The question "tabako wo osui ni narimasuka?" (「タバコをお吸いになりますか」"Do you happen to be a smoker?") is something you don't hear all that often. So many public venues in the Tokyo area have banned smoking altogether, or simply operate on the assumption that no one in their right minds will smoke. And now that the new Kōseirōdōdaijin (厚生労働大臣, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare) Yoko Komiyama mentioned the possibility of sticking a ¥700 price tag on a pack of cigarettes, aienka (愛煙家, heavy smokers) everywhere are, um, fuming.

Komiyama has said that by increasing cigarette prices, the government hopes to pool funds for Tohoku fukkō (東北復興, Tohoku earthquake recovery) and discourage people from smoking at the same time. To which several top-level bureaucrats in the Zaimushō (財務省, Ministry of Finance) were rumored to have spat on the marble floors of their private offices and said something along the lines of: "Get that babaa (ババア, old nag) out of the Cabinet, NOW."

Zaimushō has direct control over tobacco taxes so you'd think they'd turn around and thank Komiyama-san. Didn't happen. As for the majority of the kitsuen (喫煙, smoking) public, they're quietly stocking up on cigarettes and ducking out for smoking breaks as often as humanly possible. One of my brothers — a dedicated smoker since the age of 15 — says that at this point, the smoking tamariba (たまり場, hangout) restricted to a few square meters of damp pavement outside the back door of his company building, has the same population density and cranky desperation as the Yamanote line during rush hour.