Smoking in Japan
A interesting infographic that shows us how Japan is #2 in a world ranking of cigarette consumption, beating out much larger countries such as the United States, Russia, or Indonesia:
However, it will probably drop in the rankings. An editorial in today’s Japan Times notes that anti-smoking campaigns in Japan are gaining ground:
Not so many years ago, smoking was accepted as a matter of course everywhere, even in hospitals. Now Japan has largely become a smoke-free zone. On July 1, Osaka became the 40th of Japan’s 47 prefectures to ban smoking in taxis, and Japan’s universities are increasingly imposing a total ban throughout their campuses. According to the Japanese Association of School Health (Nihon Gakko Hoken Gakkai), as of the next academic year, 151 campuses at 107 universities will have imposed such bans, both to prevent secondhand smoke and to nip the smoking habit in the bud among their students.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
