Smoking

There are a few things you should know about smoking in Japan:

1) Cigarettes are CHEAP!!!  Compared to the $20AUD prices per packet of cigarettes in Australia, feeding your habit in Japan is a relatively cheap affair with decks of 20 coming in at 410yen each (at current exchange rates, that's roughly $4AUD).

2) You can buy cigarettes from vending machines.  You do need a TASPO card however (kind of like an ID card specifically for these kinds of machines).  Without one of these cards, you can also buy cigarettes at convenience stores, supermarkets and specialty cigarette shops that are usually set up in high-traffic nightlife areas.

3) Smoking is still very common in Japan, especially amongst men/salarymen.

4) Smoking indoors is still allowed.  In Japan it is not unusual to find small little "smoking rooms" inside most large public buildings, for example in shopping centres, train stations, hotels or airports etc.  Some restaurants still inexplicably have smoking and non-smoking sections.  Most (if not all?) bars are smoking.  Oddly enough, the only place you're really allowed to light up is in the middle of the street.  It is considered dangerous for people to be walking around with lit cigarettes and local governments in many cities have set up "tobacco stands" for the use of smokers - fully signposted areas complete with ashtrays, back from the majority of foot traffic on the pavements..

5) Passive smoking seems virtually unheard of in Japan.  Here it seems mostly about the rights of the smokers, not the rights of the non-smokers.  For example, a group of people can decide to go to karaoke whereupon they will be led to a private room equipped with multiple ashtrays.  It is not uncommon for the few smokers in the room to then light up as they please, while the rest of the group passive smokes along with them.  Likewise, leaving your seat at a smoking-allowed restaurant, to go outside for a cigarette so as not to bother your non-smoking table neighbours, is often looked upon as pure absurdity.