Japan Unveils Plan To Reduce Cigarette Consumption (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Given the Japanese government's apparently bold plans to cut domestic
smoking rates, who now will demand that they take equivalently powerful
steps to curb Japan Tobacco's efforts to hook new smokers overseas?


Japan Unveils Plan To Reduce Cigarette Consumption
by CHANG-RAN KIM Dow Jones Newswires
Source: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, Thursday, 8/12/99

TOKYO -- In the first move of its kind, the Health and Welfare Ministry
unveiled Thursday a detailed proposal to halve the percentage of Japanese
who smoke by the year 2010.

The ministry submitted to its advisory body a proposal that aims at
cutting the percentage of adults who smoke by half over the next decade.
It was the first time for the ministry to set numerical targets in its
efforts to control cigarette consumption.

The proposal also strives to reduce by 50% the number of cigarettes
consumed annually by smokers over 15 years old.

In a country where more than half of adult men smoke and where deaths
attributed to cigarette smoking have escalated over the past few years,
the ministry's proposal represented an ambitious first step toward
reversing recent trends.

The proposal also reflected the effort by Japan to catch up with other
industrialized countries, where cigarette consumption has fallen
drastically through various steps taken by the government.

   Japan Tobacco Objected To Preliminary Proposal



The report noted that smoking is becoming more prevalent among young women
and minors. It also noted the number of deaths caused by lung cancer
surpassed that of stomach cancer in 1998, making that the most deadly
cancer in Japan.

According to surveys, 55% of adult men and 13% of adult women in Japan
smoked regularly in 1998. That was up from 53% and 12%, respectively, in
1997. The ministry didn't give an overall percentage.

Per capita cigarette consumption in Japan is the highest among all
industrialized nations, the ministry said. In 1998, Japanese over 15 years
old consumed an average of 3,152 cigarettes each, and a total of 336.6
billion cigarettes were sold.

The ministry proposals include making cigarette companies reveal more
information about their products and coming up with regulations for
smoking in public areas.

The country's sole cigarette maker, Japan Tobacco Inc. (J.JTB or 2914),
protested a preliminary draft of the proposal, saying the measures would
hurt the tobacco industry. The ministry submitted a general outline of its
proposal to Japan Tobacco in late June.

"Our stance is that consumers should gauge for themselves the risks
involved in smoking, so we asked that the panel reconsider those
proposals," said a Japan Tobacco spokesman.

He said the company needed more time to consider the details of the
proposal released Thursday and had no immediate comment.


     Finance Ministry May Resist Loss Of Taxes


One opponent the Health Ministry might face in its plan may be the Finance
Ministry, which is likely to fight any measures that might reduce tax
revenue from tobacco sales.

In the current fiscal year through March 2000, the Finance Ministry
expects cigarette-related taxes to come to Y896 billion, or about 1.8% of
total tax revenue, according to ministry data.

"If the Health Ministry manages to reduce cigarette consumption, it would
have to come hand in hand with a price hike," said Masaru Takagi, a
professor at Meiji University. "Cigarette taxes are a significant source
of revenue for the government, and the Finance Ministry won't allow those
revenues to fall without a struggle."

The Finance Ministry also holds a majority stake in Japan Tobacco.

The Health and Welfare Ministry maintains that public and social costs
resulting from cigarette smoking outweigh the benefits of tax revenue.

In the report, the ministry noted that in 1993, Japan spent Y1.2 trillion
- 5% of total medical fees paid by citizens - on deaths and health-care
problems related to cigarettes.

Other costs related to smoking, such as fires, come to at least Y4
trillion per year, eclipsing by far the income from taxes on cigarettes,
the report said.

The ministry panel will hold public hearings and regional symposiums on
the proposal and plans to announce a final plan by January.

-by Chang-Ran Kim; 813-5255-2929; ckim@ap.org



URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=DI-CO-19990812-002140.djml