last resort gone...

A new regulation took effect on January 7, 2008: smoking is now banned in Tokyo taxis.

While Japan is one of the 'lenient' nations on smoking, more offices, restaurants, and public spaces are now smoke-free. Taxis were almost the last resort for smokers who ride it in between client visits and meetings. Shinkansen (the bullet train) is also smoke-free today.

A cab driver told me the other day that female customers are more detesting to the ban, which I thought interesting. This might be (?!) bacause of male/female psychological differences, but more over, statistics show that while the entire smoker population is decreasing in Japan, female smoker population is growing.

Stressed salary-men of Tokyo, what are we gonna do???!!!