Very sad that Japan with all its "greatness" is so stupid not to understand or realize the damage smokers are doing to themselves and to non-smokers.
Very selfish. Second hand smoke is dreadful.

Wake up Japan and think of others' health as well as your own.

BAN smoking in all public restaurants, bars and indoor places like civilized countries do and let the smokers puff outdoors!

I love holidaying in Japan, and one of the things I love about Japan is that they haven't bought into the passive smoking propoganda. Read the studies pasive smoking is based on and you will see that the dangers are over exaggerated.

It would be sad if business owners in this great country lose their freedom of choice and Japan becomes a nanny state like Australia has become.

There are plenty of people that play pachinko and are still good people.

The government banned smoking in public places because it stops people smoking, will make people healthier, live longer and stop many diseases.
The dangers of smoking are causes different kind of cancers such as mouth cancer, throat, tongue and lung cancer. It also causes heart disease, halitosis, yellow teeth, gum disease, smells of cigarettes. It also causes bronchitis and passive smoking.
Passive smoking is second hand smoke; it’s when you breathe in when people are smoking and you suffer from it as it can give you cancer and other diseases. Most people want to ban smoking because of passive smoking, it is dangerous because it causes a lot of deaths, as it is second hand smoking innocent people die and they don’t even smoke. Also many people believe this will make smokers quit smoking as the ban will encourage more smokers to quit because they can’t get cigarettes as much as they used to and people have a right to protect themselves from smoke inhalation. Smoking also damages the environment and causes different types of cancers and diseases.
Smoking ban is a serious issue as it causes lots deaths; I believe that the public should be discussing this matter.
The current pack of 20 cigarettes is for £5.66 and 77% of the money goes to tax which is £4.33 goes to the government because that is currently the tax the government charges for cigarettes, this is why maybe the government only introduced a smoking ban in public places, e.g. pubs. The government benefits from the cigarettes sold in the UK so that is why they have not introduced a full smoking ban in the UK. u get ripped of for a packed of ciggarite and also y do innocent people have to die coz of smokers.it costs all lot of monet to do opration, if they ban smoking they will save money on these kind of things

Passive smoking is a made up disease. I have never met any anti-smoker who actually knows anybody who has died from passive smoking. If it was so widespread and dangerous you would think somebody knows someone who has died from it. I know people who have died from road accidents but passive smoking...impossible to find.

All the anti-smokers keep talking about the the thousands that die from passive smoking, but they never know anyone who has. Meanwhile these anti-smokers pump vast amounts of cancerous pollutants from their motor vehicles into the air, killing their children and giving them asthma.

If all smokers stopped smoking tomorrow, governments would be bankrupt within 20 years. Smoke or not smoke, you still need medical attention. If you live longer you need lots of medical attention in your old age and vast amounts of social housing and care. The costs of these will break the tax payer.

Most uneducated, uninformed comment EVER. Passive smoking is not a disease, but causes and leads to disease. Suck in enough 2nd hand smoke, and you too can start developing cancer. Plenty of people die from lung cancer who don't smoke, and we will not know if 2nd hand smoke contributes to that, or the myriad of other diseases (since 2nd hand smoke contains hundreds of deadly chemicals).

2nd hand smoke and it's dangers have been well documented and studied by the well recognized medical journals. If smokers and tobacco companies choose to ignore that - and spread their counter-propaganda - than that's their problem. Smokers will continue to ignore the health of those around them and society in defense of their addiction and under the guise of "personal freedom".

It's an extremely important decision especially for the passive smokers, inhale the smoke of the cigarette without any cause. It is a first major step towards the saving of the live of the numerous people, who come under this devilish smoke. It should be ban in the films as well. In cinems, action movies,Poker Movies, having casino scenes, promote smoking majorly. People idolize the characters and try to smoke like them.
It leaves an adverse effect on the society.

Please explain why lung cancer rates in Japan are soooo much lower than those in USA, although japanese are much heavier smokers.
Second-hand smoking has been for many years an excuse used by governments that refuse to deal with pollution issues and many others, much more expensive to take care of.
Even fireplaces are more dangerous than second-hand smoking.

The main factors likely to have brought about the difference in the odds ratio/relative risk between Japan and the USA (and perhaps other Western countries as well) are: Earlier age of smoking onset in Americans, lower alcohol consumption by Japanese males; lower fat intake by Japanese males; higher efficiency of filters on Japanese cigarettes; lower levels of carcinogenic ingredients in Japanese cigarettes; and lung-cancer-resistant hereditary factors among Japanese males.

I suggest that as a form of protest coming from all the smokers in Japan, they should all buy cigars and fog their government. Imagine 5000 to 10 000 thousand people smoking cigars at the same time.

I dont know about the level of health hazards caused by passive smoking but i would like to urge the policy makers to put a ban on street smoking across all over Tokyo.

Almost everyday when i leave my home on the way to office, i am hit by the passive smoke of a passerby. This is the worst part of staying in Tokyo. I have kind of an allergy to smoke and it irritates my eyes, nose and the smell remains on my clothes sometimes even until i reach the office. I think many non-smokers too face a similar trouble. Please put an end to our misery !

The lung cancer percentage here in japan is extremely high! I think, if i remember correctly that lung cancer has the highest occurrence of any form of cancer!

Health risks aside, it always amazes me that smokers don't appear to care what they smell like. I mean, really, their breath stinks. I suppose they just can't smell it themselves.

I used to leave in Japan a while back. As far as the anti-smoking movement is going, it started in the USA and then spread to Europe. I remember when I moved to New York from Paris in 1989. I was smoking in the elevator and people complained. This had never happened to me before in France.
Europe is still behind, for instance you can smoke in the subway. But they are catching up fast. Now Asia is way way behind, I mean WAY behind. Japan is leading the way and this is good news. When I lived there I was a smoker and I do not remember ever been asked to stopped my smoking anywhere.

I can't wait to see wider adoption of non-smoking places. If you asked somebody in Japan 10 years ago, if they thought that a non-smoking coffee shop could become THE premium coffee shop chain in the country, they would have laughed it off as a joke. Starbucks proved them wrong. The lesson to be learned is that these shops can still benefit by adapting to the changes that are happening globally. They have plenty of examples to draw from overseas so they really have no excuse other than they are afraid to change and learn to adapt their business models.

I really hope it goes through. Makes Yokohama look even more attractive to me and my business from a lifestyle point of view. Imagine a country as wonderful as Japan where it's no longer a challenge to find a decent place to have a smoke free pint after hours.

My employer still allows smoking in their office. Not at the desk, but in the hallway. The smoke drifts through the open door and into the desk area. This doesn't really doesn't give me the choice of whether to be in that environment or not.

Are their any labour laws, helpful resources, etc. to assist me in encouraging the shacho to take a stand an ban smoking in the building outright?