UP IN SMOKE
JAPAN: 35 percent of adults smoke. former staterun company, Japan Tobacco,
controls 80 percent at market. Cigarette ads permitted for television,
billboards and sports events.

PHILIPINES. 73 percent of adults and more than half of children ages 7 to
17 smoke. Tobacco cultivation major industry Government campaigning against
tobacco, All attempts to curb advertising have failed.

CHINA: 70 percent of men smoke. National monopoly controls production;
foreign companies have only 4 percent of market. Restrictions on smoking
spreading.

HONG KONG: 14 percent of people smoke. Nearly all schools, government
buildings, public transport smokefree. Antismoking movement strong

MALAYSIA: 4l percent of men, 4 percent of women smoke; rate increasing
about 2 percent a year. Direct advertising on radio, TV and movies banned.
Tobacco business private.

THAILAND: 19 percent of people smoke, with growing number of younger users.
Domestic monopoly controls tobacco sales, legal imports account for only
3.5 percent of market. Neartotal ban on advertising.

SINGAPORE: 18 percent of people smoke, rate among 18 and 19yearolds has
risen from 5 percent to 15 percent since 1987. Advertising banned.
Government wants to make Singapore first smoke free nation.

INDIA: No reliable estimate on numbers of smokers. Government has imposed
some limits, but no organized campaign against smoking.

SOUTH KOREA: No estimate on smokers. Tobacco sales a government monopoly;
foreign brands have 11.5 percent of market. TV and newspaper advertising
banned.

; only a mild health

warning is required on packages.

Critics say a major reason for the popularity of tobacco and the lack
of restrictions against it is that the government owns twothirds of
the stock in Japan Tobacco, which controls nearly 80 percent of the
cigarette market.

Foreign companies, mostly American, account for the remaining 20 percent
of sales, and their hold has been increasing since the tobacco business
was liberalized in the mid1980s.

With such a large stake in an estimated $35 billionayear business, the
government can hardly be counted on to crack down on the industry
antitobacco activists say.

"The fact the Japanese government owns such stocks is a problem,"
Watanabe said.

The government counters that it is doing its part to discourage
smoking. The Health and Welfare Ministry included a special section on
smoking in its annual report for the first time this year; clearly
linking tobacco to cancer and other diseases.

The ministry also rang the alarm bell for Japan's younger smokers saying
a survey found 20 percent of high school and junior high school students
had smoked in the past year.

"For both women and men, the younger they are, the more they smoke," the
report said, warning of a "remarkable increase" in the number of women in
their 20s who smoke.

The report said the government is pushing for more restrictions on
smoking in work places and public buildings. Smoking is already banned on
subways, and smokers must huddle in specially marked areas in stations
for a puff.

Japan Tobacco, however, argues cigarettes have their benefits.

"We do acknowledge some health risk caused by smoking, but we also think
it offers some psychologically positive effects," said Seuchi Murata, a
company spokesman.

Worries about cigarette smoke have yet to penetrate Japanese society,
where lighting up whenever and wherever is taken for granted. Prime
Minister Rytitaro Hashimoto a former health minister is an unabashed
chainsmoker.

When asked about the restrictions proposed by American tobacco companies
in their battle with anticigarette lawsuits in the United States, Japan
Tobacco's president, Masaru Mizumo, told the newspaper Nikkei Keizai
recently that Japanese and Americans have "different ideas" about
smoking.

Some smokers say they are aware of the health risks, but they also face
significant hurdles when trying to quit. Yukako Akutagawa, who started
smoking five years ago at age 17, said the influence of smoking friends
helped start her habit and the constant onslaught of media images of
cigarettes has helped keep it going.

"When I watch TV shows and people are smoking, it makes me feel like
having a cigarette," she said, stubbing out a smoke over a glass of iced
coffee at a Tokyo cafe.

Still, compared to some other Asian countries in the Philippines, for
instance, 73 percent of adults and half the children ages 717 smoke
Japan is making strides.

The percentage of people who smoke in Japan is down sharply from 1966,
when a Japan Tobacco survey; said nearly half of all Japanese adults
smoked.

And some Japanese say younger nonsmokers are getting bolder about it
complaining about secondhand smoke in the work place. Hairdresser
Tadashi Taga had to take refuge on the street outside his shop for a
smoke one recent afternoon.

"I'm the only one who smokes in there and they all hate it," said Kaga,
who smokes three packs a day "I'm miserable."