Miho Shimada has seen the difference 1 yen can make.
The 34-year-old hypnotherapist at Allen Carr Tokyo, which claims to have the key to quitting smoking, says that since the tobacco-tax increase on July 1 -- equivalent to 1 yen per cigarette -- business has been booming.
"Our home page started getting more than 3,000 hits a day by the end of June, which is three times the number before news spread of the tobacco tax hike," Shimada said. "The number of actual clients has doubled in the last couple of months."