The health ministry will staff cancer treatment hospitals across the nation with antismoking counselors from fiscal 2013, which starts in April, ministry officials said.
The decision is aimed at increasing the period the public spends in good health. The government's goal is to reduce the smoking rate for adults to 12 percent by fiscal 2022, from 20.1 percent in 2011.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said there are 397 cancer treatment hospitals in Japan, and that nurses, pharmacists and dietitians will be trained to qualify as antismoking counselors.