The government in early June set a numerical target for reducing the percentage of Japanese adult smokers — the fist attempt of its kind — and incorporated it into a five-year basic program to push countermeasures against cancer from fiscal 2012 to 2016 and into a fiscal 2013-22 program to promote the health of people dubbed "Healthy Japan 21."
The target, consisting of reducing the smoking rate among Japanese men and women to 12 percent by fiscal 2022 from the 19.5 percent in fiscal 2010, is consistent with the provisions of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The government should take the necessary steps to achieve this target. In doing so, it should fully involve local governments and businesses.
In 1999, 2006 and 2007, the government tried to set a goal of halving the number of smokers. Each time it encountered opposition from the tobacco industry, the Finance Ministry — which has the tobacco industry under its jurisdiction — and from Diet members close to the industry, and had to quash the plan.