Times changing in Japan

The Neighborhood Second-Hand Smoke Victims Society (NSSVS), which is based in Yokohama, Japan, is seeking national or local requirements that, in the case of a complaint about a person smoking on her balcony, landlords and building managers would be obligated to rectify the situation, according to a piece by Casey Baseel on RocketNews24.

Baseel said that while Japan was often referred to as a smoker’s paradise, times were changing, leading to discussions about placing new limits on when and where Japanese smokers could light up.

As part of that discussion, the NSSVS had been formed in the late spring with the aim of protecting people from the dangers and discomfort of passive smoke in and around their homes.

Recently the NSSVS had taken aim at the demographic referred to as ‘firefly’ smokers – smokers who get their name from their custom of going out onto their apartment or condominium balconies to smoke, where the tips of their cigarettes are said to resemble the luminescent insects.

Unless firefly smokers lived on the top floor of their buildings, their smoke naturally rose towards the tenants who lived directly above them.

In the past, Baseel said, this was largely a situation for which the only recourse was to say nothing could be done. But with smoking rates dropping and greater awareness of the health risks associated with second-hand smoke, people who were unhappy about a firefly smoker living below them had become more vocal.

The NSSVS accepts that firefly smokers are indulging their habit while standing on their own property and that making firefly smoking illegal would be difficult. ‘However, it is seeking national or local requirements that, in the case of a complaint about a firefly smoker, landlords and building managers be obligated to take some action to rectify the situation,’ Baseel said.

Baseel’s piece is at: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/08/22/japanese-organization-wants-stricter-regulations-against-people-smoking-on-their-own-balconies/