Tokyo Taxis To Go Smoke-Free

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Kyodo via Japan Today: 95% of taxis in Tokyo to be smoke-free from next January
About 95% of taxis in Tokyo, or some 52,000 of the capital's 55,000 cabs, will be smoke-free from Jan 7, after an association of 18,000 private taxis decided to implement a nonsmoking policy, the private taxi association said Monday. The organization for corporate taxis, which covers about 400 companies with about 34,000 cabs in Tokyo, had already decided in August to become smoke-free from Jan 7. The remaining 5% of taxis are not obliged to comply with the policy as they are from companies not belonging to any associations of taxi firms that have decided to become smoke-free. Elsewhere, taxis in Oita Prefecture became smoke-free in June and Nagano and Kanagawa prefectures followed suit, while Gunma and Niigata prefectures are planning to join the move.

[succubusqueen]

They can become smoke free...but the cigarrette stench from the cab driver will still be clinging in the air..

[yanpa]

w00t, life is getting less and less stinky

(Not that I want to stop anyone smoking, it's just I'd be very happy if they did it somewhere I am not and never have to go).

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Tougher law needed to ban smoking in taxis

A ban on smoking in taxis is spreading rapidly nationwide. Starting Jan. 7, smoking in all taxis operating in Tokyo, both those in taxi company fleets and owner-driver taxis, will, in principle, be banned. This is welcome news. Twenty years ago, I became the first taxi driver in Japan to operate a no-smoking vehicle. However, this taxi industry-instituted ban is not enough. New legislation is needed to ensure its effective enforcement. I have been a Tokyo taxi driver for over half a century since I started the job when I was 20. For many years, I was bothered by the secondhand smoke I was forced to inhale within the car's interior. Many customers also told me they didn't like riding in taxis that reeked of old cigarettes.

Smoking in a taxi creates a source of unhealthy passive smoking for anyone else in the vehicle. A survey by researchers at the University of Tokyo graduate school found that smoking in a car with the widows closed raises the concentration of airborne particles to levels 12 times higher than the environmental limit set by the government. It takes more than an hour for the concentration of particles to fall back to the original level.

The health promotion law, which came into force in May 2003, requires operators of public facilities and public transportation, such as trains, buses and taxis, to take steps to prevent passive smoking. But this toothless law provides no for penalties for violations. I filed a lawsuit to hold the government accountable for its failure to take effective measures to ban smoking in taxis. At the end of 2005, the Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling in my favor, saying it is "desirable" that smoking in taxis be totally prohibited. The court urged the government to act to enforce such a ban instead of leaving it up to the taxi industry.

But the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which oversees the industry, has refused to respond. It said the ruling has no binding power because the court stated only that a ban was "desirable." Some taxi companies that declared a total ban on smoking in their vehicles have nonetheless told their drivers not to refuse to allow passengers to smoke. The managers typically say: "We are in a hospitality industry. We should happily comply with customers' requests." Another serious problem comes from the former Transport Ministry's flawed code of operation for no-smoking taxis. The code says that drivers are allowed to ask passengers to stop smoking and may refuse to start or continue to transport passengers who do not comply with a request to refrain from smoking.

But the phrase "may refuse" can be interpreted to mean that drivers can also allow passengers to smoke. So the code's clause concerning the smoking ban in effect suggests that drivers should allow passengers to smoke if they want to. This ambiguous phrase confuses the issue and places unnecessary psychological stress on drivers. Some people have proposed that taxi companies should introduce a smoking ban only for some of their vehicles instead of their entire fleet. But this approach would still cause drivers assigned to smoking vehicles to be constantly exposed to other people's cigarette smoke. Creating such an exception to the smoking ban would seriously undermine the effectiveness of the system.

If a passenger insists on lighting up, the driver can park the vehicle at an appropriate place and let the passenger smoke outside the car. At any rate, it is clear that a solid legal foundation must be established to give taxi drivers the absolute right to forbid passengers to smoke in their taxis. The city of Oita in April 2006 enacted a regional ban on smoking in taxis, which is now spreading to other parts of the nation. We must act to ban smoke-filled "no-smoking" taxis. I urge lawmakers to swiftly enact an effective law to prohibit smoking in taxis.

[Greji]

They can become smoke free...but the cigarrette stench from the cab driver will still be clinging in the air..

That's not all that will be clinging in the air. I've asked taxi drivers about this and a large majority of them intend on bringing ash trays with them on the job for smoking customers to use. They are afraid that this is going to hurt business because many customers in the metro areas take taxis instead of trains to grab a smoke in between stops. This, added to the problems in the taxi area such as the recession, fierce competition and the recent hike in fares, is not viewed by the drivers as a good thing to be happening!

Like it or not, Japan is a smoking country and even though they offer this as window dressing, I don't think the intend to slow down for quite a while yet.

[Mulboyne]