A Smoking Nation

July 18, 2007

A Smoking Nation!

When I first arrived in Japan, long long ago, you could buy cigarettes, sake and porn from vending machines on the street. A child could walk into a grocery store and purchase any of those items. Coming from the US, where laws were much stricter, this was quite a marvel for me.

As years passed, things slowly changed, and those vending machines have slowly disappeared off the main streets. Mind you, every so often I do come across a beer-selling machine, and cigarette vending machines are still widely available, but the porn-sellers have definitely diminished, except at midnight, the local vegetable stand makes the great switcheroo to the local porn shop. Hmmm… well, at least the kids are all in bed by then!

Fifteen years ago I made a trip from Osaka to Tokyo by shinkansen. It’s a beautiful ride, you go right past Mt. Fuji, and through the wilderness between Kansai and Kanto, traveling at an incredible speed, there’s a nice little snack bar on the train, of course toilets. Under normal circumstances I really enjoy this trip. Unfortunately for me, it was the end of Shogatsu (New Year’s) and everyone was returning to Tokyo after the 3-day vacation. I hadn’t reserved a seat ahead of time, which I normally don’t do anyway, but once I got on the train I realized the mistake—there were NO seats in the non-reserved sections. With my wool dress and high-heel boots, I slowly wobbled down the car aisles, searching for a seat, finally finding one in a reserved section. I would have to pay more for it, but at this point, a 3-hour standing trip on a train traveling over 250km/hour in high-heels was not a fun prospect. To make things worse, it was the smoking section of the train!

Japan today is still a very smoking-oriented country. Although there is a smoking ban on the local trains, the reserved express trains and shinkansens still have smoking sections (which really sucks if you have to use the toilet and the only way to get there is through the smoking car—yuck!) The local family dinner restaurants (Gusto, Joyful, Royal Host, Denny’s…) have finally put in smoking and non-smoking sections, which really doesn’t make much difference cause it’s still all in the same room and you come home smelling like an ashtray. Our local Joyful finally got the point that there are more non-smokers coming to eat, and switched the large smoking and tiny non-smoking areas to accommodate the changing local society. But usually the smokers get a very large portion of the restaurant, and those of us who don’t smoke are relegated to a small corner by the toilet. On busy nights this can be pretty inconvenient (and so we no longer go out to eat on busy nights).

Starbucks has made a great impact on the restaurant/smoking culture of Japan. They are almost the only eating establishment that forbids smoking on the premises—GO STARBUCKS!! It is one reason the chain is very popular in Japan, besides a decent cup of coffee (which is another article of its own). The company set a new standard of non-smoking for Japan, which is slowly catching on. Now, if McDonalds would just get the idea!!

But still, the Japanese are a smoking society. People smoke under the ‘No Smoking’ signs on train platforms, they walk down the street with a cigarette in hand, they stand right outside the game center door puffing away, no mind for the children or people who might be passing by, no concern for the health of others around, not to mention the smell of it. I’m not anti-smoking, if someone wants to smoke I absolutely don’t mind, just not around me please! Not in public areas where my kids are breathing the same air, not in restaurants where we want to enjoy the flavor of the food and not come home with smoke-scented clothes and hair.

Slowly the transition is happening. The convenience and grocery stores have signs up that make it clear they won’t sell cigarettes or liquor to anyone under 20 (now, do they check ID—that’s the question!), more and more shopping centers and restaurants are putting a ban on smoking, and I just read in the news that starting in October, people caught smoking on the streets of Osaka will be fined 1,000 yen—GO OSAKA!!

The sad thing is how easily available tobacco is to children here. My daughter could easily become a smoker at the age of 13 and I’d never know—she can buy it at the local vending machine, smoke it on the way to school, I probably wouldn’t be that much wiser to it. Lucky for me she things it’s disgusting and hates the smell of tobacco, but I often spy many kids in their young teens out on the street corner smoking away in the evening. It’s a sad thing that the country could easily change by just putting restrictions in place about where to sell these things, as well as enforcing no smoking rules in public places—ah for the day!!

For further information:A Dying Breed