Science Council Calls For Doubling Of Tobacco Taxes

Sadly, it is amazing how much a fag during a 12 work day (plus commute) can help you scrape through a horrible existence.

I expect more suicides as a result of this (welcome) measure.

Raise the taxes! Ban the tobacco vending machines! I have no sympathy for smokers. >_<

Great, take away one of the few joys a salaryman has.
Seriously though, this is dumb.
If you’re going to levy taxes against tabacco because it’s unhealthy, or because it unfairly burdens non-users with extra health insurance costs, why not create a tax on fast food?
Or coffee?
Or any dozens of other unhealthy things that people choose to consume?
And the whole notion that Japan has to somehow catch up with other countries in smoking countermeasure points, or that this means Japan is behind the times, is absurd.
Countries and cultures are different. Just because Japan still trails behind Europe and the US in smoking countermeasures or in the gap between male and female salaries doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re living in the dark ages or are somehow less civilized.
Not every culture follows the same timeline or path as Europe or the US, you know.
Frankly I’m just sick to death of these kind of heavy-handed, paternalistic policies pushed down on us from governments. Recently in my hometown the city government decided on their own, without any kind of vote from the public, that they’re extending the citywide ban on smoking in restaurants to include bars.
Now, I’m not a smoker and I don’t like drinking in smoky bars, but there are enough non-smoking bars as it is that if someone doesn’t want to inhale secondhand smoke at a bar, they don’t have to.
So why clamp down on people that just want to enjoy a beer and a smoke at the same time?
While Japan has yet to adopt such strict policies, they’ve still enacted laws where people can’t smoke on the street, or must smoke in a segregated area outside the station. Not only that, but there is definitely no shortage of non-smoking places to eat, or at least places with non-smoking seating.
The point is that they’re rapidly reaching a point where a non-smoker doesn’t have to be subjected to someone else’s smoke if they don’t want to.
And outside of that, whose business is it if someone wants to light one up?

Triple the Taxes on cigarettes. When people stop smoking that is when good health habits can be passed down to children.

There are far more nanny state fans around than I would expect. So much for personal responsibility.

I hereby demand a low-tar version of Japan Probe!