Japanese government today announced about the possibility of increase of cigarette tax in the near future.

For smokers in Japan, this news is head-aching again. Often this tax is discussed in the diet of Japan, and often the new tax is activated. However, they say that Japanese cigarette price is still very low compared to the other advanced countries.

In Japan, one cigarette box price is around 300 yen or about 3 US dollars.  In UK, it’s more than 1000 yen, and in the USA it’s more than 8 dollars if I remember correctly.  With this price or not, Japanese smoking rate is still high and more than 40% of male adult smoke.  10 years ago, it was more than 50%, so this rate became still better.

They say many will quit smoking if the one box price becomes more than 1000 yen in Japan.  Non smokers expect it but smokers and Japan cigarette company are of course strongly against this idea.

In Western countries, we often feel that smokers are hated because people often see smokers with that kind of eyes. In Japan, it’s not that strong feeling, while the anti-smokers are growing in numbers.

In my opinion, smokers tax can’t be ignored in Japan either.  Sooner or later, there will be a big increase on cigarette price by the tax change.