End of the Road for Japan's Taxi Smokers

Japan's salarymen once considered it their inalienable right to enjoy a quick puff in the back of a taxi on the way to a meeting.

Their wives, too, saw nothing wrong with cycling through the rain, umbrella raised and children perched on tiny seats at the front and back and bags of shopping dangling from the handlebars.

But they are being forced to change their ways after the introduction of a smoking ban in many of Japan's taxis this week and, later this year, a planned clampdown on multitasking cyclists.

On Monday, Tokyo became the latest of several cities to ban smoking in taxis as Japan made a belated attempt to ride the wave of tobacco intolerance sweeping other developed countries.

Smoking is now banned in 52,000 vehicles belonging to Tokyo's two biggest taxi associations, with a further 3,000 other unaffiliated cars, which have so far escaped the ban, expected to follow in the coming months.

The ban in the capital - which is keen to present a cleaner, healthier image as part of its bid for the 2016 Olympics - follows similar moves by taxi firms in 14 of Japan's 47 prefectures. Almost half the country's 270,000 taxis are now smoke-free.

"There were lots of complaints from passengers about the smell," Keiichi Sato, a spokesman for the Tokyo Taxi Association, told Reuters.

Although smoking rates are falling in Japan, they remain among the highest in the industrialized world.

The proportion of Japanese adults who smoke has dropped to 26%, compared with 34% 10 years ago, Japan Tobacco said - but lighting up is still acceptable in most bars and restaurants, despite bans on some Tokyo streets and in many public buildings.

Taxi companies cited the need to protect customers from the effects of secondhand smoke from drivers who regularly puff at the wheel.

In 2005, a court rejected compensation claims by taxi drivers who said they had become ill due to passengers' secondhand smoke, but ruled that cab operators should do more safeguard their health.

Three more prefectures are expected to follow suit in the coming months, but the health drive has hit a snag in Osaka, a merchant city whose inhabitants are fiercely protective of their independent spirit.

Sympathetic taxi drivers in Tokyo have promised to pull over to allow desperate passengers to enjoy a quick nicotine fix by the side of the road.

Errant cyclists, meanwhile, face a fine of 20,000 yen (£420) from this spring if they are caught "triple-riding" - a time-honored balancing act that usually involves an adult and two small children spaced out along the length of a bicycle.

In the first changes to cycling rules for almost 30 years, warnings will be issued to cyclists who listen to portable music players, chat on mobile phones or use an umbrella while on the move.

The constant ringing of bicycle bells on footpaths will be discouraged, as will the most disturbing trend among Japanese teen cyclists - texting and pedaling at the same time.

The new measures, recommended by a police advisory panel, are intended to halt the rise in accidents involving bicycles. The national police agency reported 4,020 such mishaps last year, a seven-fold increase over the past decade.

The number of bicycle accidents involving pedestrians has risen almost five times since 1996 to 2,767 incidents last year, the agency added.