Analytical Study on Street Smoking Ban by City Bylaws in Japan, 2002-2013

Background and purpose: The Japanese Health Promotion Law had been enforced since August, 2002 which concerns prevention of passive smoking in public places. October 1st, 2002, one of the special ward governments in Tokyo, has enforced a bylaw which controls street smoking within their ward. Other metropolitan special wards and local municipal governments have followed. We analyzed the characters and development of these city bylaws.Methodology: The municipalities which enforced street smoking ban by their city bylaws were specified through the news distributed on the internet web. The text of each city bylaw and the implementing regulations were downloaded for analysis. Results: As of February 1st, 2014, 144 municipalities are identified to have enforced street smoking ban bylaws. 79 municipalities are found in KANTO area (around Tokyo). In the titles of the bylaws, the phrase; “littering ban” is used in 30 cases, the word; “environment” is used in 24 cases. In the text of the bylaws, “cigarette butts littering ban” is described in 98 cases, “secondhand smoking” is in 22 cases and “health” is found in only 7 bylaws. 94 municipalities provide penal regulations. Conclusions: The number of cities which enforced street smoking ban bylaw has been increasing. But the big parts of the purpose of them in many cases are not for the health but the cleanness of the environment of the cities.The further recognition of hazardness of smoking would result in a surge in the progress of smoke-free policy with a vow to take action to promote health.