Big Tobacco Sign Boards and Flushing Bending Tobacco Machines
 
(L) A convenience store and a big standing signboard showing tobacco sale
in Tokyo
(R) Tobacco retail store in Tokyo, February 2009
Big tobacco sign boards in the city of Tokyo and other major cities are
very common,
and most all inhabitants do not feel that is quite unusual things in the
world.
「たばこ」＝Tobacco
A tobacco sale counter on the basement of Sanno Park Tower, Tokyo,
where the headquarter office of Philip Morris Japan locates on the 22nd
floor, October 2010.
A tobacco display in the convenient store of Sanno Park Tower, Tokyo, in
October 2010
 
(L) ''Breath Sparkling Shot'' -menthol tobacco advertisement (R) A display
said 'Your life is your story' LARK.
These photographs were taken at Chiyoda City, Tokyo, in November 2011.
In Tokyo and other big cities, Tobacco bending machines are placing in
a few minute-walk
distances. Some machine has a colorful flushing light in the front panel
of tobacco display.
 
Tobacco retail store and tobacco vending machine in Tokyo, February 2009
 
(L) It is obvious that a store is doing a cigarette campaign by the name
of preventing tobacco sales to the minors.
(R) The photo shows an automatic vending machine for tobacco sale. The
price of cigarette is ranged from 290 yen to 320 Yen a pack.
One US dollar = 90 Japanese Yen, in October 2009
 
A convenience store in Ueno, Tokyo placed a new notice at the entrance,
saying we started to sell tobacco.
March 2010
Cigarette sales by an automatic vending machine in Japan
たばこ自販機の普及台数と販売金額
The line graph shows a steady increase until recently.
ーーーーー The number of cigarette vending machine
ーーーーー The cigarette sales proceeds
Numbers of a cigarette vending machine on yearly base
70=700,000
Sales proceed 35,000=3.5 trillion yen ( 90 yen = 1 US dollar )
引用：日本自動販売機工業会「自販機普及台数及び年間自販金額」
(Source: Japan Vending Machine Manufactures Association)
 International comparison of cigarette prices and taxes
タバコ価格および税率の国際比較
Smokers in Japan will no longer be able to buy cigarettes from vending
machines from 2009,
without an ID card that says they are adults. Under a new system that aims
to make it
harder for minors to buy tobacco. All of Japan's 570,000 cigarette vending
machines will
require a smart card called 'taspo', an access card to buy tobacco, issued
only to people
who are at least 20, the legal smoking age.
The proportion of Japanese adults who smoke has slipped to 26 percent from
34 percent
a decade ago and a peak of 49 percent in 1966. The company, half-owned
by the government,
said a pilot program for the new vending machines in rural Japan had no
impact on sales.
Source: Reuter 09.10,2007
A TV commercial of campaigning for the ID card, 'Taspo' to buy cigarettes
sponsored by Japan Tobacco Inc.
  
(L) An actor performing in TV commercial how easy to buy a cigarette. At
first, he applied to get the ID card,'paspo'.
(M) It is not necessary to carry a coin, because the card has a function
of electronic money.
(R) It is easy to buy a cigarette, we just touch 'taspo' to a bending machine.
That's all.
 
(L) So convenient to buy a tobacco.
(R) It says your cooperation by using 'taspo' is appreciated, in order
to prevent a minors' smoking.
A 'slim', 10-cigarette size tobacco pack is very attractive to Japanese
women.
11.jpg)  
(L) Virginia Slims, Duo, 10 Menthol Cigarettes ( Philip Morris Products
).
The word of 'slim', and the size of small 10 cigarettes, are attractive
to Japanese women.
(M)(R) Pianissimo 10, A new 10-pack Japanese tobacco, targeted mainly for
young women.
 The way how to sell cigarettes in Thailand, Iceland and Canada
On the other hand, in Thailand, we can buy tobacco at a convenience store,
although, no one can see a tobacco package, unless a customer calls a clerk
to show tobacco packages, because a shatter was placed in the container
of
tobacco in a store.
  
(L) A shatter placed in front of the tobacco container in a convenience store
in Thailand,
to avoid customers' eye fall upon a tobacco package, January 2009
(M) A smoking-kills warning appeared in a cigarette package sold in Thailand.
(R)  In Iceland, a grocery store sells tobacco behind a counter desk, in order
to be not seen by regular customers,
July 2009
 In Ontario, Canada, a grocery store stocks cigarette behind shatter to
avoid customers' eye fall
upon a tobacco package. This photo was taken in October 2010.
日本の都市ではタバコ自販機が徒歩数分の間隔で設置されており、中には周囲が暗くなると
ピカピカ、ライトの点滅するものまである。丁度イカつり漁船が暗闇の中、光をともしてイカを
呼び寄せると同じ方法で喫煙者の購買心をかき立てている。
一方、タイ王国ではタバコのコンビニの専用販売棚のシャッターは常時閉められており、
喫煙者以外の一般人、未成年者の目にふれないように配慮している。タバコ自販機は
勿論、存在しない。タバコ売り場のシャッターはタイで始めて目にしたが、今ではそうした
国民を保護して行こうとする販売方法が他の国にも広がりつつある。先進諸外国ではタバコ
自販機は極めて希であり、販売現場に「タバコは死を呼ぶ」「喫煙者は若死にする」などの
喫煙警告を大きく表示しているところが多い。
根底にある考え方の違いが、こうしたタバコ販売の現場に表現されている。日本政府はJT株式
の50%を保有し筆頭株主である。その構造は政府がタバコ販売で利益を上げることを最優先と
することを基本方針としている。国民の健康は２番目に位置する。海外の先進国では政府が
国民の健康を気遣ってタバコ抑制策を打ち出している。日本および喫煙規制先進国との
販売法の違いの根源はそこにある。
 Cigarette vending machines banned in England.
The sale of tobacco from vending machines has been banned in England, with
anyone caught selling
cigarettes in machines facing a fine of 2,500 pounds.
The Department of Health said the ban had been introduced to prevent under-age
sales to children
and to support adults who were trying to quit. The rest of the UK, Wales
and Northern Ireland plan
to implement similar regulations in 2012. Some pub landlords say it is
a further threat to a livelihood
that has already been damaged by the smoking ban. However, Cancer Research
and the British Heart
Foundation welcomed the move. According to the Departmentof Health, nearly
all adult smokers started
smoking before they turned 18. Of the children who regularly smoke, 11%
buy their cigarettes from
vending machines. It is also estimated that 35 million cigarettes are sold
illegally through vending
machines to children every year. Under the new rules, pub landlords will
still be able to sell cigarettes
from behind the bar, but they must ensure all tobacco advertising on vending
machines is removed.
Any person found guilty of displaying cigarette adverts on a vending machine
could face imprisonment
for up to six months, a fine of 5,000 pounds, or both. Health Secretary
Andrew Lansley said smoking was "
one of the biggest and most stubborn challenges in public health",
with over eight million people in
England still smoking, causing more than 80,000 deaths each year.
BBC News UK October 1, 2011
Japan's tobacco habit runs into court a challenge.
One plaintiff is a cancer patient. Another is represented by his widow.
The third has emphysema and
rolls into the courtroom on a wheelchair with tubes trailing out of his
nose. Three Japanese is waging
a minnow-vs-whale battle in one of the world's most smoker-friendly countries.
However, past judicial
precedents suggest that they are likely to lose, they hope their suit will
at least draw attention to
the dangers of smoking.
She mentioned Japan as a smoker's paradise separated from the wide world.
Japanese government
still owns the 50% of stock of Japan Tobacco Inc.. The 2009 sales of tobacco
were 6.832trillion yen
( $ 72.8 billion ).
Only action to protect children from tobacco hazard was an ID card, called
'taspo', which is necessary
to buy cigarettes from a vending machine. A pack of 20 cigarettes costs
300 yen ( about $2.85 ), a third
of New York Prices. Here, in a small print, they say 'Smoking can be one
of the causes for lung cancer'.
Japan Tobacco officials still flatly deny passive smoking is a problem,
arguing the dangers come from
burning cigarettes left on an ashtray, but not second hand fumes. Cigarette
ads are no longer appeared
on TV, though the tobacco company gets on the air with ads that discourage
tossing butts on the street.
The tobacco company frequently put ID card commercials, in which TV actor
shows how to use 'taspo'
to buy a cigarette at a bending machine, and it is for the purpose to prevent
a teen-age smoking.
 
Cafe Tobacco, a smokers' only coffee shop in Shinbashi, Tokyo
 
Wide-range glass window and Smokers'-only sign board at the entrance.
Non-smoker can't stay in the shop not more than 5 minutes, felt dizzy.
A legal and social acceptance of a notion that much of the world takes
for granted: that smoking makes
you sick. However, in Japan, only few bars and restaurants ban smoking.
In April 2009, a major restaurant
chain opened a cafenamed Cafe Tobacco, a Tokyo coffee shop billing itself
as a haven for smokers.
It has proven popular among customers, who takes his coffee with a cigarette.
A manager Kishi said 'I do
not want to live an extra year or two by giving up what I love to do'.
Source: Yuri Kageyama, Associate Press, 1 Aug. 2009,
A few sentences and photograph were added by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D..
A long-lasting political background of cigarette sales in Japan
NHK TV 2010年10月27日放送
Broadcast by NHK TV October 27, 2010
An ashtray appears to be an important tool for the top politicians. This
photo was taken at the main meting
room of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party
of Japan, frequently abbreviated
to LDP or Jimintoh, is a diversely center to the conservative political
party in Japan. It is one of the most
consistently successful political parties in the world of democracy.
The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding
in 1955
until its defeat in the 2009 election.
They never think about a smoking restriction inside, and always ignore
the Japan's Health Promotion Law.
補正予算案審議に応じるか小沢証言を含め検討する自民党役員会の机にはタバコの
灰皿がずらりと並べられていた。野党第一党の政治家たちは受動喫煙を全く意識して
いない。このような実体が日本以外の国で見られるであろうか。日本の政治はタバコの
存在なしに語ることは出来ない、そうした常識では考えられない世界がある。
 Smokers, Get off sidewalks and go inside.
 Is it impossible to create a smoke-free society in Tokyo?
A smoking habit is a 'disease', or is a 'traditional culture' ??
 Photographs: Health warning for smoking.
2009年2月執筆 2009年8月加筆 2010年10月加筆
「禁煙席ネット」主宰 日本禁煙学会認定専門医 医学博士 宮本順伯
★『禁煙席ネット』 サイトへのリンクは自由
All Photographs were taken by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
Revised in October 2010.
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