Tobacco.org

• Tough smoking laws keeping Japanese away 

The Tourism Bureau said yesterday it would coordinate the establishment of smoking rooms at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after a Japanese tourism association complained that the nation’s strict airport smoking ban had kept Japanese tourists away.

During the third Taiwan-Japan Tourism Summit Forum in Nantou, the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) said that an amendment to the Tobacco Hazard Prevention and Control Act (菸害防治法) passed in January last year that limits smoking to certain areas at airports was “threatening” Japanese tourism.

Liu Hsi-lin (劉喜臨), chief secretary of the bureau, said Japanese tourists frequently complained that there were no smoking facilities at the airport, which prompted the airport to create two outdoor smoking terraces in January.

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