Smoking areas in Japan: where you can actually light up

Questions people ask

Can you smoke on the street in Japan?

Generally no. Tokyo's central wards, Osaka, Kyoto and most large cities ban smoking while walking or standing on the street outside designated smoking areas, under local ordinances with on-the-spot fines of roughly 1,000 to 2,000 yen (Chiyoda ward: 2,000 yen). Since April 2020 the national Health Promotion Act also bans smoking inside most restaurants, offices and public buildings unless there is a sealed smoking room. Look for the marked smoking area, usually near a station exit, a convenience store or a park edge.

Where are the smoking areas in Tokyo?

Near major station exits (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, Ikebukuro and Shinagawa all have several), beside some convenience stores, in the smoking rooms of department stores and larger cafes, and in designated corners of parks. They move and close, so the map ranks the ones a traveller has checked recently above the rest; tap the Smoking chip on the map to see the nearest with walking time.

Is there a smoking area map or app for Japan?

This map. Tap the Smoking chip and the nearest designated areas appear, with walking time from the map centre and whether they are public or for customers of a shop. It works in the browser with no account, in eight languages, and covers Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and the rest of the country from the same data.

What do I do with a cigarette butt in Japan?

Put it in the ashtray at the smoking area, or carry a portable ashtray (keitai haizara, sold at every convenience store for a few hundred yen). Dropping a butt is littering under the same ordinances that ban street smoking. Most convenience-store ashtrays were removed in 2020, so do not count on finding one outside the shop.