A young man near JR Kanda Station on Friday became the first person to be fined under a smoking ban on some streets in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

Ward officials said 19 people had been fined 2,000 yen as of 5 p.m. for smoking or discarding cigarettes in the designated no-smoking areas.

It is the first antismoking law in the nation that carries a penalty, albeit a nonbinding one.