Top 10 Reasons Why Japanese Loathe Gaijin (foreigners) …
10. Little Boy
9. Fat Man
8. Missionaries
7. Unfair Trade (!)
6. Cruelty to Women
5. Tobacco
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Smoking Addiction
Tobacco was brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries and traders who were called namban, which means southern barbarians (they arrived in Japan from a southerly direction), mid 16th century. Cultivation of tobacco began soon after and smoking spread among all classes throughout the country mainly by Buddhist monks, who used tobacco seeds as an expedient currency.
Smoking was prohibited by the Tokugawa Shogun early 17th century to stop foreigners manipulating the tobacco market, stamp out spate of fires that started by careless smokers and reverse the growing trend of releasing valuable cropland for tobacco cultivation, though the ban proved ineffective. In 1609 cultivation of tobacco was made illegal by imperial decree and tough penalties were introduced for the violations including capital punishment, seizure of assets, imprisonment and fines; however, the no-smoking law proved unenforceable. To bail the Shogunate out of financial crisis, the ban was eventually repealed in 1625.
More than half the Japanese male population over the age of 15 are addicted to smoking (about the same rate of addiction as the Native Americans in Oklahoma). The rate among Japanese women in the same age group is 15% but rising. [23 percent of Japanese women in their twenties smoke because the advertising campaigns promise smoking helps them stay slim, never mind the bad breath, tainted teeth, lung cancer...]
[Large variations are noted in the smoking-related statistics depending on the source of the data.]
Japanese smokers puffed away at 365 billion cigarettes in the last 12 months, more than 2.5 times the global average [the cigarettes consumption data for Japan varies between 280-380 billion cigarettes depending on the source of the data.] They purchased their fix of the “evil weed” from tobacco stores, liquor stores, supermarkets, convenience stores (there are about 50,000 outlets in Japan where the underage can freely buy cigarettes), on Internet…and the ubiquitous vending machines (more than 500,000 vending machines serve the addicts 24/7 in every nook and cranny throughout the country), making Japan the most smoking addicted nation in the “developed” world. In our prefecture, smokers get their regular fix even while riding a bike.
Japan’s big tobacco seller, Japan Tobacco, or JT, a government monopoly until 1985, is world’s third largest tobacco company with 2006 sales of about $40billion, trailing Altria and British American Tobacco.
The tobacco industry is among the largest revenue sources for the Japanese government contributing about 25 billion dollars a year to the Treasury both in taxes and dividends.
Japan’s Tobacco Business Law stipulates that the government must own at least 50% of Japan Tobacco in perpetuity and, as a matter of national policy, “promote the healthy development of the tobacco industry and ensure stable revenue in the interest of a sound national economy.” The Finance Ministry now owns 50.2% of JT.
Tobacco Business Law also requires every cigarette packet to carry the following ‘warning’: Try not to smoke too much, as it may affect your health.
Smoking related diseases kill more than 100,000 Japanese smokers each year, 50 percent more casualties than the US firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945, which killed about 72,500 people. United States was the enemy!
The author was unable to obtain the even more important data concerning the number of victims of secondhand smoking in Japan.
Smoking Facts
Each year nearly 600 million trees are destroyed to provide fuel to dry tobacco. Put in another way one tree is destroyed for every 300 cigarettes.
Number of cigarettes sold globally in 2006 ~ 5.8 trillion [At least 4.5 trillion [non-biodegradable] filters discarded somewhere in the world.]
Amount of tobacco puffed away (2006) ~ 4,446,000,000 kg;
weight of discarded filters ~ 955,909,091 kg;
volume of discarded filters ~ 2,804,000,000 liters;
cigarette paper consumed ~ 348,000,000 kg;
discarded packaging (excluding promotional materials and advertising) ~ 3,016,000,000 kg; nicotine released to the biosphere ~ 4,640,000 kg;
tar ~ 69,600,000 kg.
Tobacco is a sensitive plant prone to many diseases. It therefore requires huge chemical inputs: up to 16 applications of pesticide are recommended during one three-month growing period. Aldrin and Dieldrin, and DDT are among the chemicals used. Methyl bromide, widely used as a fumigant in developing countries, contributes significantly to ozone depletion.
In 1995 worldwide tobacco manufacturing produced 2.26 billion kilograms of solid waste and 209 million kilograms of chemical waste.
Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half the people that smoke today -that is about 650 million people- will eventually be killed by tobacco.
No. of restaurants, eateries, buffets… in the Japanifik area where children (or adults) could have a meal without the risk of developing blood poisoning as well as heart, kidney and respiratory diseases caused by exposure to secondhand smoking ~ one! [About 120 food outlets were surveyed.]
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Related Links:
Smoking and the Environment
Cigarette Butt Litter
Environmental Health Perspective
http://www.who.int/tobacco/health_priority/en/index.html
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption/Tobacco.asp
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/display.cfm?id=349008
http://web-japan.org/trends/business/bus031024.html
http://www.anti-smoke-jp.com/keneneg.html
http://www.procor.org/section_news.asp?section=S1&SiteCode=procor〈=L1
http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2002/11/20/10h32m28s
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/intl-tobacco/2002q4/000825.html
http://joi.ito.com/archives/2002/11/21/gen_kanai_on_smoking_in_japan.html
http://japanjin.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_japanjin_archive.html
http://www.japannewsreview.com/society/national/20070808page_id=1364
http://www.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History17.html
http://www.japaninc.com
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/9/1/3
http://www.jti.co.jp/Culture/museum/
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/03/09/intl/intl.1.html
http://www.taima.org/en/nicotine.htm
http://www.wpro.who.int/media_centre/fact_sheets/fs_20020528.htm
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/review/spring07/spr07tobacco.html
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/tobacco/problem_tobacco.htm
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/news/smokingdisaster_costs.html
http://www.tobaccoasia.com/news.asp?id=1111
http://www.bigempire.com/sake/smoke.html
