Tobacco Facts.

While the Japan government was in process of implementing a ban on smoking in public places, a smokers’ haven recently opened its doors in the downtown of Tokyo, Café Tobacco.

Situated in the very center of the city and flooded with smoke, the lounge is a refuge to many employees of neighboring business centers, offering them possibility to have their drinks while smoking a cigarette.

“Nowadays, smokers are regarded as an evil that should be banished from everywhere,” confessed Kimiko Takahasi, head of Towa Foods Co, Café Tobacco parent company, which also owns another smokers-friendly café in Tokyo and considers opening more venues of that kind across the country.

Speaking loudly in order to outvoice the constantly working air conditioning and ventilating system and music, Takahasi said that they planned the Café Tobacco to be a shelter for smokers who often have to go outside to have a smoke.

On the entrance door of the café there is a sign saying that it is allowed to smoke inside, what has been attracting the attention of hundreds of smokers each and every day.

Lighting up a cigarette and sipping his ice-coffee Noriaki Kasai, 30, said that he was happy to find out about a smokers-friendly café near his workplace.

“I think it is great,” he added. “All the venues located in this neighborhood don’t allow smoking or have only diminutive smoking areas always filled with customers seeking to have a smoke while on coffee break.”

Kasai also admitted that the place become a success among local smokers, because nobody looks at them as on villains. Café Tobacco became a sort of a refuge for smokers who love to come there to have puff with other smokers, without feeling that they are blamed for the smoke, he said.

But anti-smoking groups don’t share the happiness of smokers with the launch of smokers-friendly cafes.

Daito Nakamura, an official from Public Health Ministry said that tobacco products have been known to be harmful, so smokers should give up for the benefit of their own health.

He added that he was totally against smoker-friendly venues, but neither he nor the Public Health Ministry had the right to close such places, because it would infringe the individual property rights of the owners.

The nationwide smoking rates have decreased during the last couple of years, yet they are still higher than in other developed nations. In Japan 40 percent of all adult male population and 15 percent of women are regular smokers.

Tokyo Municipal Council recently implemented the citywide smoking ban, prohibiting lighting up in public places, transport, and even in the streets, exempting separated smoking sections, however, people frequently breach the legislation.

Japan Tobacco, the largest cigarette-maker throughout the nation even introduced several campaigns to help smokers. Their most famous campaign “SmoCar” included a van, traveling around the capital and allowing everyone who want to have a smoke to stop it and light up inside.

Despite the introduction of health warnings to the packs, cigarettes are still more accessible, as they are much cheaper than in Europe or North America, with an average price per pack of around 3 dollars.

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