[Intl-tobacco] Japan: Cancer-ridden ex-smokers lose appeal for damages

[robert weissman]

Wednesday June 22, 5:31 PM
Cancer-ridden ex-smokers lose appeal for damages

(Kyodo News) _ The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court
ruling and dismissed appeals by ex-smokers and their bereaved relatives
claiming damages from Japan Tobacco Inc. and the state for cancers the
smokers developed after decades of smoking.

The six defendants had sought a total of 60 million yen in compensation.
Three of them died during the lower court trial after developing lung
cancer, larynx cancer or emphysema. The six men had been smoking for 33
to 50 years.

Presiding Judge Toshinobu Akiyama did not acknowledge a causal link
between the diseases and smoking, saying it cannot be said at this
moment that such a link has been fully established.

The defendants are expected to appeal the ruling.

In the ruling, the high court acknowledged that smoking is hazardous to
health but added it cannot be said that producing and selling tobacco is
illegal as the lower court did in its ruling in October 2003.

In 2000, patients of chronic bronchitis lost a lawsuit seeking damages
from Japan Tobacco at the Supreme Court, after losing both at the
district and high court levels.

Meanwhile, the Tokyo District Court awarded 50,000 yen in damages in
July 2004 to a municipal employee for passive smoking he suffered at his
workplace, in the first such ruling in Japan.