5 ms·

Osaka bans smoking on all of its streets, vaping included

114 points by askl 2y ago

RobinHirst11 2y ago
Now we need every city to do this.
bko 2y ago
The cultural shift against smoking cigarettes over the last 2 decades has been fun to watch. Ironically, at the same time there has been an acceptance of smoking weed. You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed, regardless of place and time of day. Not that one is better than the other per-se. But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? At least bottomless brunch is reserved for the weekend.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- skyyler 2y ago
  >What does this guy's day look like? There are a number of people that work while you sleep. When I worked midnight shifts, 7am was my 6pm, if that makes sense.
- kyleblarson 2y ago
  It would be ill advised to try smoking weed in public in Osaka.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  I’ve never seen someone high on cannabis be a danger to others, and cannabis smoke airs out pretty easily, as opposed to cigarette smoke that sticks to everything and doesn’t go away. Not that cannabis smoke isn’t annoying, but it’s far less annoying than cigarette smoke ever was.
  - bko 2y ago
    > I’ve never seen someone high on cannabis be a danger to others I think driving while high is dangerous and inexplicably very accepted in society. But my comment wasn't "they're hurting someone by choosing to smoke weed". It's more I feel bad that they're inebriated for much of their day and for me that's kind of sad. I've known pot-heads before and they're not exactly living their best lives and are often dependent on a substance to make it through the day.
    - lotsofpulp 2y ago
      Driving while high on anything is already illegal. Just like driving while distracted, but using mobile phones while driving is far more accepted than any other dangerous activity.
    - dole 2y ago
      Coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, weed, Wellbutrin, Xanax... with all things, people metabolize and tolerate all types of substances differently to help us make it through the day.
  - nytesky 2y ago
    I’m pretty sure anyone high cannabis is a danger to others while driving? The smell of weed does not air out — every taxi I get into stinks of it constantly. Not only that, it has a much greater range - I usually saw a cigarette smoker but I can smell weed on the street and not see them at all. And my car air filter kept out cigarette odor when on recirculate, but some how weed gets through and I have to close and turn the whole system off to have any hope of not stinking up my car. The number of people smoking weed while driving is honestly scary I hope Osaka’s approach spreads
    - lotsofpulp 2y ago
      It goes without saying that being high on anything while driving is dangerous to others. Although, in my experience, people high on cannabis just drive dangerously slow. This differs from drugs like alcohol, which inherently increase people’s propensity to be a danger to others. I guess we have had different experiences with the smell of cannabis, but back from when I worked in a hotel, the protocol for when a person smoked cannabis in a room was to just leave the window and door open for 15 minutes, and no one would be the wiser after that. Whereas, if someone smoked cigarettes in the room, the cleaning process was far more costly.
- Ensorceled 2y ago
  > Not that one is better than the other per-se. Smoking weed is CLEARLY, OVERWHELMINGLY better than smoking tobacco by being less addictive and MUCH less likely to cause various cancers.
  - jim180 2y ago
    I wonder, if one smoked one joint per hour (like tobacco) for 30 years, what the end game would be?
    - ceejayoz 2y ago
      But no one does that.
  - op00to 2y ago
    Smoking is still bad, weed or tobacco or crack or whatever. I think cannabis is plenty addictive.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    Yes, but too often people hear that and sub in "harmless", which it's absolutely not. "Better than tobacco" is one of the easiest bars for any drug to clear, and weed is not by any stretch of the imagination harmless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRaI0ZeAf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRaI0ZeAf8
    - portaouflop 2y ago
      Nothing is really completely harmless if you think about it - but I agree that weed is more dangerous than it’s made out to be often. I think the same applies to every socially accepted drug, such as coffee, alcohol, ibuprofen etc
      - lolinder 2y ago
        Yeah, "nothing is really completely harmless" is used to justify all kinds of harm. Nothing is completely harmless, but some things are more harmful than others, and at least with adolescents weed isn't even in the same ballpark as coffee or ibuprofen.
- portaouflop 2y ago
  I think the same when I see people chugging a fat black coffee the moment they wake up. I wouldn’t be able to focus at all, constant jitters - how can these people all work effectively while being strung out on caffeine? The answer is it’s all about tolerance and what drugs are social acceptable. The guy who smokes all day just gets back to baseline with his first joint in the day, he’s not actually high as you would be if you did that - same as with the caffeine addicts. I think in a free society everyone should be able to put in their body what they believe is good for them - it’s a bit more complicated in real life but still…
  - Cumpiler69 2y ago
    If someone drinks coffee in public, nobody around them gets "passive coffee drinking", in order to be a public nuisance like smokers.
    - nindalf 2y ago
      Just so we're clear, you're talking about weed smokers like the GP? You've gotten passively stoned?
      - portaouflop 2y ago
        It’s hard to do but if you would be in a locked room with a bunch of lit joints going around you probably can get moderately passively stoned.
        skyyler 2y ago
        That's a bit different than the public nuisance claims. I suppose you'd want to avoid a cannabis sauna if you want to avoid getting passively stoned.
        portaouflop 2y ago
        Yea I wrote it more to illustrate that the “getting passively stoned from smoke on the street” argument is kinda ridiculous
- asoneth 2y ago
  > You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed Interesting, this has not been my experience. Certainly smoking weed is much more accepted than it used to be and cigarettes are less accepted than they used to be, but it seems like they've both ended up in a similar category. A non-smoker walking down the sidewalk might stay further away from someone smoking weed but I'm not sure it's a value judgement so much as the fact that the skunky smell seems to travel further. Though besides giving them a wide berth and maybe causing people to scrunch up their nose, I've never seen anyone get harassed for either unless they're in a nonsmoking area or a playground or something and in that case I haven't noticed any difference in people's response.
- high_na_euv 2y ago
  >You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed, regardless of place and time of day. I think it may be just your bubble Ive never saw someone casually smoking weed on streets
  - shermantanktop 2y ago
    Just saw someone smoking weed using a beer can as a pipe, waiting for the bus, at 11am. This was in Seattle. It’s common here. And the smell, it lingers and wafts down the block, ugh.
  - ses1984 2y ago
    If you walk around busy areas of Manhattan (or any sufficiently busy metro area where weed is legal (and even some where it’s not)) you will smell weed at any time of day. It’s the first thing my coworkers remarked on when they visited our ny offices from out of the country.
- dingnuts 2y ago
  > But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. This isn't even socially accepted among stoners who smoke every day once you're old enough to have a job. Not sure who you are hanging out with but people who are high all day every day are one of two things: 1 addicts, and considered so even by stoners, who have crazy tolerance and like alcoholics can function under the influence better than non addicts or 2 they have a terrible painful disease like ankylosing spondylitis and the only effect of the cannabis is a slight reduction in pain because when your spine is pinched you don't get as much of the euphoria and whatnot from pot Hope that clears it up
- whateveracct 2y ago
  > someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? You realize the high from a joint only last a couple hours, right? He could go out to breakfast (always a fun high activity), people watch a bit (again), and then go for a walk in the park or listen to some music or whatever. And then spend the rest of the day sober. Could even go into the office fine lol. Or keep smoking weed (that's okay too).
- dec0dedab0de 2y ago
  But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? Chemicals affect people differently. There are some high energy, high anxiety people who can be very productive on all kinds of substances that would make me useless all day. That said, there are also a ton of stoners just doing nothing all day. I get it though, when I was a teenager working at bestbuy I got high just to make it through the day. Now that I have to think at work it is unimaginable. It really is strange how having a beer with breakfast is somehow worse societally than smoking a joint. I think we’re going to see pushback against cannabis abuse in the next few decades. Hopefully after it’s fully legal.
- elpocko 2y ago
  >What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? It's a matter of experience and tolerance. A heavy weed smoker doesn't get "high" in the same way as someone who only smokes on occasion. You get a buzz, a slight alteration of your inner state, but there is no huge impairment. For some people, especially those who work intellectually and creatively, it's quite the opposite actually.
- ubermonkey 2y ago
  >But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. Not everyone works a business day. 7AM on a weekday may be a day off, or may be someone on 3rd shift coming home and unwinding. Weed is also not really like booze. There are no end of jobs where being a little high is probably a net positive.
- anal_reactor 2y ago
  I think the problem is that at some point cigarette smokers started terrorizing the rest of the society, assuming that every space is smoking space. This doesn't really happen with weed, at least not to same extent
potato3732842 2y ago
I'm gonna ask the same thing I asked when some city in Spain did this. What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke? I'm not sure what a "reasonable" carve out for these people would look like but people aren't idiots and they tend to resent individuals, groups and institutions that make their daily behavior unlawful with the stroke of a pen and the more policy subjects on which you do that the more resentment you build and eventually it starts road blocking other actions. Doing things that way is not what sustainable government looks like. (edit: Disclaimer before anyone jumps down my throat, obviously the political realities of public policy and compliance are different in Japan than in the west.)
- amelius 2y ago
  Maybe these people can use one of these bags, but inside-out? [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/zultws/in_japanese_hotel_rooms_they_have_plastic_bags_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/zultws/i...
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  > What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke? You switch to vaping (public health win!) or you move.
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    I agree vaping is a big public health improvement (not that I'm a particular fan of it) over smoking but they banned that too... Nobody is gonna move over smoking. They're just gonna resent you. And that'll hamstring your next public health action or whatever because the political will just won't be there.
    - ceejayoz 2y ago
      They banned vaping in public streets, not private homes. I can't speak for Japan, but around here most "no smoking" landlords permit vaping.
tallanvor 2y ago
It was really amazing to see how little smoking is visible in Tokyo and Osaka these days, even taking vaping into account. I don't know what the smoking/vaping rates are, but it's increasingly confined to homes or small smoking areas which makes things much nicer if you're a non-smoker. The fine is small, but I think in Japan the shame is probably the real punishment - 1000 yen might buy you two beers in a bar.
- Escapado 2y ago
  I am currently living in Tokyo and for the most part smoking is prohibited except for designated smoking areas. And while compared to Germany way less people seem to smoke and mostly follow the rules I see about one or two people during my commute every day who will vape or smoke either while walking or standing on the corner of a non-busy street. So not everyone cares but luckily most people do and I wish it was like this everywhere!
martin_henk 2y ago
Japan is already pretty deep into the smokefree thing. Crazy proof about how adaptive the Japan team is
NanoYohaneTSU 2y ago
[flagged]
ggddv 2y ago
Fire department disbanded
aaron695 2y ago
[dead]
user9999999999 2y ago
cool now do something about car exhaust.
- cwmoore 2y ago
  Whataboutism has bite
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  Doesn't Japan already have one of the most non-car extensive transit systems on the planet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Keihanshin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Keihanshin > Public transport within Keihanshin is dominated by an extensive public system, beginning with an urban rail network second only to that of Greater Tokyo, consisting of over seventy railway lines of surface trains and subways run by numerous operators; buses, monorails, and trams support the primary rail network. Over 13 million people use the public transit system daily as their primary means of travel. Like Tokyo, walking and bicycling are much more common than in many cities around the globe. Trips by bicycle (including joint trips with railway) in Osaka is at 33.9% with railway trips alone having the highest share at 36.4%, the combined railway share (rail alone, rail and bus, rail and bicycle) is at 45.7%. Walking alone has a modal share of 8.5%. Private automobiles and motorcycles play a secondary role in urban transport with private automobiles only having a 9.9% modal share in Osaka.
  - user9999999999 2y ago
    That is a very good point. Admittedly, my comment was a little knee-jerk. I just wish the world could vilify car exhaust with the same gusto that cigarette smoke gets. But it is instead very normalized
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
tkgally 2y ago
Twice last year, I went into a coffee shop in Osaka to kill some time and the shop turned out to allow smoking, so I left. I was surprised both times, as that hasn’t happened to me in Yokohama (where I live) or Tokyo for a long time. One of the shops [1] was in Taisho Ward, and the other [2] was in the basement of one of the Osaka Eki-mae buildings—both places with a working-class, nontrendy atmosphere. [1] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270401/27077305/ https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270401/27077305/ [2] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270101/27060170/ https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270101/27060170/
cpldcpu 2y ago
Coming up next and already happening: Alcohol is phased out.
- askl 2y ago
  But drinking with coworkers is an important part of work culture in Japan. So seems unlikely.
  - cpldcpu 2y ago
    good point, it's certainly more of a trend with the younger generation and in the west. But even living in a country that is perceived as "beer centric", i noticed that people are starting to be much more conscious of their alcohol consumption after covid. For the young generation, alcohol does not seem to play as big a role anymore and i would expect that this carries over to their work-life once they enter the work force.
    - anal_reactor 2y ago
      I come from a country where heavy drinking was extremely normalized and common. Then the society completely shifted. Bringing vodka used to be the default thing to do when invited anywhere, nowadays you can't get people to drink a beer with you. I looked into statistics, and turns out, people didn't stop drinking, they actually drink much more, what changed is that drinking stopped being a social activity, and now is a solo introvert home activity. I think that's the real societal shift.
krispyfi 2y ago
Here, "vaping" is a mistranslation. The law actually refers to 加熱式たばこ, or "heated tobacco products" (HTP), which contain tobacco leaf just like regular cigarettes, but don't combust. On the other hand, nicotine vapes are classified as medical devices and have never been approved for sale, but technically individuals can import them. The evidence for HTPs being healthier than cigarettes is thin. I believe that overregulation of nicotine vapes is a form of protectionism for Japan Tobacco, which the Government of Japan owns a large stake in. This is a clear conflict of interest.
- 93po 2y ago
  If it's not fully combusting the leaves, it seems like it must be massively healthier. Not healthy, of course, but better.

114 points by askl 2y ago

Now we need every city to do this.

bko 2y ago

The cultural shift against smoking cigarettes over the last 2 decades has been fun to watch. Ironically, at the same time there has been an acceptance of smoking weed. You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed, regardless of place and time of day. Not that one is better than the other per-se. But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? At least bottomless brunch is reserved for the weekend.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
skyyler 2y ago
>What does this guy's day look like? There are a number of people that work while you sleep. When I worked midnight shifts, 7am was my 6pm, if that makes sense.
kyleblarson 2y ago
It would be ill advised to try smoking weed in public in Osaka.
lotsofpulp 2y ago
I’ve never seen someone high on cannabis be a danger to others, and cannabis smoke airs out pretty easily, as opposed to cigarette smoke that sticks to everything and doesn’t go away. Not that cannabis smoke isn’t annoying, but it’s far less annoying than cigarette smoke ever was.
- bko 2y ago
  > I’ve never seen someone high on cannabis be a danger to others I think driving while high is dangerous and inexplicably very accepted in society. But my comment wasn't "they're hurting someone by choosing to smoke weed". It's more I feel bad that they're inebriated for much of their day and for me that's kind of sad. I've known pot-heads before and they're not exactly living their best lives and are often dependent on a substance to make it through the day.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    Driving while high on anything is already illegal. Just like driving while distracted, but using mobile phones while driving is far more accepted than any other dangerous activity.
  - dole 2y ago
    Coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, weed, Wellbutrin, Xanax... with all things, people metabolize and tolerate all types of substances differently to help us make it through the day.
- nytesky 2y ago
  I’m pretty sure anyone high cannabis is a danger to others while driving? The smell of weed does not air out — every taxi I get into stinks of it constantly. Not only that, it has a much greater range - I usually saw a cigarette smoker but I can smell weed on the street and not see them at all. And my car air filter kept out cigarette odor when on recirculate, but some how weed gets through and I have to close and turn the whole system off to have any hope of not stinking up my car. The number of people smoking weed while driving is honestly scary I hope Osaka’s approach spreads
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    It goes without saying that being high on anything while driving is dangerous to others. Although, in my experience, people high on cannabis just drive dangerously slow. This differs from drugs like alcohol, which inherently increase people’s propensity to be a danger to others. I guess we have had different experiences with the smell of cannabis, but back from when I worked in a hotel, the protocol for when a person smoked cannabis in a room was to just leave the window and door open for 15 minutes, and no one would be the wiser after that. Whereas, if someone smoked cigarettes in the room, the cleaning process was far more costly.
Ensorceled 2y ago
> Not that one is better than the other per-se. Smoking weed is CLEARLY, OVERWHELMINGLY better than smoking tobacco by being less addictive and MUCH less likely to cause various cancers.
- jim180 2y ago
  I wonder, if one smoked one joint per hour (like tobacco) for 30 years, what the end game would be?
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    But no one does that.
- op00to 2y ago
  Smoking is still bad, weed or tobacco or crack or whatever. I think cannabis is plenty addictive.
- lolinder 2y ago
  Yes, but too often people hear that and sub in "harmless", which it's absolutely not. "Better than tobacco" is one of the easiest bars for any drug to clear, and weed is not by any stretch of the imagination harmless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRaI0ZeAf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRaI0ZeAf8
  - portaouflop 2y ago
    Nothing is really completely harmless if you think about it - but I agree that weed is more dangerous than it’s made out to be often. I think the same applies to every socially accepted drug, such as coffee, alcohol, ibuprofen etc
    - lolinder 2y ago
      Yeah, "nothing is really completely harmless" is used to justify all kinds of harm. Nothing is completely harmless, but some things are more harmful than others, and at least with adolescents weed isn't even in the same ballpark as coffee or ibuprofen.
portaouflop 2y ago
I think the same when I see people chugging a fat black coffee the moment they wake up. I wouldn’t be able to focus at all, constant jitters - how can these people all work effectively while being strung out on caffeine? The answer is it’s all about tolerance and what drugs are social acceptable. The guy who smokes all day just gets back to baseline with his first joint in the day, he’s not actually high as you would be if you did that - same as with the caffeine addicts. I think in a free society everyone should be able to put in their body what they believe is good for them - it’s a bit more complicated in real life but still…
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  If someone drinks coffee in public, nobody around them gets "passive coffee drinking", in order to be a public nuisance like smokers.
  - nindalf 2y ago
    Just so we're clear, you're talking about weed smokers like the GP? You've gotten passively stoned?
    - portaouflop 2y ago
      It’s hard to do but if you would be in a locked room with a bunch of lit joints going around you probably can get moderately passively stoned.
      - skyyler 2y ago
        That's a bit different than the public nuisance claims. I suppose you'd want to avoid a cannabis sauna if you want to avoid getting passively stoned.
        portaouflop 2y ago
        Yea I wrote it more to illustrate that the “getting passively stoned from smoke on the street” argument is kinda ridiculous
asoneth 2y ago
> You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed Interesting, this has not been my experience. Certainly smoking weed is much more accepted than it used to be and cigarettes are less accepted than they used to be, but it seems like they've both ended up in a similar category. A non-smoker walking down the sidewalk might stay further away from someone smoking weed but I'm not sure it's a value judgement so much as the fact that the skunky smell seems to travel further. Though besides giving them a wide berth and maybe causing people to scrunch up their nose, I've never seen anyone get harassed for either unless they're in a nonsmoking area or a playground or something and in that case I haven't noticed any difference in people's response.
high_na_euv 2y ago
>You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed, regardless of place and time of day. I think it may be just your bubble Ive never saw someone casually smoking weed on streets
- shermantanktop 2y ago
  Just saw someone smoking weed using a beer can as a pipe, waiting for the bus, at 11am. This was in Seattle. It’s common here. And the smell, it lingers and wafts down the block, ugh.
- ses1984 2y ago
  If you walk around busy areas of Manhattan (or any sufficiently busy metro area where weed is legal (and even some where it’s not)) you will smell weed at any time of day. It’s the first thing my coworkers remarked on when they visited our ny offices from out of the country.
dingnuts 2y ago
> But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. This isn't even socially accepted among stoners who smoke every day once you're old enough to have a job. Not sure who you are hanging out with but people who are high all day every day are one of two things: 1 addicts, and considered so even by stoners, who have crazy tolerance and like alcoholics can function under the influence better than non addicts or 2 they have a terrible painful disease like ankylosing spondylitis and the only effect of the cannabis is a slight reduction in pain because when your spine is pinched you don't get as much of the euphoria and whatnot from pot Hope that clears it up
whateveracct 2y ago
> someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? You realize the high from a joint only last a couple hours, right? He could go out to breakfast (always a fun high activity), people watch a bit (again), and then go for a walk in the park or listen to some music or whatever. And then spend the rest of the day sober. Could even go into the office fine lol. Or keep smoking weed (that's okay too).
dec0dedab0de 2y ago
But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? Chemicals affect people differently. There are some high energy, high anxiety people who can be very productive on all kinds of substances that would make me useless all day. That said, there are also a ton of stoners just doing nothing all day. I get it though, when I was a teenager working at bestbuy I got high just to make it through the day. Now that I have to think at work it is unimaginable. It really is strange how having a beer with breakfast is somehow worse societally than smoking a joint. I think we’re going to see pushback against cannabis abuse in the next few decades. Hopefully after it’s fully legal.
elpocko 2y ago
>What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? It's a matter of experience and tolerance. A heavy weed smoker doesn't get "high" in the same way as someone who only smokes on occasion. You get a buzz, a slight alteration of your inner state, but there is no huge impairment. For some people, especially those who work intellectually and creatively, it's quite the opposite actually.
ubermonkey 2y ago
>But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. Not everyone works a business day. 7AM on a weekday may be a day off, or may be someone on 3rd shift coming home and unwinding. Weed is also not really like booze. There are no end of jobs where being a little high is probably a net positive.
anal_reactor 2y ago
I think the problem is that at some point cigarette smokers started terrorizing the rest of the society, assuming that every space is smoking space. This doesn't really happen with weed, at least not to same extent

potato3732842 2y ago

I'm gonna ask the same thing I asked when some city in Spain did this. What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke? I'm not sure what a "reasonable" carve out for these people would look like but people aren't idiots and they tend to resent individuals, groups and institutions that make their daily behavior unlawful with the stroke of a pen and the more policy subjects on which you do that the more resentment you build and eventually it starts road blocking other actions. Doing things that way is not what sustainable government looks like. (edit: Disclaimer before anyone jumps down my throat, obviously the political realities of public policy and compliance are different in Japan than in the west.)

amelius 2y ago
Maybe these people can use one of these bags, but inside-out? [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/zultws/in_japanese_hotel_rooms_they_have_plastic_bags_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/zultws/i...
ceejayoz 2y ago
> What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke? You switch to vaping (public health win!) or you move.
- potato3732842 2y ago
  I agree vaping is a big public health improvement (not that I'm a particular fan of it) over smoking but they banned that too... Nobody is gonna move over smoking. They're just gonna resent you. And that'll hamstring your next public health action or whatever because the political will just won't be there.
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    They banned vaping in public streets, not private homes. I can't speak for Japan, but around here most "no smoking" landlords permit vaping.

tallanvor 2y ago

It was really amazing to see how little smoking is visible in Tokyo and Osaka these days, even taking vaping into account. I don't know what the smoking/vaping rates are, but it's increasingly confined to homes or small smoking areas which makes things much nicer if you're a non-smoker. The fine is small, but I think in Japan the shame is probably the real punishment - 1000 yen might buy you two beers in a bar.

Escapado 2y ago
I am currently living in Tokyo and for the most part smoking is prohibited except for designated smoking areas. And while compared to Germany way less people seem to smoke and mostly follow the rules I see about one or two people during my commute every day who will vape or smoke either while walking or standing on the corner of a non-busy street. So not everyone cares but luckily most people do and I wish it was like this everywhere!

martin_henk 2y ago

Japan is already pretty deep into the smokefree thing. Crazy proof about how adaptive the Japan team is

NanoYohaneTSU 2y ago

[flagged]

ggddv 2y ago

Fire department disbanded

aaron695 2y ago

[dead]

user9999999999 2y ago

cool now do something about car exhaust.

cwmoore 2y ago
Whataboutism has bite
ceejayoz 2y ago
Doesn't Japan already have one of the most non-car extensive transit systems on the planet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Keihanshin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Keihanshin > Public transport within Keihanshin is dominated by an extensive public system, beginning with an urban rail network second only to that of Greater Tokyo, consisting of over seventy railway lines of surface trains and subways run by numerous operators; buses, monorails, and trams support the primary rail network. Over 13 million people use the public transit system daily as their primary means of travel. Like Tokyo, walking and bicycling are much more common than in many cities around the globe. Trips by bicycle (including joint trips with railway) in Osaka is at 33.9% with railway trips alone having the highest share at 36.4%, the combined railway share (rail alone, rail and bus, rail and bicycle) is at 45.7%. Walking alone has a modal share of 8.5%. Private automobiles and motorcycles play a secondary role in urban transport with private automobiles only having a 9.9% modal share in Osaka.
- user9999999999 2y ago
  That is a very good point. Admittedly, my comment was a little knee-jerk. I just wish the world could vilify car exhaust with the same gusto that cigarette smoke gets. But it is instead very normalized

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tkgally 2y ago

Twice last year, I went into a coffee shop in Osaka to kill some time and the shop turned out to allow smoking, so I left. I was surprised both times, as that hasn’t happened to me in Yokohama (where I live) or Tokyo for a long time. One of the shops [1] was in Taisho Ward, and the other [2] was in the basement of one of the Osaka Eki-mae buildings—both places with a working-class, nontrendy atmosphere. [1] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270401/27077305/ https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270401/27077305/ [2] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270101/27060170/ https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270101/27060170/

cpldcpu 2y ago

Coming up next and already happening: Alcohol is phased out.

askl 2y ago
But drinking with coworkers is an important part of work culture in Japan. So seems unlikely.
- cpldcpu 2y ago
  good point, it's certainly more of a trend with the younger generation and in the west. But even living in a country that is perceived as "beer centric", i noticed that people are starting to be much more conscious of their alcohol consumption after covid. For the young generation, alcohol does not seem to play as big a role anymore and i would expect that this carries over to their work-life once they enter the work force.
  - anal_reactor 2y ago
    I come from a country where heavy drinking was extremely normalized and common. Then the society completely shifted. Bringing vodka used to be the default thing to do when invited anywhere, nowadays you can't get people to drink a beer with you. I looked into statistics, and turns out, people didn't stop drinking, they actually drink much more, what changed is that drinking stopped being a social activity, and now is a solo introvert home activity. I think that's the real societal shift.

krispyfi 2y ago

Here, "vaping" is a mistranslation. The law actually refers to 加熱式たばこ, or "heated tobacco products" (HTP), which contain tobacco leaf just like regular cigarettes, but don't combust. On the other hand, nicotine vapes are classified as medical devices and have never been approved for sale, but technically individuals can import them. The evidence for HTPs being healthier than cigarettes is thin. I believe that overregulation of nicotine vapes is a form of protectionism for Japan Tobacco, which the Government of Japan owns a large stake in. This is a clear conflict of interest.

93po 2y ago
If it's not fully combusting the leaves, it seems like it must be massively healthier. Not healthy, of course, but better.