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• Health ministry plan aims to cut smoking rate to 12% in 10 years  

The health ministry has presented an advisory panel with a new basic plan for anticancer programs, including the goal of cutting the smoking rate in Japan to 12.2 percent in 10 years, officials said.

The rate was 19.5 percent in 2010. The plan submitted Wednesday calls for reducing the rate beginning in fiscal 2012 by helping smokers who wish to quit and rooting out smoking among minors, to achieve the target by fiscal 2022, the officials said.

The plan also envisages halving passive smoking. It targets reducing the chances to 15 percent in restaurants and 3 percent in homes, from 50.1 percent and 10.7 percent in 2010.

The current plan to fight cancer, drawn up in fiscal 2007, does not include a numerical target for reducing smoking due to opposition from the tobacco industry.

The panel of anticancer experts is expected to approve a final plan in June

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• Smoking, female obesity more common in low income brackets: survey  

Rates of both smoking and obesity in women are higher in low-income households, analysis of a Japanese government health survey has shown.

The analysis, released on Jan. 31 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, was based on the ministry's 2010 nationwide health and nutrition survey, and marks the first time the government has examined the relationship between average income and lifestyle.

"It's possible the (health and income) relationship is influenced by factors such as access to medical care and information on healthy living," a ministry statement said.

The health ministry queried some 3,200 households

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• EDITORIAL: Smoking deaths 

The health ministry is drawing up a plan to halve the smoking rate in Japan from 23.4 percent in 2009 to 10 percent. Unfortunately, the plan is tucked into a long-range health promotion plan from 2013 to 2022.

Considering that the percentage of smokers stood at 38.2 percent among men and 10.9 percent among women in 2009, according to the health ministry's own statistics, one wonders what the slow, cautious approach is all about?

Quite simply, it is too little too late. . . .

The treatment and care of smoking-related diseases is an issue that affects everyone. We all pay for it in some way. As Japan has one of the highest life expectancy rates of any country in the world, one wonders how much higher it would be if the government were to take the leading cause of preventable deaths seriously.

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Adult Mortality Attributable to Preventable Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries in Japan: A Comparative Risk Assessment 

Conclusions

Tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are the two major risk factors for adult mortality from non-communicable diseases and injuries in Japan. There is a large potential population health gain if multiple risk factors are jointly controlled.

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• Tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are biggest killers of Japanese adults 

The life expectancy of a person born in Japan is among the highest in the world (82.9 years) yet tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are still the major risk factors for death among adults in Japan, emphasizing the need to reduce tobacco smoking and to improve ongoing programs designed to help people manage multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine.

In an analysis of available data led by Nayu Ikeda from the University of Tokyo in Japan, the authors found that in Japan in 2007, tobacco smoking and high blood pressure accounted for 129,000 and 104,000 deaths, respectively, among adults aged 30 years and over. Physical inactivity accounted for 52,000 deaths, high blood glucose and high dietary salt intake accounted for 34,000 deaths each, and alcohol use for 31,000 deaths. Furthermore, the authors found that life expectancy at age 40 would have been extended by 1.4 years for both sexes, if exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors had been reduced to an optimal level.

According to the authors, in order to sustain the trend of longevity in Japan for the 21st century, additional efforts in a variety of fields are required for decreasing adult mortality from chronic diseases and injuries. They say: "A first step will be to powerfully promote effective programs for smoking cessation."

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• Health ministry aims to get smoking rate down to 10%  

The health ministry is drawing up a plan to reduce the smoking rate in Japan to around 10 percent, almost half the 23.4 percent in 2009, officials said Monday.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry aims to insert the numerical target into its fiscal 2013-2022 health promotion plan, and in its basic plan for anticancer programs for the next five years, they said.

It is expected that smokers who want to quit will reach around 40 percent in the upcoming survey, due partly to price hikes, and that the reduction target will be set on the assumption all of them will quit.

Government efforts to set a reduction target have faced setbacks in the past due to opposition from the tobacco industry.

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• Japan Tobacco Introduces 'The Peace' Luxury Canned Cigarettes 

Smokers seeking a more luxurious and relaxing smoking experience need look no further than “The Peace”, an all-new, top of the line canned cigarette from Japan Tobacco. Sold by a selected number of Japanese retailers at a premium price and packaged in sleek metal cans, The Peace is the ultimate expression of an iconic brand first introduced in 1946.

Times were tough in post-war Japan, as were smokers and the cigarettes they smoked. One of the latter was “Peace” from Japan Tobacco, a cigarette boasting almost three times the tar and more than twice the nicotine as JT's current smokes. Over the past 66 years, the Peace brand has built on its early acceptance by war-weary smokers to become one of the country's most popular cigarettes.

Faced with mounting restrictions on smoking in Japan and a steadily shrinking customer base, Japan Tobacco is reaching out to deep-pocketed smokers with “The Peace”: the ultimate expression of the iconic Peace brand. The main selling points of The Peace are “the ultimate experience of aroma” along with a unique metal can exemplifying the timeless look and feel of luxury.

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• Japanese Smoking Culture Proves Hard To Snuff Out  

In a country that's so tobacco friendly, it's no wonder anti-smoking initiatives have trouble gaining traction. That's despite the estimated $90 billion being spent on cigarette-related health costs and damages every year, three times what cigarette sales bring in annually, according to the Japan Health Economics Association.

Anti-smoking activist Bungaku Watanabe says Japan has been dragging its feet on the kind of smoking regulations that are now common in other advanced countries.

"It's not that Japanese love smoking so much," he says, "it's that tobacco has been a pillar of Japanese national policy."

It's no accident that the national headquarters of Japan Tobacco, the world's third-largest tobacco company, is located near the seat of government in Tokyo. . . .

And then there's the quirky alternative that Mina Abe, an executive assistant in her 20s, and Kota Osabe, a 30-something I.T. engineer, are promoting. They stand in what was once the smoking area of a Tokyo restaurant wielding green plastic pipes that they hold like cigarettes. The pair contentedly fills the air not with smoke, but with bubbles.

"This used to be an ashtray and we filled it with soap that we can blow bubbles with," Abe says. . . .

It's not exactly a movement yet, but Abe and Kota are taking their quiet bubble crusade to shopping centers, festivals and eateries in hopes of showing this stubbornly tobacco-friendly nation an alternative to one of their preferred social pastimes.

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• City assembly votes down anti-smoking proposal amid opposition from shop owners  

The city assembly here on Dec. 16 voted down a proposal to ban smoking areas at public facilities and either ban smoking or separate smoking areas at some commercial establishments by means of an ordinance due to strong opposition from shop owners plagued by an economic slump.

A proposal to create the ordinance to "prevent passive smoking," aimed for enactment next April, was presented at a regular assembly meeting in September. But the assembly decided to carry forward deliberations on the proposal because some assembly members argued against it, saying that separating smoking areas was sufficient and that smokers' rights would be ignored.

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• Is Japan’s 2020 Olympic bid going up in smoke?  

Japanese national team players, who are idolized by many Japanese schoolgirls, wear Japan Tobacco logos on their shoulders.

Visitors to Japan are often surprised to see the kind of cigarette advertising that has long been outlawed in most countries. Ads at sporting events, in particular, seem especially out of place.

At volleyball matches, which are a big deal in Japan, many of the fans are screaming teenage girls, but one tobacco company's ads are as ubiquitous as the cute mascots, inflatable clappers and TV cameras that broadcast Japan�s games in prime time. . . .

At this year's event, Japan national team members wore a Japan Tobacco logo on their shoulders. . . .

Japan Tobacco says it "abides by all laws and voluntary codes in Japan," where 40 percent of males and 10 percent of females smoke.

"Nowhere in our corporate sponsorship of volleyball games do we advertise our cigarette brands or products," the company said in an unsigned email. . . .

TV broadcast the Japan Tobacco logo around the world during action between U.S. and Japanese players at the FIVB World Cup of Volleyball in Tokyo.

Dr. Manabu Sakuta, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Japan Society for Tobacco Control, which includes 2,500 doctors and 12 lawyers, calls it "complete nonsense."

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• Tobacco sponsorship of sports could doom Japan's Olympic bid 

Japan risks losing its bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games because of growing local and international opposition to the national tobacco corporation's sponsorship of World Cup volleyball, which attracts millions of women and schoolgirls.

A United Nations agency, an international group of nongovernmental organizations and hundreds of antismoking activists and doctors in Japan are calling on Japan Tobacco, the world's third-largest cigarette maker, to halt its sponsorship of World Cup matches, which includes players from the United States and other nations that forbid tobacco advertising at sporting events.

A group of 2,500 doctors here also says tobacco sponsorship could hurt Japan's bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

Japan Tobacco insists it is doing nothing wrong under Japanese law and points out that it is promoting the corporation's beverage division, not its cigarette products, at the monthlong volleyball tournament, which ends Sunday.

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• Japan's smoking population falls again 

-The proportion of adult Japanese smokers, at 21.7 per cent, is down by 2.2 percentage points on the figure for 2010, according to a Japan Tobacco Inc survey conducted in August.

The fall in the incidence of smoking is probably not surprising given the huge price and tax hike of October 1 last year, which separated the 2010 and 2011 surveys.

Smoking among adult men is down by 2.9 percentage points to 33.7 per cent, while smoking among adult women is down by 1.5 percentage points to 10.6 per cent.

JT has conducted its Japan Smoking Rate Survey annually since 1965.

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Super slim Mild Seven cigarettes for Japanese market 

Japan Tobacco Inc is to launch two super slim variants of its Mild Seven brand.

Mild Seven Style Plus 6 and Mild Seven Style Plus One will go on sale across Japan in the middle of January.

In announcing the planned launch, JT said that consumer needs were becoming increasingly diverse and that, in particular, there was a rapidly growing demand for super-slim products.

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• Japan Tobacco accused of marketing to girls at World Cup volleyball  

Anti-smoking campaigners in Japan are accusing one of the world's leading tobacco companies of marketing products to teenage girls at World Cup volleyball events here.

Japan Tobacco's logo (JT) is on the national team uniforms, court-side digital billboards, TV ads and "gift" packages handed out to schoolgirls, mothers and children entering Yoyogi National Stadium and arenas across Japan during the World Cup, which runs until Dec. 4.

While the United States, European Union and other industrialized countries have long banned tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events, Japan Tobacco has been a major promoter of volleyball, helping to make the sport popular among schoolgirls. Japan has hosted every World Cup since 1977, and three of the last four world championships.

Japan Tobacco also sponsors a national team starring the country's top player, Yoshie Takeshita.

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Japanese students recycle cigarette butts into T-shirts 

A group of Japanese students have invented a way of turning cigarette butts into fabric.

A number of companies in the Osaka region have also become involved in spinning and weaving the threads into a fabric, of which around 30 per cent is directly from the butts Photo: ALAMY

The unusual recycling project involves the students collecting old cigarette butts from outlets such as local pachinko parlours and gas stations.

After employing a technique developed by scientists to reduce harmful toxins, the threads are then woven into a fabric before being used to make T-shirts, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

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