Until recently, smoking cigarettes was legal inside most restaurants, office buildings and sporting arenas in Japan. 2018’s revised Health Promotion Law finally limited indoor smoking spaces (and some outdoor smoking spaces). (Photo By Nobu Arawaka)
In populous city-centers, smokers of cigarettes are forced to take a pause from their workday and visit a designated outdoor smoking area if they want to light up. (Photo By Nobu Arawaka)
A designated outdoor smoking area in Ebisu resembles a bus stop, with standing ashtrays and surrounding plastic walls. (Photo By Nobu Arawaka)
Smokers wait in line for their turn to enter one of Shibuya’s designated smoking pods. (Photo By Nobu Arawaka)
Another study conducted by researchers working for the American Cancer Society saw the rate of cigarette sales across Japan decline five times faster after the introduction of smoke-free alternatives , from 2% per year between 2011 to 2015 to 10% per year between 2015 to 2018. Meanwhile, the decline of cigarette smoking continues with each passing quarter, as people continue to either quit tobacco or move to alternatives to cigarettes.