Japan: land of the rise in lung cancer. US government aids cigarette sales.

In no other country in the world is the two pack (or more) a day cigarette habit more prevalent among men than in Japan. Seventy percent of Japanese men admit to being regular cigarette smokers, more than double the American percentage.l In contrast to the trend in American business toward executive health and fitness programs, smoking is still very much a part of the Japanese businessman's lifestyle. Notwithstanding the fact that lung cancer is the fastest growing cause of death in Japan (accounting for 5,171 deaths in 1960 and 25,647 in 1983, according to Japan's National Cancer Center), the Japanese government has shown little interest in the problem of smoking. Indeed, in 1983 the newly appointed minister of health and welfare said as he assumed office that smoking was the secret of his good health. In 1982 in the Diet (Japanese parliament) the minister of finance boasted of his heavy smoking and drinking,2 and Prime Minister Yashuhiro Nakasone, responding to an opposition politician's objection to cigarette advertising on television, has said that cigarettes are not harmful as long as smokers adhere to the warning printed on each pack.3 The Japanese warning reads, "For the sake of health. let's be careful not to smoke too much." For 80 years the manufacture, distribution, marketing, and advertising of all domestic igarettes were controlled by the Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation, a government monopoly. The monopoly long protected its position (and 80,000 domestic tobacco farmers) by restricting the importation of tobacco and the distribution and advertising offoreign cigarettes.a Foreign brands accounted for only 1.870 of the 306 billion cigarettes sold in Japan in 1983. Under pressure from American cigarette companies, the government recently transformed the tobacco monopoly into a semi-private company, with two thirds of its shares still held by the Ministry of Finance. The new company, Japan Tobacco, Inc, made its public debut on April l, 1985 with advertisements in daily newspapers that promised "to continue to be effectively managed and contribute to society by introducing ease and relaxation into daily life." The company offers miniature flowering tobacco plants, a "symbol of peace of mind and tranquility." A second quasi-private corporation, Japan Tobacco International Corp, also has been formed to export cigarettes to countries in Southeast Asia, as a hedge against declining sales in Japan. Although advertising is limited to some extent (to about