Japan should ban smoking in all public places if it wants to successfully host the Tokyo Olympics and promote tourism,…
TOKYO —
Japan should ban smoking in all public places if it wants to successfully host the Tokyo Olympics and promote tourism, a senior World Health Organization official said Friday.
Japan, often known as a smoker’s paradise, has no binding law controlling secondhand smoking and has come under pressure to institute one ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.
The health ministry is preparing legislation to limit secondhand smoking, but faces strong opposition from smoking lawmakers and the tobacco industry. WHO and the International Olympic Committee agreed in 2010 to promote smoke-free Olympic Games, and host nations China, Russia and Brazil have since achieved that goal.
Douglas Bettcher, WHO director of non-communicable diseases prevention, said Japanese smoking restrictions are far behind global standards and need to be updated because foreign visitors expect clean air while in Japan. He said partial anti-smoking measures are ineffective and that the ministry’s draft, while an improvement, should be strengthened.
“The time is right for Japan to finally catch up now with the Olympics just around the corner,” Bettcher said at a news conference. He said it was a “golden opportunity for Japan to better protect its people from the deadly effects of exposure to secondhand smoke.
