OSAKA -- While municipal officials and local business leaders announce grand construction plans to turn this city into an international center for tourism and conventions, antismoking activist Hiroshi Nogami suggests that to make Osaka more attractive to visitors, they should set their sights much lower -- at around the height of a child.
"One of the worst problems in Osaka is the large number of people who smoke while walking along crowded streets," Nogami said. "Children accompanying parents are at eye level with the cigarettes people hold, and the smoke goes right into their faces."
Nogami is the head of Tobaccoless, an Osaka-based nongovernmental organization pushing local governments nationwide to pass ordinances that ban smoking in public places. The group supported the historic decision last year by Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward to ban smoking on the street in several areas, and Nogami said it is now time for his group to redirect its efforts to its own backyard.