To smoke, or not to smoke?

The authority of the Koucho (Principal) Sensei, one of the most profoundly uncharismatic men I’ve ever met, is a flimsy thing. That the aforementioned smug buffoon has a picture of himself over his desk, bearing the kanji Gakkouchou (lit. "School Chief") is but a minor raspberry.

Once upon a time, before I arrived in Japan, teachers could smoke openly in the staff room. A Government proclamation changed all that, and teachers were required to leave the premises in order to smoke. That makes perfect sense to me - after all, the students are in and out of the staff room all the time, and aside from the example that the teachers are supposed to lead, there are health issues.

All well and good. Some schools however, have secret places within the grounds where those of a fumigatory inclination can engage in a sneaky puff or two inbetween classes. The smokers den at my current school isn't so secret, it being nothing more than a step outside the teachers room, which the students walk past every day in order to come to or leave school. So much for setting a good example.

Then, this year, the Kouchou Sensei declared that enough was enough, and that the smokers had to behave. Each offending party (myself included at the time) was presented with a portable ashtray. That seemed to do the trick for a month or so...

I gave up smoking a while ago, but I still like sitting on that step every now and then. I noticed today that an old tin has been reinstated as an ashtray and general fag-end tomb. Who should then walk by, but the Administrator of School Affairs (a Social Studies Teacher, who seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that English people don't drop everything at three o'clock in order to have a cup of tea), no less than the third in command to the Kouchou, wandering around, smoking a cigarette with an attitude I can only describe as cavalier.

Tobacco is virulently available in Japan, most street corners sporting at least one vending machine, the only thing stopping minors (ie, those under twenty) from purchasing, being a drawing of a hand in the "STOP!" position, and one of those red circles with a line through the middle. On top of this, the average price of a packet of twenty is one pound fifty, and for Asia, that's expensive.

According to an article in the New York Times from 1993 by James Sterngoldlt,

"The Finance Ministry, the most powerful arm of the (Japanese) Government, operates a near monopoly in the production and sale of cigarettes."

In 1992, the company Japan Tobacco (two thirds of which is owned by the Government), generated a staggering $15 billion in taxes. This Government involvement in tobacco production stems from the turn of the century, when Imperialist Japan needed to fund wars with China, and later Russia.

I heartily recommend reading the full article, as it's really very interesting, and has some almost hilarious quotes from pro-tobacco voices, naturally from the Ministry of Finance/Japan Tobacco...




Thirteen years after that was written, there seems to be a series of foils to these diabolical machinations, finding form in the truly inspired "smoking manners" campaign, some slogans of which verge on poetry. It is definately worth looking at.

Smokers face restrictions in where and when they can smoke, and are encouraged to carry portable ashtrays, resulting in streets that put England to shame. Despite this, one "smoking manners" poster complains that the most frequently spotted rubbish is discarded cigarette ends. It then goes on to depict a crushed stub, uncannily shaped like an adjacent map of Japan.

One writer has observed that the bulk of such campaigns are geared more towards tidiness rather than health. This is probably because research into the ill effects of tobacco naturally isn't getting funded by the Ministry of Finance. All is not lost though - last year in sunny Kawasaki, the Council decreed that people would be fined for walking and smoking at the same time. This was in order to, and I quote,

"...reduce the risk of smokers setting fire to passers-by."

I'm glad somebody finally decided to tackle that issue.