A recent panel by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to study the problem included four representatives of the tobacco industry. Until April 1998 tobacco advertising continued on Japanese television, even though in the USA cigarette commercials on broadcast TV were banned as early as 1971. In Japan it is still technically legal and JT still advertises on TV, but without showing cigarettes or mentioning any of its brands. Japan Tobacco sells one in every twenty cigarette packs worldwide and its Mild Seven was the second best selling cigarette brand worldwide, outsold only by Marlboro by Philip Morris. While smokers are addicted to nicotine, politicians are addicted to money.
Smoking is common even in many hospitals.
In the offices of the Ministry of Health and Welfare smoking is only banned on the annual international no-smoking day. A few years ago a motion at IATA to ban smoking on all flights worldwide was killed by Japanese opposition. Smoking was not banned on international flights operated by JAL and ANA until April 1, 1999. The ministry, long powerless in its battle on smoking policy against the Ministry of Finance, has come up with this study in order to demonstrate that even in financial terms it does not make sense to promote smoking. According to the study medical costs account for more than a quarter of this amount.