The Cabinet approved a new program to fight cancer on Tuesday, but a proposal for a tougher passive smoking ban failed due to insufficient support from the ruling party, which represents affected industries.
In June, a health ministry panel recommended that a "zero tolerance" approach to secondhand smoke be added to the nation's planned cancer policy covering the next six years. But the move met with strong opposition from the Liberal Democratic Party.
The existing program calls for the eradication of passive smoking at government buildings and medical facilities by fiscal 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympics, and lowering the ratio of passive exposure to smoke at home to 3 percent and at restaurants to 15 percent in the same year.