He argued that Japan’s problem with high smoking rates stems from the government, which still owns about half of Japan Tobacco, the country’s only cigarette maker with almost 100 brands on the market.
Japanese law still stipulates the goal of a “healthy development” of the tobacco industry to generate income and for stable tax revenue — a position Watanabe said contradicts World Health Organization rules and is out of step with the public health policies of most other industrialized countries.
Japan Tobacco campaigns for “coexistence between smokers and non-smokers in public spaces” and has deployed at public events a so-called “SmoCar” camper truck equipped with air-purifiers and a deodorizer, to allow people to smoke.
Total cigarette sales fell five percent in Japan in the last fiscal year to March, but still came to US$38 billion, according to data from the private Tobacco Institute of Japan.
Cigarettes now carry warning labels, but they remain much cheaper in Japan than in most other developed countries, with a pack of 20 cigarettes selling for about US$3.
RSS