Japan’s “Progress” in the Fight Against Smoking

2011-07-30 at 10-14-33With the 50% government stake in Japan Tobacco it is not really surprising that the fight against cigarettes is not being handled very efficiently at a national level, but allowing products to clearly condition children towards cigarettes these days is a bit much. I took this photo two days ago so these are still around. In many city wards in Tokyo as well as other parts of Japan smoking has been banned in public places, so I was a little bit surprised to see this about one block from an amusement park, a major movie theatre and a Toys-R-Us in a ward that has banned smoking. I know that similar products have been sold in North America but I have not seen them for a very long time, and the caption which roughly reads “Really?! If you blow it smokes like a real cigarette!” written in a manner that any elementary school kid can read is a bit much these days.

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