Friday marked two years since Chiyoda Ward became the nation's first municipality to enforce a "living environment ordinance" aimed primarily at prohibiting smokers from lighting up in public and throwing cigarette butts on the streets.
The ward office's hardline policy has sharply reduced cases of smoking and littering and has led other municipalities, including Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward and the Hiroshima and Fukuoka municipalities, to put similar ordinances into effect.
Chiyoda Ward collects a fine of 2,000 yen from each person found to have violated the ordinance in locations designated as no smoking areas, including the vicinities of JR Tokyo, Akihabara and Ochanomizu stations.