Japan’s bullet trains to nix smoking rooms by spring amid health trend

20 comments

1. Aw 🙁 I don’t smoke anymore but it’s a bummer they’re getting dumped, I get the ick from it now but it doesn’t bother me when I walk past them.

2. NONONO!

   Few times I smoke is on the Shinkansen.
   Standing in there with a beer, a smoke and just watch as the beautiful landscape passes me by.

3. Probably for the best… I don’t smoke anymore, but remember feeling like a king having a beer, a smoke, and enjoying a curry rice in the dining car… times have changed!

   Edit: curry was served by someone wearing a butler costume in a beautiful “gravy boat” with a proper spoon and fork… I think it only cost about 700 yen.

4. This is good news. This space was completely wasted, and now it’s going to be put to better use. Though I’m wondering if they could have kept the rooms, and charged a huge fee for using them, to help keep ticket prices down for everyone else.

5. Can we now nix smoking in hotels?

6. This is good. The cost of maintaining those rooms (each train with one is losing 10s of thousands of Yen in fare per trip had the space been devoted to seating)was basically just a way in which the rest of society was subsidizing smoking, which made no sense.

7. Free upvotes for everyone who got downvoted for having different opinion xD

8. Horrible news

9. Even as a non-smoker I didn’t mind smoking rooms – I feel like it helped smokers form good habits i.e. smoke away from people instead of, like in Germany, immediately lighting up when you depart the train.

   But if smoker numbers are down and JR West was an outlier anyway I guess it makes sense to go with the flow. I am probably more concerned with removing smoking rooms at stations because this could eventually lead to antisocial behaviour by smokers.

10. I remember the smoking cars. I used to hold my breath all the way walking through. Also the smoke used to pass from car to car is you sat in the adjacent car.

11. Now if only bars could follow suit…

12. One of the great perks of the Shinkansen gone. Anyway, smokers will compensate. Instead of having a smoke on the Shinkansen in a nice room away from people we will puff right out front of stations more before getting on.

13. I’ve visited Tokyo, Kyoto and now I’m in Osaka. I’m surprised by the number of smokers in here compared to the other cities. Also it’s disgusting how many cigarette butts you can find on the streets. They’re everywhere. How come the behaviour of ppl is so different?

14. That awesome. Sitting next to the smoking car and having the smokers pass you by as they go is awful, let alone if you are unfortunate enough to sit next to one 🤢

15. Yes!!

16. Bring back the sleeping cars!!

17. Took long enough.

18. L

19. let’s hope they at least do something constructive with them, like making it a large luggage storage. there’s not enough room as it is…

20. Don’t give a fuck. I vape and you can’t stop me from taking a shit and having a puff while doing it.