TOKYO
Lawmakers in Japan have enacted a bill to strengthen measures for preventing health hazards caused by passive smoking.
According to NHK, the Upper House of the Diet approved the bill by a majority vote at a plenary session on Wednesday to amend the health promotion law.
The new legislation will ban smoking inside buildings of schools, hospitals and administrative organizations. But it will allow such entities to set up outdoor smoking areas on their premises.
Existing restaurants with a customer floor area of 100 square meters or under will be able to allow guests to smoke, if they put up a sign outside saying so.
But existing establishments with a larger customer floor area and those of any size to open from now on will be required to prohibit smoking except inside designated smoking rooms.
With the enactment of the revised law, smoking restrictions will come into force in about one year at schools, hospitals and administrative bodies, and from April 2020 at restaurants.