Smoking ban opposed
Legislation aimed at banning public-places tobacco-smoking in Japan is in limbo because of disagreement between the health ministry and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, according to a story by Yumiko Doi and Miyuki Wakabayashi Kyodo for the Japan Times.
After an attempt to submit the bill to the Diet failed earlier this year, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is reportedly hoping to submit such a bill to an extra session of the Diet that is expected to convene this fall.
The Times piece said that though Japan was to host the 2020 Olympics and though it lagged many of its peers in taking steps to eradicate passive smoking, the prospects for a legislative compromise were dim.
“We were unable to hold sufficient science-based discussions,” health minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki was quoted as saying after the Diet session ended earlier this year.
Shiozaki, who belongs to the LDP but is a key proponent of curbing second-hand smoking, read out a three-page statement explaining how Japan fell short in this area and what measures were needed.
The health ministry in October 2016 proposed imposing an indoor smoking ban on restaurants that would have allowed them to set up smoking sections, but many of the LDP’s politicians protested against the idea.
Tobacco farmers are traditionally major LDP supporters, and the party has a 280-strong group that lobbies heavily for smoking rights.
At a meeting of the LDP’s health policy board in February, one member said, “I have been smoking for more than 50 years but I’m healthy”, while another said, “Car exhaust is more harmful”.
The ministry made a concession and submitted a new proposal in March that suggested exempting small bars with up to 30 m2 of floor space from the proposed indoor smoking ban.
The LDP countered that the exemption should be expanded to restaurants and bars of up to 150 m2 on condition that they put up signs saying smoking was allowed, or if they set up separate smoking areas. But this would have effectively left most of the nation’s restaurants exempt.
The Japan Society for Tobacco Control and its supporters have begun a petition to urge Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to retain Shiozaki as health minister when he reshuffles his Cabinet as expected in early August.
Without Shiozaki in the Cabinet, “the party will take the initiative and water down the measures” to counter second-hand smoking, an LDP lawmaker said.
