To be, or not to be, is that the question?──Tobacco in Food, Clothing, and Shelter

2017/06/01

Food, clothing, and shelter are what support our daily lives. The things that appear there can be divided into those we can use freely, those we must use, and those we must not use. We are free to choose whatever food or clothing we like, but alcohol and tobacco are prohibited for minors. The basic principle of our ordinary relationship with luxury goods is that "either way is fine." Under that principle, luxury goods can be freely selected. Tobacco is one of them; some people like it, and some people hate it. While conflicts over likes and dislikes are easy to understand, human society has granted citizenship to luxury goods in a liberal way, where "either way is fine." The tolerant etiquette toward tobacco was that it was fine to like it or hate it, and fine to smoke it or not. However, this is rapidly changing.

In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) aims to strengthen the Health Promotion Act enacted in 2003 as a measure against secondhand smoke. An increasing number of countries abroad are making public indoor spaces entirely smoke-free, and the WHO has pointed out that Japan's measures are at the "world's lowest level." Furthermore, the IOC and WHO are jointly promoting a "Tobacco-Free Olympics." According to a WHO report, 600,000 people die worldwide every year from secondhand smoke, and an MHLW research team estimates that domestic deaths also reach 15,000 per year.

For an elderly person like me, there is a real sense that the way we interact with tobacco changed completely between the Showa and Heisei eras. One example is the frequent depiction of tobacco in the hit movie "The Wind Rises." In a request letter titled "Request Regarding the Handling of Tobacco in the Movie 'The Wind Rises'" sent to the producers, the Japan Society for Tobacco Control (an NPO) cited specific scenes, stating, "Scenes of smoking in classrooms, scenes where many staff members including supervisors are smoking in the workplace... there are too many to count," and requested that care be taken in the handling of tobacco. The production side responded that such requests could potentially threaten freedom of expression. This is unmistakable evidence of the drastic change in the status of tobacco.

Tobacco is a plant of the genus Nicotiana in the family Solanaceae, and if you trace its origins, you arrive at the New World. People used tobacco primarily in religious rituals in three ways: smoking, chewing, or grinding it into powder to inhale through the nose. Tobacco, which has effects such as sedative properties, was also used to treat illnesses in forms such as medicinal broths, suppositories, and ointments. It entered Japan at the end of the 16th century along with firearms and Christianity. The Edo Shogunate even issued bans on tobacco, but they were ineffective, and by the Genroku era, it had become established as a luxury good.

The status of tobacco has changed from a ritual item and medicine to a luxury good. The principle of tobacco use as a luxury is that "either way is fine," and unlike commands or prohibitions in rituals or prescriptions, it is fundamentally free. In recent years, "health" has begun to play an important role in this context. This word is a translation of the English word "health," meaning a "good physical condition," and it also appears in Yukichi Fukuzawa's "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization." However, the word used to describe physical condition until the Meiji era was "yojo" (preservation of health). This is the mindset of "not performing certain acts in order to maintain a good physical condition." Knowledge of medical sciences and healthcare has changed our consciousness from "passive yojo to active health," and tobacco has come to be seen as something containing poison or evil, causing its status to waver. "Coexistence" with tobacco is changing to "segregation," and "health" is bringing about the denial of tobacco liberalism. We are forced to choose between partially protecting tobacco liberalism through smoking restrictions, or partially denying tobacco liberalism and making segregation strict. Therefore, we have tried to reach a compromise between smoking and non-smoking by skillfully confusing the "denial of liberalism" regarding tobacco with a "change in smoking etiquette."

While tubs and barrels cannot be clearly distinguished, it is our habit to cherish the common sense that "a tub is not a barrel." For many matters, things that were "either way is fine" have come to be thought of as things that "must be one or the other." Conversely, there are cases where things that "must be one or the other" have come to be seen as "either way is fine." Tobacco has been accepted as something that is fine to smoke or not, but finally, medical reasons have been found, and smoking is being denounced as an evil. The existence of tobacco as something where "either way is fine" is being denied and is on the verge of being prohibited.

This is more than just a change in taste. Currently, it is still perceived as a change in taste, but it is certain that tobacco, which is barely being maintained, is in danger of extinction, and the current trend is to further restrict the freedom to smoke. If new benefits are found for tobacco, its status might change. That said, it is difficult to imagine anything at this point that would stop smoking from changing from an "either way is fine" habit to a "should not smoke" prohibited item. Therefore, the answer to "To smoke, or not to smoke, is that the question?" is being decided as "There is no question; you must not smoke."

The reason I feel a slight sense of loneliness regarding this tobacco situation is probably because I once enjoyed smoking.