The Public's Role in Changing Smoking Behavior: the Collective Enforcement of Appeals and New Rules in Japan and South Korea

Vortrag von Prof. Celeste Arrington, PhD (George Washington University)

21.07.2025

Japan and South Korea were long known as “smokers’ paradises” and had high rates of smoking among men but not women. Cigarettes were cheap and few regulations limited where one could smoke. In the past twenty-five years, however, a patchwork of binding and non-binding measures in both Japan and Korea have aimed to change behavioral norms around smoking and create more nonsmoking environments, both indoors and outdoors. They include appeals for people to show good “manners” when smoking, exhortations to smoke only in designated spaces, appeals for businesses to try to reduce secondhand smoke, and also (small) fines for breaking rules. This talk analyzes the range of nonsmoking regulations in Japan and Korea. It then asks what conditions make these nonsmoking rules more or less effective. I find that public support for restricting smoking and public involvement in collective enforcement through civil complaints or shaming are critical for nonsmoking rules’ effectiveness.