Japanese Government Addicted to Tobacco Profits

by Ranjit Dev Raj

Nothing could have been more graphic of Japan's schizophrenic attitude to the control of tobacco -- how to keep tobacco revenues rolling in but also respond to growing international scrutiny of its public health policy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) which organized the four-day Conference on Tobacco and Health that ended Nov. 18, says that what Japan does in the immediate future will have a tremendous bearing on the health of millions in the developing world.

Realizing that Japan's tobacco policy is in the international spotlight and that it has the highest rate of smokers in the industrialized world, the Health and Welfare Ministry recently proposed to halve the percentage of smokers by 2010.

On the other hand, Japan Tobacco, in which the powerful Finance Ministry has controlling interests, happens to be the world's largest tobacco company thanks to recent acquisitions from R.J. Reynolds Nabisco.

Japan Tobacco was in fact bailing out R.J. Reynolds Nabisco, one of several tobacco majors which have reached out-of-court settlements after being sued by U.S. state governments faced with inflated medical expenses arising from tobacco-related health problems.

Apparently, Japan Tobacco reckoned that it could gain from sales in developing countries where there are no anti-smoking campaigns of the kind which will almost certainly result in the U.S., Canada and the European Union from adopting a WHO-proposed Convention against tobacco set to come into effect in 2003.

If the conflict of interests needed complication, Japan Tobacco has been funding controversial efforts to develop a lung cancer vaccine and controvert scientific findings on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, even as clamor grows locally to protect the health and interests of non-smokers.

Indeed it was a 1981 study in Japan, conducted by Takeshi Hirayama and now regarded as a medical landmark, which first demonstrated epidemiologically the link between lung cancer in non-smokers married to smokers.

Back home, Japan Tobacco has found it necessary to be increasingly involved in the industry's efforts to whitewash its image and take steps to avoid restrictions on smoking.

Japan Tobacco has over the past decade been working in concert with the global industry to play down the effects of second-hand smoke especially with the U.S.-based Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR), the Asian Regional Tobacco Industry Science Team (ARTIST) and with Philip Morris, the tobacco giant.

According to Derek Yach, project manager of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) the basic idea of the research is to "continue to ensure that there is doubt about the risk from second-hand smoke."

"There has been a systematic effort to destroy the vast amount of scientific evidence now available on second-hand smoke with the aim of preventing laws that might result in restrictions on smoking," Yach said.

But the worst obstacle to such laws is the Tobacco Business Law enacted in 1984 whose main stated objective is to "promote the sound development of the Japanese tobacco industry, thereby securing stable national revenues."

Tobacco business policy is determined by the Ministry of Finance and according to the Tokyo-based Tobacco Problems Information Center (TOPIC), an industry-watchdog, representatives from consumer or anti-smoking groups are never invited to its deliberations.

For all the wringing of hands it does and the promises of policy changes made at the Kobe conference, the Ministry of Health and Welfare actually has no department or section devoted to handling the subject but leaves it cursorily to the "Local Hygiene/Health Promotion Section."

That is not surprising. Annual revenue from national and local tobacco taxes in 1997 stood at 2.13 trillion yen ($20.3 billion) and the government has not so far considered it prudent to raise taxes for fear of reducing consumption. [Editor's note: That is roughly $200 per Japanese citizen.]

About the only law against smoking is one prohibiting minors under the age of 20 from buying cigarettes or consuming them, but it hardly observed and packs are readily available through the ubiquitous vending machines in this country.

Approximately 40 percent of cigarette sales are made through some half-a-million vending machines. According to studies conducted by the National Institute of Public Health in 1990, 70 percent of high school boys who smoked got their packs through vending machines.

Yumiko Mochizuki, who led the study, said she found most young people simply unaware of the dangers of smoking and thought it was "cool" to smoke -- testifying to the success of information suppression and the advertising blitz by cigarette companies.

Fully 23 percent of young Japanese women in their twenties now smoke as a result of advertising campaigns, and the mistaken belief that smoking would help them stay slim.

Already there are 7.2 million female smokers in Japan and that number is rapidly growing thanks to specific targeting of women by tobacco companies that project the cigarette as fashionable and a sign of being liberated.

According to Yayori Matsui, director of the Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center, the cigarette industry has been able to jump on to the bandwagon which associates gender equity with smoking.

Last May, Japan Tobacco and the ministries of health and welfare and that of finance were dragged to court by seven victims of smoking-related diseases for damages totalling 70 million yen ($666,666).

The plaintiffs also want the prohibition of cigarette vending machines and a stop to all tobacco advertisements and events sponsored by tobacco interests. Naturally, the defendants are seeking dismissal of the lawsuits.

One demand by the plaintiffs is for clearer warnings to be printed on cigarette packs on health risks. Warnings printed since 1990 admonish mildly: "Do not smoke too much because smoking may be injurious to health."

Indeed, a separate suit filed in Nagoya in April says it is morally ingenuous for Philip Morris to be selling cigarette packs in this country carrying warnings which are far milder to those sold in the U.S.

Bungaku Watanabe, director of TOPIC, said the two suits would go a long way in getting an as-yet sluggish local campaign against second-hand smoke in general and Japan Tobacco in particular, going.

Minister for Health and Welfare Yuya Niwa admitted at the conference, yesterday, that the country faced a tobacco epidemic and said the conference itself would have a strong bearing on future national tobacco control policy. "Tobacco control is an important issue and we need to strengthen our efforts in the context of international initiatives," Niwa said.

But that is easier said than done. After Spanish and Portuguese merchants introduced tobacco in the 17th century, a ban ordered by the Tokugawas failed.

By 1904, tobacco was made a government monopoly and its revenues redirected to fund the Russo-Japanese war effort and an ambitious programme of economic development under the Meijis.