A Brief History of Tobacco in Japan

Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, 2016

Korean historians have long noted the importance of tobacco in colonial finances and highlighted the economic exploitation of the farmers and laborers involved in the tobacco production system. However, the economic history of tobacco production is far more complex than can be subsumed under the predominant narratives of colonial exploitation. The production of tobacco in colonial Korea has to be understood within the broader context of Japan’s imperial expansion and the regional competition for the East Asian tobacco market in the early twentieth century. British and American Tobacco (BAT) was a formidable presence in the region, which forced the Japanese to concentrate on markets within the Japanese empire. A new period of expansion commenced after the Manchurian Incident in 1931, and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 allowed for the rapid growth of the Japanese tobacco industry in Manchuria and China. As Japanese imperial tobacco production expanded in colonial Korea, the commodity had an immense impact on Korean society and culture. Korean consumers constructed new cultural meanings and identities around tobacco that varied considerably depending on one’s social status and position within Korean society. Through a nuanced examination of tobacco’s multifaceted interactions within the Japanese empire, we can better understand many important aspects of colonial Korea’s economy, society and culture.

Tobacco Control, 2004

International journal of Asian studies, 2024

Opinions vary in Japan on whether smoking is deviant today, but the behavior, once widely accepted, faces increasing regulation. Recent reforms, moving beyond reliance on nonsmokers' tolerance and smokers' etiquette, impose stricter and more detailed rules on smoking, along with penalties for noncompliance. As the Japanese government's promotional materials note, the reforms move "from manners to rules" (manā kara rūru e). The evolution of Japan's smoking regulations exemplifies a shift toward more legalistic modes of social control. Historically, Japanese governance relied on non-binding "soft law," administrative guidance, and societal cooperation. Legalistic governance, in contrast, hinges on formal rules and proceduralized enforcement mechanisms. This article, drawing on twenty-eight interviews and qualitative analysis of policy deliberations, advocacy organization documents, court rulings, and Japanese news coverage, traces how societal actors contributed to this legalistic turn. Tobacco control advocates filed lawsuits, pursued voluntary changes through local activities, and provided information subsidies to policymakers while lobbying for local and national reforms. They thereby helped de-normalize smoking and render it regulatable. By uncovering bottom-up drivers of legalistic governance and the strategies through which societal actors influence regulatory style, this paper contributes to scholarship on governance, policy diffusion, and law and social change.

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 2013

Tobacco Induced Diseases

Japanese anti-tobacco measures are reviewed and checked the relationship between the FCTC and its changes. Japan is making efforts to follow the FCTC, but it is insufficient and present anti-tobacco measures seem to have only a little impact on decreasing smoking rates. More effective measures should be developed for reducing smoking rates and for making smoke-free society.

Journal of epidemiology / Japan Epidemiological Association, 2015

Despite being a signatory since 2004, Japan has not yet fully implemented Article 8 of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control regarding 100% protection against exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS). The Japanese government still recognizes designated smoking rooms (DSRs) in public space as a valid control measure. Furthermore, subnational initiatives for tobacco control in Japan are of limited effectiveness. Through an analysis of the Hyogo initiative in 2012, we identified key barriers to the achievement of a smoke-free environment. Using a descriptive case-study approach, we analyzed the smoke-free policy development process. The information was obtained from meeting minutes and other gray literature, such as public records, well as key informant interviews. Hyogo Prefecture established a committee to propose measures against SHS, and most committee members agreed with establishing completely smoke-free environments. However, the hospitality sect...

Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2012

2013

Every year, tobacco kills 6 million people in the world of whom 130,000 (2.2%) are from Japan (WHO, 2013). This number is seven times more than the deaths in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which happened in the northern part of the country (National Police Agency of Japan, 2013). Though the adult daily smoking prevalence in Japan is gradually decreasing from 49.4% in 1966 to 25% in 2013, this rate is nearly highest among developed countries and even higher than some other developing countries such as China, Lao and Philippines (with the prevalence of 23%) (WHO, 2011). One of the challenges of Japan to reduce the rate of smoking and implement tobacco control programs is the lack of sanctions strong enough to ban smoking. In fact, the World Health Organization evaluates the national tobacco control policies of Japan are weak (WHO, 2012).

On an 18th-century apocryphal sutra, produced in Korea, that expounds the terrible consequences, for both the country and individuals, of smoking tobacco, with a translation and some background on the history of smoking in Korea.