HEALTH-JAPAN: Trouble in Smokers’ Paradise

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 8 1998 (IPS) - Japan may still be a smokers’ paradise, but its fledgling anti-tobacco lobby is determined to wage legal battle against big tobacco firms, be they local or foreign producers.

On May 7, the country’s small anti-smoking movement broke new ground when the first hearing was held on a lawsuit that activists brought against a subsidiary of the U.S. cigarette maker Philip Morris.

Next week, seven cancer and heart disease patients plan to sue Japan Tobacco, the country’s biggest producer of tobacco products, and the government, for damages arising from the harmful effects of the such products.

Philip Morris is the largest foreign-owned tobacco company in Japan, which is the world’s third biggest market for tobacco after China and the United States.

“It’s like taking on Goliath. We are so small compared to the enormous influence wielded by powerful tobacco companies like Philip Morris but by doing so we have scored a point,” said Dr Kyoichi Miyazaki, a pharmacist who heads Japan Anti-Smoking, a Tokyo-based group that supports the plaintiffs in the case.

Lawyer Akinori Ito, who is suing the Philip Morris subsidiary Philip Morris Cos along with 19 other anti-smoking advocates, wants the Japanese subsidiary to suspend tobacco imports and sales in the country.

In the suit filed before a Nagoya court, he accuses the U.S. company, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, of using double standards in selling in Japan.

While health warnings on Marlboro packets in the U.S. are much more severe and tell consumers about the link between smoking and cancer and other serious diseases — warnings on the same cigarettes sold in Japan only say smoking is “bad for your health”.

“We are suing Philip Morris in Japan because while it is aware of the serious health effects of tobacco smoke on people, the company chooses to ignore its responsibility by taking advantage of the lax laws here,” said Ito.

Japanese activists’ arguments are similar to those cited not just by anti-tobacco campaigners in the U.S., but those in other countries who want American firms to be bound by the same limits they have at home.

Big tobacco in the U.S. has come under fire in hundreds of suits filed by individuals, groups and local governments — arguing that cigarette manufacturers know of tobacco’s damaging effects on health and must shoulder costs for them.

No such thing is close to happening in Japan, which has some of the highest rates for smoking in the industrialised world. For instance, more than half of Japanese men smoke.

And while there are now more non-smoking sections and the Tobacco Institute of Japan on Apr. 1 stopped airing cigarette commercials on television and radio, the environment is far from hostile to big tobacco.

Lawsuits against Japanese tobacco makers, including Japan Tobacco, have been defeated before. A spokesman for Japan Tobacco says it is “up to the individual to decide” whether to smoke.

Further proof of the tobacco industry’s clout lies in the fact despite the sector’s liberalisation in the mid-eighties, the government still owns most of the stock in Japan Tobacco, which used to be a state monopoly.

Lawyers say it could take months or years before the Nagoya case is resolved, and there is no guarantee that Philip Morris would be punished.

Activists say they are aware of the political and financial sway held by huge companies in Japan, where the government drags its feet in updating lax regulations on smoking.

But despite the odds, Miyamoto says the case is important because the anti-smoking lobby can leave a record of its case against Philip Morris and create more awareness about the ills of tobacco use. “The lawsuit has helped us to inform the public of our fight,” he explained.

Japan’s cigarette market was worth 30 billion U.S. dollars in 1996 and the industry is a major source of tax revenue, at a time when foreign tobacco firms are stepping up sales in Asia.

Foreign-brand tobacco products have been gaining popularity since the tobacco industry was opened to foreign participation more than a decade ago under international trade rules. Japan Tobacco has some 80 percent of the market, with the rest going to foreign manufacturers.

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto himself had been a target of anti-smoking activists, who in February lost a suit they brought in a Nagoya district court asking him to quit smoking while he is head of government.

Ito’s lawsuit is at least the fourth filed by local anti- smoking groups.

The case to be filed next week on behalf of cancer patients, by the Lawyers’ Organisation for Non-Smokers’ Rights, seeks stronger warnings on cigarette packs, strict restrictions on advertising, removal of cigarette-vending machines and compensation of 725,000 dollars per plaintiff.

Such lawsuits seek to hold cigarette firms responsible under product liability laws, Miyamoto says. “Just like companies are made to pay compensation for broken televisions or cars, cigarette manufacturers must be made to be responsible for smoking-related diseases,” he said.

Though legal battles are hard to win, Miyamoto said: “It is now easier to work against tobacco smoke compared to 20 years ago when we first launched our movement.”

There are other bright spots. After years of rejection, the finance ministry recently approved requests from two life insurance companies that want to sell insurance policies to non- smokers at discounted rates.

Pressure from activists has also forced the health and welfare ministry to launch a study into the links between smoking and lung cancer.

“Once the findings are made official it will be much easier for us,” said Dr Miyamoto. “Then of course we have to turn our attention more closely to Asia, which is getting to be a big market for Japanese cigarette products.”