Smoking, now too uncool for school

Kitsuen (喫煙, smoking) could become an obsolete habit in Japan in the near future, as youngsters apparently now consider smoking dasai (ダサい, uncool).

A recent survey by the monkashō (文科省, an abbreviation of monbukagakushō, or the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) shows that only 9 percent of kōsan danshi (高3男子, high school senior boys) want to smoke in the future.

The survey was conducted in December last year and was the third such survey, after 2000 and 2006. In 2000 the percentage was 30 percent, and 17 percent in 2006. The percentage of girls who expressed a desire to smoke was 11.5 percent in 2000, 7.5 percent in 2006 and 3.4 percent in 2012.