Jump to full article: Asahi Shimbum (jp), 2005-03-02
Intro: There's no smoke without fire, as they say. And this maxim was never more true than in the contentious issue of whether ashtrays on city streets serve a wider purpose.
In some Tokyo municipalities, smokers can no longer puff away with impunity in public.
In Shinjuku, ward office officials said they used to be inundated with complaints from nonsmokers about ashtrays on the streets.
People typically griped that the ashtrays encouraged smokers to light up. Often, ashtrays brimming with discarded cigarette butts would smolder and catch fire. Fire trucks had to be dispatched to extinguish them.
Fed up, ward officials finally removed all 300 ashtrays at JR Shinjuku and Takadanobaba stations last year and instead set up five zones for smoking.
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But since the ashtrays were removed, there have been fewer complaints about smoking, Sugihara said.
Elsewhere in the Tokyo metropolitan area, officials remain split on the merits of ashtrays on sidewalks.
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