Osaka bans smoking on all of its streets, vaping included(soranews24.com)
soranews24.com
Osaka bans smoking on all of its streets, vaping included
https://soranews24.com/2025/01/28/osaka-bans-smoking-on-all-of-its-streets-violators-will-be-fined-by-patrols-vaping-included/
13 comments
>What does this guy's day look like?
There are a number of people that work while you sleep.
When I worked midnight shifts, 7am was my 6pm, if that makes sense.
There are a number of people that work while you sleep.
When I worked midnight shifts, 7am was my 6pm, if that makes sense.
But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day?
Chemicals affect people differently. There are some high energy, high anxiety people who can be very productive on all kinds of substances that would make me useless all day.
That said, there are also a ton of stoners just doing nothing all day. I get it though, when I was a teenager working at bestbuy I got high just to make it through the day. Now that I have to think at work it is unimaginable.
It really is strange how having a beer with breakfast is somehow worse societally than smoking a joint. I think we’re going to see pushback against cannabis abuse in the next few decades. Hopefully after it’s fully legal.
Chemicals affect people differently. There are some high energy, high anxiety people who can be very productive on all kinds of substances that would make me useless all day.
That said, there are also a ton of stoners just doing nothing all day. I get it though, when I was a teenager working at bestbuy I got high just to make it through the day. Now that I have to think at work it is unimaginable.
It really is strange how having a beer with breakfast is somehow worse societally than smoking a joint. I think we’re going to see pushback against cannabis abuse in the next few decades. Hopefully after it’s fully legal.
I think the same when I see people chugging a fat black coffee the moment they wake up.
I wouldn’t be able to focus at all, constant jitters - how can these people all work effectively while being strung out on caffeine?
The answer is it’s all about tolerance and what drugs are social acceptable. The guy who smokes all day just gets back to baseline with his first joint in the day, he’s not actually high as you would be if you did that - same as with the caffeine addicts.
I think in a free society everyone should be able to put in their body what they believe is good for them - it’s a bit more complicated in real life but still…
The answer is it’s all about tolerance and what drugs are social acceptable. The guy who smokes all day just gets back to baseline with his first joint in the day, he’s not actually high as you would be if you did that - same as with the caffeine addicts.
I think in a free society everyone should be able to put in their body what they believe is good for them - it’s a bit more complicated in real life but still…
Smoking on the streets affects everyone else walking on the street. Drinking a cup of coffee on the street affects no one else.
It seems like you may have been making a more general social commentary, but I think this is pretty separate, since this is specifically about . If you're smoking in your home - more power to you.
It seems like you may have been making a more general social commentary, but I think this is pretty separate, since this is specifically about . If you're smoking in your home - more power to you.
See my other reply - this is not about what other environmental factors play a role - the question was how this person is able to function, not how their consumption impacts others.
I’ll take the whiff of locally grown weed over beans picked by poor people, processed and delivered by criminal oil companies.
I think it's sad that's all.
I don't think weed and caffeine are equivalent. One is a downer and the other a stimulant. You might get jitters with too much caffeine but that's not the same as being baked productivity wise. Sure you don't have to be productive 24/7 but chances are if you're lit at 7am, you're not being productive even when you sober up, and you'll just keep smoking.
In regards to "functional potheads", I've met a few in my life and without exception they greatly overstate their ability to function. Almost all addicts claim they're functional. Plus it can lead to psychological effects.
I think you should be able to put most things in your body. But I can still have an opinion whether it's good for you or society if people engage in this behavior. Not everything I think is bad should have a law against it.
I don't think weed and caffeine are equivalent. One is a downer and the other a stimulant. You might get jitters with too much caffeine but that's not the same as being baked productivity wise. Sure you don't have to be productive 24/7 but chances are if you're lit at 7am, you're not being productive even when you sober up, and you'll just keep smoking.
In regards to "functional potheads", I've met a few in my life and without exception they greatly overstate their ability to function. Almost all addicts claim they're functional. Plus it can lead to psychological effects.
I think you should be able to put most things in your body. But I can still have an opinion whether it's good for you or society if people engage in this behavior. Not everything I think is bad should have a law against it.
I've met some functional potheads and I legitimately cannot tell when they're high, even after they smoke a lot. Their tolerance is so unbelievably high that smoking does very little to them. They manage to function in life because they're typically not-really-that-high along with having careers that are just not cognitively difficult, at all. One does sort of data entry stuff, stuff they've done for years without much change in their work. They also do sort of simple wix website development stuff. I know another that just works the floors at Target.
Why do they smoke if it doesn't affect them? Is it just at this point they feel terrible if they don't? Is it worth just going through detox so you're not dependent for the rest of your life?
It does something, just not a lot. I think many/most weed smokers can quit cold turkey without many or any physical problems. Even very high tolerance smokers can still get pretty high, they just have to use tons of weed/high density forms of ingestion
Source on weed being a "downer"? I think this is just your personal bias on weed and how it makes YOU feel. Weed doesn't slow heart rate or respiration like proper downers. The effects are almost always in the eye of the beholder. Being un productive or "baked" is not a given.
Most people don’t get jitters when drinking coffee?
I can’t drink coffee because the caffeine affects me terribly but that’s not true for most people.
I can’t drink coffee because the caffeine affects me terribly but that’s not true for most people.
If someone drinks coffee in public, nobody around them gets "passive coffee drinking", in order to be a public nuisance like smokers.
The question was how this person is able to function not what other environmental factors play a role.
Growing coffee also has an impact on the environment, I would argue much more than growing weed - conveniently out of sight for the consumer. But that’s not really my point here.
Growing coffee also has an impact on the environment, I would argue much more than growing weed - conveniently out of sight for the consumer. But that’s not really my point here.
Just so we're clear, you're talking about weed smokers like the GP?
You've gotten passively stoned?
You've gotten passively stoned?
It’s hard to do but if you would be in a locked room with a bunch of lit joints going around you probably can get moderately passively stoned.
That's a bit different than the public nuisance claims.
I suppose you'd want to avoid a cannabis sauna if you want to avoid getting passively stoned.
I suppose you'd want to avoid a cannabis sauna if you want to avoid getting passively stoned.
Yea I wrote it more to illustrate that the “getting passively stoned from smoke on the street” argument is kinda ridiculous
It would be ill advised to try smoking weed in public in Osaka.
> You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed
Interesting, this has not been my experience. Certainly smoking weed is much more accepted than it used to be and cigarettes are less accepted than they used to be, but it seems like they've both ended up in a similar category. A non-smoker walking down the sidewalk might stay further away from someone smoking weed but I'm not sure it's a value judgement so much as the fact that the skunky smell seems to travel further.
Though besides giving them a wide berth and maybe causing people to scrunch up their nose, I've never seen anyone get harassed for either unless they're in a nonsmoking area or a playground or something and in that case I haven't noticed any difference in people's response.
Interesting, this has not been my experience. Certainly smoking weed is much more accepted than it used to be and cigarettes are less accepted than they used to be, but it seems like they've both ended up in a similar category. A non-smoker walking down the sidewalk might stay further away from someone smoking weed but I'm not sure it's a value judgement so much as the fact that the skunky smell seems to travel further.
Though besides giving them a wide berth and maybe causing people to scrunch up their nose, I've never seen anyone get harassed for either unless they're in a nonsmoking area or a playground or something and in that case I haven't noticed any difference in people's response.
> But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday.
This isn't even socially accepted among stoners who smoke every day once you're old enough to have a job. Not sure who you are hanging out with but people who are high all day every day are one of two things:
1 addicts, and considered so even by stoners, who have crazy tolerance and like alcoholics can function under the influence better than non addicts
or 2 they have a terrible painful disease like ankylosing spondylitis and the only effect of the cannabis is a slight reduction in pain because when your spine is pinched you don't get as much of the euphoria and whatnot from pot
Hope that clears it up
This isn't even socially accepted among stoners who smoke every day once you're old enough to have a job. Not sure who you are hanging out with but people who are high all day every day are one of two things:
1 addicts, and considered so even by stoners, who have crazy tolerance and like alcoholics can function under the influence better than non addicts
or 2 they have a terrible painful disease like ankylosing spondylitis and the only effect of the cannabis is a slight reduction in pain because when your spine is pinched you don't get as much of the euphoria and whatnot from pot
Hope that clears it up
>What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day?
It's a matter of experience and tolerance. A heavy weed smoker doesn't get "high" in the same way as someone who only smokes on occasion. You get a buzz, a slight alteration of your inner state, but there is no huge impairment. For some people, especially those who work intellectually and creatively, it's quite the opposite actually.
It's a matter of experience and tolerance. A heavy weed smoker doesn't get "high" in the same way as someone who only smokes on occasion. You get a buzz, a slight alteration of your inner state, but there is no huge impairment. For some people, especially those who work intellectually and creatively, it's quite the opposite actually.
>But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday.
Not everyone works a business day. 7AM on a weekday may be a day off, or may be someone on 3rd shift coming home and unwinding.
Weed is also not really like booze. There are no end of jobs where being a little high is probably a net positive.
Not everyone works a business day. 7AM on a weekday may be a day off, or may be someone on 3rd shift coming home and unwinding.
Weed is also not really like booze. There are no end of jobs where being a little high is probably a net positive.
I’ve never seen someone high on cannabis be a danger to others, and cannabis smoke airs out pretty easily, as opposed to cigarette smoke that sticks to everything and doesn’t go away.
Not that cannabis smoke isn’t annoying, but it’s far less annoying than cigarette smoke ever was.
Not that cannabis smoke isn’t annoying, but it’s far less annoying than cigarette smoke ever was.
I’m pretty sure anyone high cannabis is a danger to others while driving?
The smell of weed does not air out — every taxi I get into stinks of it constantly.
Not only that, it has a much greater range - I usually saw a cigarette smoker but I can smell weed on the street and not see them at all.
And my car air filter kept out cigarette odor when on recirculate, but some how weed gets through and I have to close and turn the whole system off to have any hope of not stinking up my car. The number of people smoking weed while driving is honestly scary
I hope Osaka’s approach spreads
The smell of weed does not air out — every taxi I get into stinks of it constantly.
Not only that, it has a much greater range - I usually saw a cigarette smoker but I can smell weed on the street and not see them at all.
And my car air filter kept out cigarette odor when on recirculate, but some how weed gets through and I have to close and turn the whole system off to have any hope of not stinking up my car. The number of people smoking weed while driving is honestly scary
I hope Osaka’s approach spreads
It goes without saying that being high on anything while driving is dangerous to others. Although, in my experience, people high on cannabis just drive dangerously slow.
This differs from drugs like alcohol, which inherently increase people’s propensity to be a danger to others.
I guess we have had different experiences with the smell of cannabis, but back from when I worked in a hotel, the protocol for when a person smoked cannabis in a room was to just leave the window and door open for 15 minutes, and no one would be the wiser after that.
Whereas, if someone smoked cigarettes in the room, the cleaning process was far more costly.
This differs from drugs like alcohol, which inherently increase people’s propensity to be a danger to others.
I guess we have had different experiences with the smell of cannabis, but back from when I worked in a hotel, the protocol for when a person smoked cannabis in a room was to just leave the window and door open for 15 minutes, and no one would be the wiser after that.
Whereas, if someone smoked cigarettes in the room, the cleaning process was far more costly.
> I’ve never seen someone high on cannabis be a danger to others
I think driving while high is dangerous and inexplicably very accepted in society.
But my comment wasn't "they're hurting someone by choosing to smoke weed". It's more I feel bad that they're inebriated for much of their day and for me that's kind of sad. I've known pot-heads before and they're not exactly living their best lives and are often dependent on a substance to make it through the day.
I think driving while high is dangerous and inexplicably very accepted in society.
But my comment wasn't "they're hurting someone by choosing to smoke weed". It's more I feel bad that they're inebriated for much of their day and for me that's kind of sad. I've known pot-heads before and they're not exactly living their best lives and are often dependent on a substance to make it through the day.
Driving while high on anything is already illegal. Just like driving while distracted, but using mobile phones while driving is far more accepted than any other dangerous activity.
Coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, weed, Wellbutrin, Xanax... with all things, people metabolize and tolerate all types of substances differently to help us make it through the day.
I think the problem is that at some point cigarette smokers started terrorizing the rest of the society, assuming that every space is smoking space. This doesn't really happen with weed, at least not to same extent
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>You get dirtier looks and more likely to be harassed smoking a cigarette than you would smoking weed, regardless of place and time of day.
I think it may be just your bubble
Ive never saw someone casually smoking weed on streets
I think it may be just your bubble
Ive never saw someone casually smoking weed on streets
Just saw someone smoking weed using a beer can as a pipe, waiting for the bus, at 11am. This was in Seattle. It’s common here. And the smell, it lingers and wafts down the block, ugh.
If you walk around busy areas of Manhattan (or any sufficiently busy metro area where weed is legal (and even some where it’s not)) you will smell weed at any time of day.
It’s the first thing my coworkers remarked on when they visited our ny offices from out of the country.
It’s the first thing my coworkers remarked on when they visited our ny offices from out of the country.
> someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day?
You realize the high from a joint only last a couple hours, right? He could go out to breakfast (always a fun high activity), people watch a bit (again), and then go for a walk in the park or listen to some music or whatever. And then spend the rest of the day sober. Could even go into the office fine lol.
Or keep smoking weed (that's okay too).
You realize the high from a joint only last a couple hours, right? He could go out to breakfast (always a fun high activity), people watch a bit (again), and then go for a walk in the park or listen to some music or whatever. And then spend the rest of the day sober. Could even go into the office fine lol.
Or keep smoking weed (that's okay too).
> Not that one is better than the other per-se.
Smoking weed is CLEARLY, OVERWHELMINGLY better than smoking tobacco by being less addictive and MUCH less likely to cause various cancers.
Smoking weed is CLEARLY, OVERWHELMINGLY better than smoking tobacco by being less addictive and MUCH less likely to cause various cancers.
Yes, but too often people hear that and sub in "harmless", which it's absolutely not. "Better than tobacco" is one of the easiest bars for any drug to clear, and weed is not by any stretch of the imagination harmless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRaI0ZeAf8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRaI0ZeAf8
Nothing is really completely harmless if you think about it - but I agree that weed is more dangerous than it’s made out to be often.
I think the same applies to every socially accepted drug, such as coffee, alcohol, ibuprofen etc
Yeah, "nothing is really completely harmless" is used to justify all kinds of harm. Nothing is completely harmless, but some things are more harmful than others, and at least with adolescents weed isn't even in the same ballpark as coffee or ibuprofen.
I never said it’s in the same ballpark, i literally agreed with you but feel free to apply any kind of bad faith logic to what I wrote
I wasn't even necessarily talking about your perspective specifically and didn't mean this to get at all personal. Sorry it came off that way.
The substance can cause psychotic breaks in certain people and terrifying out of body experiences and paranoia in others (I'm in the second category). Long term use negatively affects emotional processing and sleep quality.
It's a harmful drug whose harms are simply on another order than tobacco (psychological wellbeing).
I don't really buy this or any other argument made for the virtues of an otherwise pretty terrible drug.
It's a harmful drug whose harms are simply on another order than tobacco (psychological wellbeing).
I don't really buy this or any other argument made for the virtues of an otherwise pretty terrible drug.
Smoking is still bad, weed or tobacco or crack or whatever. I think cannabis is plenty addictive.
Here, "vaping" is a mistranslation. The law actually refers to 加熱式たばこ, or "heated tobacco products" (HTP), which contain tobacco leaf just like regular cigarettes, but don't combust. On the other hand, nicotine vapes are classified as medical devices and have never been approved for sale, but technically individuals can import them.
The evidence for HTPs being healthier than cigarettes is thin.
I believe that overregulation of nicotine vapes is a form of protectionism for Japan Tobacco, which the Government of Japan owns a large stake in. This is a clear conflict of interest.
If it's not fully combusting the leaves, it seems like it must be massively healthier. Not healthy, of course, but better.
It was really amazing to see how little smoking is visible in Tokyo and Osaka these days, even taking vaping into account. I don't know what the smoking/vaping rates are, but it's increasingly confined to homes or small smoking areas which makes things much nicer if you're a non-smoker.
The fine is small, but I think in Japan the shame is probably the real punishment - 1000 yen might buy you two beers in a bar.
The fine is small, but I think in Japan the shame is probably the real punishment - 1000 yen might buy you two beers in a bar.
I am currently living in Tokyo and for the most part smoking is prohibited except for designated smoking areas. And while compared to Germany way less people seem to smoke and mostly follow the rules I see about one or two people during my commute every day who will vape or smoke either while walking or standing on the corner of a non-busy street. So not everyone cares but luckily most people do and I wish it was like this everywhere!
I'm gonna ask the same thing I asked when some city in Spain did this.
What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke?
I'm not sure what a "reasonable" carve out for these people would look like but people aren't idiots and they tend to resent individuals, groups and institutions that make their daily behavior unlawful with the stroke of a pen and the more policy subjects on which you do that the more resentment you build and eventually it starts road blocking other actions. Doing things that way is not what sustainable government looks like.
(edit: Disclaimer before anyone jumps down my throat, obviously the political realities of public policy and compliance are different in Japan than in the west.)
What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke?
I'm not sure what a "reasonable" carve out for these people would look like but people aren't idiots and they tend to resent individuals, groups and institutions that make their daily behavior unlawful with the stroke of a pen and the more policy subjects on which you do that the more resentment you build and eventually it starts road blocking other actions. Doing things that way is not what sustainable government looks like.
(edit: Disclaimer before anyone jumps down my throat, obviously the political realities of public policy and compliance are different in Japan than in the west.)
> people aren't idiots and they tend to resent individuals, groups and institutions that make their daily behavior unlawful with the stroke of a pen
Yes, but when the people affected become a sufficiently small minority those people have a smaller and smaller impact on local and regional elections. The culture in much of the world has shifted so firmly against smoking that politicians in these places have probably rightly calculated that the irritation from the few holdouts who still feel entitled to smoke in public is massively overpowered by the gratitude they'll get from the people who are tired of dodging tobacco smoke on the streets.
Yes, but when the people affected become a sufficiently small minority those people have a smaller and smaller impact on local and regional elections. The culture in much of the world has shifted so firmly against smoking that politicians in these places have probably rightly calculated that the irritation from the few holdouts who still feel entitled to smoke in public is massively overpowered by the gratitude they'll get from the people who are tired of dodging tobacco smoke on the streets.
If public opinion is so against smoking then why not let it fizzle out?
Your comment exactly captures what I mean. Every government in the west more or less shared your attitude over the past decade or two and what did it get them? A bunch of populists winning elections because people like you calculated that you could push the envelope on just about ever issue all at once and while you were all probably right individually it turns out that you can't all do that all at once. It's a tragedy of the commons problem of sorts.
Instead of treating public policy as a strategic game of "how many frogs can we boil on how many subjects and how quickly can we boil them without losing our heads?" frog boiling was treated as to be something avoided generally maybe such progress regressing things would happen less often.
Now, while I understand that Japan is not the west, I'm less than enthused to see them being sloppy like this.
Your comment exactly captures what I mean. Every government in the west more or less shared your attitude over the past decade or two and what did it get them? A bunch of populists winning elections because people like you calculated that you could push the envelope on just about ever issue all at once and while you were all probably right individually it turns out that you can't all do that all at once. It's a tragedy of the commons problem of sorts.
Instead of treating public policy as a strategic game of "how many frogs can we boil on how many subjects and how quickly can we boil them without losing our heads?" frog boiling was treated as to be something avoided generally maybe such progress regressing things would happen less often.
Now, while I understand that Japan is not the west, I'm less than enthused to see them being sloppy like this.
Why is a non-smoker’s right not to breath in smoke not included in your calculation? Why is it only the smoker (well the smoker in a very narrow and specific case) that is being “pushed” now and not the non-smokers having been pushed for decades? The closer you live to others, the more your individual actions can and do affect others. The ‘my liberty ends where yours begins' concept. Of course there is no perfect universal right answer to any given line, but there is no obligation to “carve out” anything. I don’t want to be forced to breath in their smoke while I’m in my apartment either, and I don’t have the option to not breath.
Letting it "just fizzle out" is failing to protect the rights and freedoms of non-smokers.
Letting it "just fizzle out" is failing to protect the rights and freedoms of non-smokers.
The idea that outdoor smokers are impinging on your right to breathe is a bit of a stretch. You can breathe just fine and there is no evidence that catching the stray odor of a cigarette has any impact at all on your health. These people are sucking this smoke directly into their lungs all day for years on end and only a minority of them will ever actually develop cancer and you're going to act like you can't breathe if you smell one?
Should we outlaw public farting too?
Should we outlaw public farting too?
> The idea that outdoor smokers are impinging on your right to breathe is a bit of a stretch
I’m sitting out on a terrace and you’re smoking next to me. I have to either move inside the cafe, or leave. This isn’t a hypothetical, it’s what I face every time I go out. So no it’s not a stretch.
The majority of society would rather you don’t smoke. You live in that society, so choices are to either stop smoking, or continue because what you want is more important (aka being a dick).
I’m sitting out on a terrace and you’re smoking next to me. I have to either move inside the cafe, or leave. This isn’t a hypothetical, it’s what I face every time I go out. So no it’s not a stretch.
The majority of society would rather you don’t smoke. You live in that society, so choices are to either stop smoking, or continue because what you want is more important (aka being a dick).
This comment chain is about smoking indoors in apartment buildings and more broadly the general rights of smoker's vs non-smokers in a historical sense. To pretend that my comment was in any way about being outdoors and occasionally smelling a whiff of cigarette smoke is either ignorant or malicious, just so you could pretend to be making some gotcha counterpoint.
i don't think breathing in farts has been shown to have negative health impacts
> What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke?
You switch to vaping (public health win!) or you move.
You switch to vaping (public health win!) or you move.
I agree vaping is a big public health improvement (not that I'm a particular fan of it) over smoking but they banned that too...
Nobody is gonna move over smoking. They're just gonna resent you. And that'll hamstring your next public health action or whatever because the political will just won't be there.
Nobody is gonna move over smoking. They're just gonna resent you. And that'll hamstring your next public health action or whatever because the political will just won't be there.
They banned vaping in public streets, not private homes.
I can't speak for Japan, but around here most "no smoking" landlords permit vaping.
I can't speak for Japan, but around here most "no smoking" landlords permit vaping.
Vaping in one's apartment isn't banned.
Except perhaps if you have a very specific clause in a renting contract, but I don't think anyone would bother going these lengths.
Except perhaps if you have a very specific clause in a renting contract, but I don't think anyone would bother going these lengths.
> vaping (public health win!)
I don't think it's that clear. If smokers simply replaced their smoking with vaping maybe it would be a win, but I've noticed that the behavior when it comes to vaping is wildly different: smokers tend to vape more than they would smoke because of how little friction there is in comparison (you don't even a lighter, you can often stay indoors and it will smell less so others won't complain as much).
I even know of someone who vapes while lying in bed, and I can't imagine they would smoke a cigarette there.
I don't think it's that clear. If smokers simply replaced their smoking with vaping maybe it would be a win, but I've noticed that the behavior when it comes to vaping is wildly different: smokers tend to vape more than they would smoke because of how little friction there is in comparison (you don't even a lighter, you can often stay indoors and it will smell less so others won't complain as much).
I even know of someone who vapes while lying in bed, and I can't imagine they would smoke a cigarette there.
Maybe these people can use one of these bags, but inside-out? [1]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/zultws/i...
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/zultws/i...
> What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke?
I don't know, I don't care. If you belong to lower social class you have less privileges, like smoking. Smoking is a luxury, not a basic necessity.
I don't know, I don't care. If you belong to lower social class you have less privileges, like smoking. Smoking is a luxury, not a basic necessity.
> What happens to people who live in non smoking apartments and don't have private outdoor space to smoke?
They live longer?
They live longer?
Twice last year, I went into a coffee shop in Osaka to kill some time and the shop turned out to allow smoking, so I left. I was surprised both times, as that hasn’t happened to me in Yokohama (where I live) or Tokyo for a long time.
One of the shops [1] was in Taisho Ward, and the other [2] was in the basement of one of the Osaka Eki-mae buildings—both places with a working-class, nontrendy atmosphere.
[1] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270401/27077305/
[2] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270101/27060170/
One of the shops [1] was in Taisho Ward, and the other [2] was in the basement of one of the Osaka Eki-mae buildings—both places with a working-class, nontrendy atmosphere.
[1] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270401/27077305/
[2] https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270101/27060170/
Japan is already pretty deep into the smokefree thing. Crazy proof about how adaptive the Japan team is
Fire department disbanded
Coming up next and already happening: Alcohol is phased out.
But drinking with coworkers is an important part of work culture in Japan. So seems unlikely.
good point, it's certainly more of a trend with the younger generation and in the west.
But even living in a country that is perceived as "beer centric", i noticed that people are starting to be much more conscious of their alcohol consumption after covid. For the young generation, alcohol does not seem to play as big a role anymore and i would expect that this carries over to their work-life once they enter the work force.
But even living in a country that is perceived as "beer centric", i noticed that people are starting to be much more conscious of their alcohol consumption after covid. For the young generation, alcohol does not seem to play as big a role anymore and i would expect that this carries over to their work-life once they enter the work force.
I come from a country where heavy drinking was extremely normalized and common. Then the society completely shifted. Bringing vodka used to be the default thing to do when invited anywhere, nowadays you can't get people to drink a beer with you.
I looked into statistics, and turns out, people didn't stop drinking, they actually drink much more, what changed is that drinking stopped being a social activity, and now is a solo introvert home activity. I think that's the real societal shift.
I looked into statistics, and turns out, people didn't stop drinking, they actually drink much more, what changed is that drinking stopped being a social activity, and now is a solo introvert home activity. I think that's the real societal shift.
cool now do something about car exhaust.
Doesn't Japan already have one of the most non-car extensive transit systems on the planet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Keihanshin
> Public transport within Keihanshin is dominated by an extensive public system, beginning with an urban rail network second only to that of Greater Tokyo, consisting of over seventy railway lines of surface trains and subways run by numerous operators; buses, monorails, and trams support the primary rail network. Over 13 million people use the public transit system daily as their primary means of travel. Like Tokyo, walking and bicycling are much more common than in many cities around the globe. Trips by bicycle (including joint trips with railway) in Osaka is at 33.9% with railway trips alone having the highest share at 36.4%, the combined railway share (rail alone, rail and bus, rail and bicycle) is at 45.7%. Walking alone has a modal share of 8.5%. Private automobiles and motorcycles play a secondary role in urban transport with private automobiles only having a 9.9% modal share in Osaka.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Keihanshin
> Public transport within Keihanshin is dominated by an extensive public system, beginning with an urban rail network second only to that of Greater Tokyo, consisting of over seventy railway lines of surface trains and subways run by numerous operators; buses, monorails, and trams support the primary rail network. Over 13 million people use the public transit system daily as their primary means of travel. Like Tokyo, walking and bicycling are much more common than in many cities around the globe. Trips by bicycle (including joint trips with railway) in Osaka is at 33.9% with railway trips alone having the highest share at 36.4%, the combined railway share (rail alone, rail and bus, rail and bicycle) is at 45.7%. Walking alone has a modal share of 8.5%. Private automobiles and motorcycles play a secondary role in urban transport with private automobiles only having a 9.9% modal share in Osaka.
That is a very good point. Admittedly, my comment was a little knee-jerk. I just wish the world could vilify car exhaust with the same gusto that cigarette smoke gets. But it is instead very normalized
Whataboutism has bite
Now we need every city to do this.
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Not that one is better than the other per-se. But I just find it baffling how acceptable it is to see someone publicly smoking weed at 7am on a weekday. What does this guy's day look like? How can he function high all day? At least bottomless brunch is reserved for the weekend.