The proportion of males in Japan who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes or who had the habit for more than six months fell to 39.3 per cent in 2005, 4 percentage points less than the previous year, said the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Japan stepped up an anti-smoking campaign in 2004 after making a commitment to the World Health Organization to control tobacco. The campaign included increased health warnings on cigarette packets and designated smoking areas within buildings to reduce the effects of passive smoking. The decline in smokers may have also been hastened by an increase in taxes on cigarettes introduced last July.
More than half of the Japanese men in their 30s smoke according to health ministry figures. The proportion of female smokers declined 0.7 percentage points to 11.3 per cent.