Japanese Smokers: Going the Way of the Dodo?

The Japanese smoker is becoming an increasingly rare breed. According to a new survey, 21.7 percent of Japanese adults are smokers, the lowest proportion recorded since the annual report conducted by Japan Tobacco Inc. began in 1965.

The smoking population in Japan declined for the 16th consecutive year, but the latest figure is 2.2 percentage points lower than 2010, reflecting the steepest annual drop seen in recent years. It’s another victory for the anti-smoking movement, against the backdrop of a pervasive smoking culture where 45.8% of surveyed adult men considered themselves smokers as recently as June 2005. That has now fallen to 33.7 percent, according to the JT survey released Thursday.

The curbed behavior puts Japan on the lower end of the scale compared to other corners of the world. About 20.6 percent of all U.S. adults smoke, according to the Center for Disease Control in 2009. Over in Europe, Greece has the highest smoking rate with the proportion of smokers exceeding 40%, according to a European Commission study published in 2010. The same study said the smoking rate among the French came in at 34 percent and 28 percent in the U.K. But boasting the world’s largest population, China also has the most smokers -– over 300 million.

Read the rest of the story on the Wall Street Journal.

source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com