October 1st Brings Changes to Japan

October 1st is the day for koromo-gae (lit. “clothes changing”), when millions of Japanese high school students switch from their summer to their winter uniforms. I have to admit, having so many people doing the exact same thing on the same morning without being told to always kind of freaked my “individualistic” American sensibilities out a little. For smokers in Japan, today is also the day the price of cigarettes goes up due to a tax increase passed by the Democratic Party of Japan. For the past few weeks, smokers have been buying cartons to stock up ahead of the tax, which pushes the price of a pack of Mild Seven’s all the way up to $4.90, still considerably cheaper than the $10+ price for cigarettes in New York. The rising cost of tobacco coupled with the recent increase in smoking bans in Japanese cities has caused the number of smokers here to decline in recent decades. When I got here in 1991, 60% of men smoked and there was nowhere a person could go to get away from it, but now the smoking rates have been cut in half and are still dropping.

A new tobacco tax is causing many smokers to kick the habit.