EDITORIAL: Closing loopholes in anti-smoking law requires a public consensus

Less than a year is left before an amended Health Promotion Law, aimed at preventing secondhand smoke, will take full effect.

To start with, the premises of schools, hospitals and administrative agencies will become smoke-free, in principle, from July this year. Restaurants, workplaces and other areas will follow suit next April.

Officials had initially hoped to have the anti-smoking measures in effect before the Rugby World Cup is held this coming autumn. But the law was enacted much later than expected because consensus among opinions faced rough going within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

As a result, the measures will take effect only just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games. Public notification efforts and other preparations should be made in good time so as not to cause confusion.

The amended law, in fact, has its own defects. An exception to the regulations was made for existing small restaurants operated by individuals or small and midsize businesses.

Many people, however, visit similar establishments, so the loophole should be promptly reviewed.

A saving grace comes from independent measures being taken by local governments to make up for the defects in the law.

In Tokyo, an ordinance will be in effect next spring to ban smoking, except in smoking rooms, at restaurants with at least one employee, regardless of the business scale and other circumstances. An ordinance has also been adopted to the same effect in the city of Chiba.

These moves certainly amount to progress, even though they still run short of a total ban on indoor smoking, which is recommended by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The city of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, has approved an ordinance that subjects heated tobacco products (HTPs) to the same rules that apply to cigarettes, although the former is handled differently in the measures being taken by the central government.

There is a report saying that toxic substances are contained in the exhalation of HTP smokers. The latest step taken by the city is based on the statement of an academic society saying that the use of HTPs should not be allowed in public areas.

Steps being taken in the private sector also deserve attention.

Skylark Holdings Co., an operator of restaurant chains, will impose a total smoking ban from September on the premises of its more than 3,000 group restaurants. Existing smoking booths will be remodeled into spaces usable for changing diapers or breast-feeding, company officials said.

Eliminating smoking areas, however, is not the end of all problems.

One university began receiving complaints from local residents saying that more people were smoking near the campus gate and on the street after the university had banned smoking on campus.

To prevent similar problems, another university has gone to the trouble of setting up a new smoking corner in an “area that nobody usually enters,” where an exception is made under the amended law.

The city of Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, decided to build a smoking room of a leak-tight type in exchange for banning smoking on the street in areas around train stations. A budget of 4 million yen ($36,500) that was set aside for building it, however, stirred up a storm of pros and cons about the wisdom of spending so much money.

Let us ask who will be bearing the cost, and in what manner, for eliminating health damage from secondhand smoke while providing support for those who wish to quit smoking.

Some businesses and universities say they are no longer hiring smokers. That raises the question of how the “freedom of smoking” should be understood and to what extent intervention should be deemed permissible.

Today is World No Tobacco Day, which kicks off a “no tobacco week” in Japan.

There should be in-depth discussions on the matter so we can reach social common ground.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 31