Bending to pressure from the restaurant industry and the Liberal Democratic Party, the health ministry has watered down its plan to ban indoor smoking in basically all facilities.
Its new proposal for combating secondhand smoke, released Wednesday, now exempts small bars, although it still bans indoor smoking in all public facilities.
The ministry wants to get the bill to revise the Health Promotion Law passed and in place ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
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