App developed by Keio University and startup proves effective in helping smokers quit
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Friday, smokers who have been fighting a lonely battle against nicotine addiction were given another option in their quest to kick the habit. Keio University and CureApp Inc., a Tokyo-based medical technology startup, announced Thursday that a clinical ...
Mitsubishi Chemical to ban employees from smoking during work hours, wherever they are
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. said Tuesday that it will ban employees from smoking during working hours, an unusual move for a major Japanese chemical company. The ban, slated to go into effect from next April, is aimed at protecting employees from secondhand smoke, said the core ...
Philip Morris says it doesn't want you to buy its cigarettes, but will IQOS help it survive?
How can a company that tells people explicitly not to buy its products survive? That's a question for Philip Morris International Inc., which recently unveiled a campaign to "unsmoke" the world. The Marlboro maker reports first-quarter earnings on Thursday, giving investors the latest data on ...
Preparations for 2020 Tokyo Olympics transforming capital into 'global standard' city
Foreign-language signs are increasingly common along streets, cashless payment is becoming available at more shops and restaurants and ashtrays are vanishing from public spaces. Change is afoot in Tokyo. The capital is rapidly transforming into a "global standard" city with these moves ahead of the ...
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Himawari Life Insurance won't hire graduates who smoke from next year
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Himawari Life Insurance Inc. said it will refuse to employ graduates who smoke when it recruits new hires in April next year. It is unusual for a company to refuse to hire smokers. The move is described as part of corporate efforts to ...
Smoking pot may be less dangerous than tobacco, but weed doesn't get a clean slate
As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers and others worry what that might mean for one of the country's biggest public health successes: curbing cigarette smoking. Though there are notable differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, ...
Only about 25% of Japanese universities have imposed blanket smoking ban, survey finds
Some universities have reinstated smoking areas on campus after getting complaints from residents about students smoking in areas near the school.
Restaurant chain operator Skylark to impose total smoking ban from September
Restaurant chain operator Skylark Holdings Co. said Tuesday it will impose a total smoking ban at all of its around 3,200 outlets in the nation from September. The group, which operates the Jonathan's and Gusto chains, "wants to prevent undesirable passive smoking, and cares about ...
Japan Tobacco's Canada unit gets court protection after potentially crushing legal defeat in Quebec
Japan Tobacco Inc.'s Canadian unit was granted creditor protection by the Ontario Superior Court after a legal defeat over the risks of smoking threatens the existence of tobacco companies in the country. The court extended protection in favor of JTI-Macdonald Corp. after the company argued ...
Japan Tobacco, British American Tobacco and Philip Morris lose appeal in $13 billion Quebec lawsuits
Subsidiaries of Japan Tobacco Inc., British American Tobacco PLC and Philip Morris International Inc. were ordered to pay damages of more than 17 billion Canadian dollars ($12.8 billion) after losing an appeal of class-action lawsuits filed by smokers in Quebec. The Quebec Court of Appeal ...
E-cigarettes nearly twice as effective at helping smokers quit than patches or gum, study finds
E-cigarettes are almost twice as effective at helping smokers quit as nicotine replacement treatments such as patches, lozenges and gum, according to the results of a major clinical trial. The study, involving almost 900 smokers, found that 18 percent of e-cigarette users were smoke-free after ...
In smoker's paradise Japan, 81-year-old Bungaku Watanabe has spent decades leading a war on tobacco
"Is it OK if I smoke during the interview?" I ask Bungaku Watanabe, reaching into my coat pocket. A look of incandescent outrage flashes across the 81-year-old's face, before I quickly reassure him that I was joking. "No. No. No," he says firmly, breaking into a ...
