To Yukio Takano, Mayor of Toshima Ward, Tokyo:
I urge you to dismantle the new tobacco industry-funded smoking area in the crowded center of our ward. Please instead respect Toshima Ward's commitment as a World Health Organization-certified Safe Community and our nation's obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by making all ward facilities smoke-free immediately.
Toshima Ward, one of the most important urban centers of Tokyo and the most over-populated, hosts over 270,000 people in a 13-sq. km area. Last November, the ward became a World Health Organization-certified Safe Community, supported by the WHO Collaborating Center on Community Safety Promotion at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. As a Safe Community, the ward promised to promote high safety standards based on scientific evidence, moving beyond the outdated domestic policies of neighboring wards and elsewhere in Japan.