It takes a bit for foreigners to get accustomed to especially if you are a non smoker or have children. What surprises and angers me the most is sometimes people light up around us when there are kids, or sometimes you see a whole family with young kids dinning in smoking areas/rooms because their parents smokes. These rooms you can sometimes see are just so smokey and I can't comprehend how the parents can put their children through that, it's like smoking in the car with your windows closed with your kids in the car.
I mean don't get me wrong, there has been improvements in this area as well. I have been living and coming to Japan for past 20 years and still remember the Japanese airlines being one of the last to allow smoking up the back of planes. A lot of public areas prohibits smoking and Japanese people are very law abiding people, in fact they excel in this area.
It's a somewhat a touchy subject depending on if you're a smoker or not, some people feel very strongly about it so I guess there is no right or wrong. Being a non smoking family with kids we tend to take a bit more notice for our daughters health sake.
Like I said, it's no right or wrong but feel free to comment if you have an opinion on this, certainly would like to hear your views...
