Smoking in Japan

When I was in Japan, I can see many people smoking on the streets or in certain area of the park or outside the station.

Even though in a high class restaurant, I asked if they had the non-smoking area, the waitress said no. I was a little bit curious, as I think Japan is a very developed country, people would know the side-effect of smoking.

After reading an article from Choi Lan -I am more curious about the rate of smoking people in Japan, thus I searched over Internet.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2228.html

The anti-smoking hysteria has not arrived in Japan yet, and smoking is still relatively popular. The smoking rate among adult men is almost 50%, while for women it is below 15%. The law prohibits the smoking of cigarettes to persons under the age of twenty. Cigarettes can be bought in tabacco stores and at vending machines.

If you are a sensitive person concerning smoke, you may have a hard time in some situations in Japan. Non-smoking areas are not very common in restaurants and public areas, not even in fast food or family restaurants. Furthermore, you won't be able to enjoy pachinko, since the parlors are extremely smoky places. On the other hand, all trains have non-smoking cars.