Japan Upper House Begins Debate on Bill to Curb Passive Smoking

July 4, 2018

Tokyo- The House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, started deliberations Wednesday on a bill to strengthen measures against passive smoking in public places.

The government and ruling camp aim to enact the bill to amend the health promotion law during the ongoing Diet session set to end on July 22. The bill cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, on June 19.

They plan to put the revised law into full effect in April 2020, which is before the start of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics that year.

The bill seeks to prohibit indoor smoking at restaurants in principle. Smoking will be permitted, however, at existing eateries meeting requirements, including having customer-seating space of up to 100 square meters, if they display smoking-permitted signs.

While smoking will be basically banned within the premises of public bodies, such as schools, hospitals and administrative organizations, those facilities will be allowed to set up outdoor smoking areas. Jiji Press