Thursday, June 12 2008
In this report from Reuters by Yoko Kubota, Japan's Kanagawa region is proposing to enact the nation's first public smoking ban. Restaurant and cafe associations are already concerned about losing business if the ban ever takes effect.
Kanagawa prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, plans to pass a regulation by the end of this year that would make all public places smoke-free as part of efforts to fight cancer, which is the leading cause of death in the region.
"More and more countries are banning smoking in bars and recreational facilities," Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa told association leaders in a meeting on Thursday. "Once smoking is banned, there are cases of an increase in new customers, such as families."
Representatives of the restaurant and cafe associations said at the meeting that smaller cafes and bars would be hit hard if smoking was banned on their premises, participants said.
Japan's Kanagawa prefecture eyes smoking ban
