Five years have passed since the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control went into effect (Feb. 27, 2005). The FCTC, the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization, has 168 parties and covers 86 percent of the world population. Nevertheless, tobacco products remain the cause of serious health damage, including cancer and cardiac and pulmonary diseases, and hampers fetal growth.
On Feb. 25, the health ministry issued a notice to prefectural and municipal governments, calling on them to make public spaces nonsmoking areas in principle. Although the notice does not provide for punishment of violators, it is a step forward in protecting people from secondhand tobacco smoke.
The "WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2009" calls tobacco use "the leading cause of preventable death," adding that it is estimated to kill more than 5 million people each year worldwide. It warns that if current trends continue, by 2030 tobacco will kill more than 8 million people annually the world over, and could kill a billion or more people by the end of this century. In Japan, more than 130,000 people each year die of health damage related to tobacco use.