Philip

I wasn’t aware of this earlier, but apparently on November 16 this year Hawaii brought in more stringent smoke-free laws to prevent people from smoking in public places. People can smoke outdoors however 20′ away from any building entrances. It’s a good thing as people are getting influenced by passive smoking if people are allowed to smoke indoors.

Japan itself was pretty strict when I went there last November, they even have special public outdoor smoking zones to prevent other people outdoors (especially in heavy pedestrian areas) having to deal with other people’s smoke. It was quite odd to see maybe 20 to 30 people in a small corner all smoking away. I think it’s the right way to go, however there’s always the pro-smokers who object to the inconvenience of having to take a walk before lighting up (with any luck, they’ll realise when they can’t walk without breathing hard that they should consider quitting).

Read about it from the Washington Times here.