Research finds cigarette pack warnings ineffective in Japan

According to new research from the University of Waterloo in Canada, the lack of images on cigarette pack warnings and partial smoke-free laws are ineffective in Japan, the world’s ninth largest cigarette market and host of the 2020 Olympics.

The two studies were part of the Waterloo-based International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC) and involved a survey of 3,800 smokers in Japan. Waterloo researchers collaborated with researchers in Japan on both studies, which are the first national-level evaluations of Japan’s efforts to reduce smoking.

The first study, led by Janet Chung-Hall of the ITC project, found that only 30% of Japanese smokers noticed text-only health warnings on cigarette packaging and only 14% read them closely. The effectiveness of text-only warnings in Japan is much lower than in countries that require large pictorial warnings, now numbering over 100.

More than half of the Japanese smokers agreed that picture warnings would be more effective.

The second study, led by Genevieve Sansone of ITC, found that the partial smoke-free laws in Japan have led to higher exposure rates to second-hand smoke in workplaces, restaurants, and bars than in countries where more substantial bans have been implemented.

A researcher at the Japan Cancer Society and ITC member, Yumiko Mochizuki advised “the Japanese government has been very slow to develop and implement proven Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) policies. These two studies show that Japan must do much more to combat smoking, the number one preventable cause of death in our country, which kills 160,000 smokers a year and over 15,000 non-smokers from second-hand smoke.”

The two studies were published in a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health