Key events in Japanese smoking and health history
| 1957 | JTS starts funding external research into ‘smoking and health’ |
| 1964 | MHW issues directives to prevent underage smoking and to warn about health harms caused by smoking30 |
| 1970 | Smoking and Health Information Department established at JTS23 |
| 1971 | MHW testifies in Diet that tobacco is beyond ministry’s jurisdiction30 |
| 1972 | Modest caution goes on cigarette packs: ‘For health reasons, let’s be careful not to smoke too much’. |
| 1973 | Council for the Study of Smoking and Health established by JTS |
| 1977 | Per capita adult cigarette consumption (age 15 years and older) peaks at 3500 cigarettes per year92 |
| 1985 | JTS is privatised to become JT Council for the Study of Smoking and Health publishes Studies on Smoking and Health 1979–1983 |
| 1986 | Smoking Research Foundation launched |
| 1987 | Tobacco Institute of Japan established by JT and foreign companies MHW’s first White Paper on Smoking and Health published |
| 1989 | Tobacco Business Council submits report to MOF |
| 1990 | The 1972 warning label is updated to: ‘As smoking might injure your health, let’s be careful not to smoke too much’ |
| 1993 | MHW’s second White Paper on Smoking and Health published |
| 1996 | Japanese cigarette consumption peaks at 348 billion per annum92 93 |
| 1999 | JT’s annual profit from cigarette sales reaches 4.26 trillion yen93 |
| 2001 | Third White Paper on Smoking and Health published |
| 2004 | Japan ratifies Framework Convention on Tobacco Control |
| 2005 | Eight new warning labels introduced (each pack needs to carry two) including: ‘Tobacco smoke has a bad influence on the health of people around you, especially infants, children and the elderly etc. When smoking, let’s be careful not to bother people around you’. |
| 2014 | Tokyo High Court refuses to acknowledge that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and heart disease. |
| 2016 | MHLW estimates number of deaths in Japan from exposure to secondhand smoke at 15 000 per year Ministry’s fourth White Paper on Smoking and Health published |
JT, Japan Tobacco, Inc; JTS, Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation; MHLW, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; MHW, Ministry of Health and Welfare; MOF, Ministry of Finance.