24 pm

      Yes, no doubt about it. I used to smoke, and Japan really was a smokers paradise. Very few restrictions, along with very cheap cigarettes. And in some respects it still is. At east compared to many countries.

      But things are changing. Slowly.

      Reply
      • domo. says

        6/11/2011 at 12:56 am

        Japanese smokers are lucky people. In Hong Kong there are smoking regulations made so that people can’t smoke in some of the main streets, so smokers have to find a hidden spaces like under outdoor escalators to smoke. Some of them can care less though, like this guy I saw once who walked down one of these streets with a cigarette in his mouth and ironically, three police passed in the same way just seconds after he disappeared into a crowd.

        Reply
        • Lee says

          6/11/2011 at 2:43 pm

          That’s happening in many parts of Tokyo now too. Walking while smoking can result in a fine. And instead, there are designated smoking areas.

          Reply
  3. nzgenkichan says

    6/11/2011 at 6:24 pm

    When I visited Japan in Jan 2010 I was interested to see the changes around smoking behaviour. I also noticed what a roaring trade coffee shops were doing (a contradiction to all the ”recession” talk going on at the time). If they work in an area (like Meguro-ku, if memory serves) Sarariiman-kun and OL-san aren’t allowed to smoke on the street on their breaks. But the local coffee chain has a smoking room, so for a few hundred yen they can take their ciggie break in relative comfort. These places are making a mint – not a bad thing. They were certainly employing a large number of staff! What is gross (even for a smoker like me) is a restaurant having a smoking section – what’s the old saying? – it’s like having a no-peeing section in a swimming pool!

    Any evidence Smokey Smokerson in the picture would have put the cig out if a customer had come in?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/12/2011 at 3:33 pm

      I very much doubt it.

      Reply
  4. Lizzy says

    6/11/2011 at 7:34 pm

    Personally, I love it. lol To me his demeanor says, “If you don’t want (possibly) tobacco flavored meat, find another butcher.”

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/12/2011 at 3:34 pm

      Yes, that’s very true.

      Reply

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