Among Tokyo’s many idiosyncrasies is the fact that while anti-smoking laws on the streets leave sidewalks devoid of cigarette stubs, the inside of restaurants and bars are a passive smoking-hell, stuffed with people lighting up on repeat. Attempts to pass a law banning indoor smoking earlier this year were scuppered by Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), despite the Ministry of Health’s efforts and warnings. In a report last year, the Ministry estimated that 15,000 people die from passive smoking-related diseases annually and that second-hand smoke costs 323.3 billion yen in health care per year. This despite the fact that the number of smokers has been declining and currently comprises under 20% of the population.

Yet, Japan remains among the lowest-ranked countries when it comes to tobacco control criteria outlined by the World Health Organization. A 2003 national law merely “encourages” restaurants and other public areas to separate smoking and non-smoking areas. Compliance is voluntary and violators are not subject to any penalty. Tokyo’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games is giving a fillip to anti-smoking campaigners, who are urging the country to update its tobacco-use norms, which lag behind many countries in the region, including China. The 2008 Olympic Games hosted by Beijing had helped trigger the implementation of strong smoke-free measures in the Chinese mainland, covering all public places and public transport. The city of Beijing has since banned lighting up in all offices, shopping malls, restaurants, bars and airports. Like Japan, China too had to contend with an entrenched culture of smoking.

At loggerheads

Japan’s new smoking law was to have been introduced and voted upon in the Spring session of Parliament. But it has yet to see the light of day with the LDP and the Health Ministry at loggerheads about what kind of eating and drinking establishments would be covered by the proposed ban. The Ministry wants to limit exemptions to small bars less than 30 sq. m. in area, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s party not only wants exceptions for restaurants up to 150 sq. m. large, but to allow smoking in any type of establishment that meets certain conditions, like keeping out minors and posting a sign at the entrance, indicating whether smoking is permitted.

The LDP’s blocking of the proposed law stems in no small part from the substantial revenue the government rakes in (more than 2 trillion yen, or $18 billion) every year from tobacco taxes. Moreover, the Ministry of Finance owns about a third of Japan Tobacco, the world’s third-largest cigarette-maker. The stalemate with the Health Ministry is thus the outcome of a government that simultaneously sells cigarettes and discourages smoking.

Among the interest parties egging on the LDP are two influential groups of tobacco farmers and retailers: the Japan Tobacco Growers Association and the National Federation of Tobacco Retail Cooperative Associations. The two groups collectively gathered around 1.2 million signatures against the Health Ministry’s proposal.

There is, however, some hope for the passive smoking majority in the shape of Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike. A former member of the LDP, Ms. Koike recently floated her own party, Tomin First, which won a sweeping victory in July’s Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections. An indoor ban on smoking was part of her manifesto and she has said a related law could be submitted to the Assembly as soon as this autumn, ensuring that Japan’s capital, if not the rest of the country, will be smoke-free ahead of the 2020 Olympics.

(Pallavi Aiyar is an author and journalist based in Tokyo.)