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Food, clothing, and shelter are what support our daily lives. The things that appear there can be divided into those we can use freely, those we must use, and those we must not use. We are free to choose whatever food or clothing we like, but alcohol and tobacco are prohibited for minors. The principle of our ordinary relationship with luxury goods is that "either way is fine." Under that principle, luxury goods can be chosen freely. Tobacco is one of them; some people like it, and some people hate it. While conflicts over likes and dislikes are easy to understand, human society has granted citizenship to luxury goods in a liberal way, where "either way is fine." The tolerant etiquette toward tobacco was that it didn't matter if you liked it or hated it, and it didn't matter if you smoked or didn't smoke. However, this is rapidly changing.

In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare aims to strengthen the Health Promotion Act enacted in 2003 as a measure against secondhand smoke. An increasing number of countries overseas are making public places entirely smoke-free indoors, and the WHO has pointed out that Japan's measures are at the "lowest level in the world." Furthermore, the IOC and WHO are jointly promoting a "Tobacco-Free Olympics." According to a WHO report, 600,000 people die worldwide every year from secondhand smoke, and a research team from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare estimates that domestic deaths also reach 15,000 per year.

For an elderly person like me, there is a real sense that the way we interact with tobacco has completely changed between the Showa and Heisei eras. One example is the frequent depiction of tobacco in the hit movie "The Wind Rises." In a request letter titled "Regarding the Handling of Tobacco in the Movie 'The Wind Rises' (Request)" sent to the producers, the Japan Society for Tobacco Control (an NPO) cited specific scenes, stating, "Smoking scenes in classrooms, scenes where many staff members including supervisors are smoking in the workplace... there are too many to count," and requested consideration in the handling of tobacco. The production side responded that such a request could potentially threaten freedom of expression. This is unmistakable evidence of the radical change in the status of tobacco.

Tobacco is a plant of the genus Nicotiana in the Solanaceae family, and if you trace its birthplace, you arrive at the New World. People used tobacco mainly in religious rituals in three ways: smoking, chewing, or grinding it into powder to inhale through the nose. Tobacco, which has effects such as sedative properties, was also used to treat illnesses in forms such as medicinal decoctions, suppositories, and ointments. It entered Japan at the end of the 16th century along with firearms and Christianity. The Edo Shogunate even issued bans on tobacco, but they were ineffective, and by the Genroku era, it had become established as a luxury item.

The status of tobacco has changed from a ritual item and medicine to a luxury item. The principle of tobacco use as a luxury is that "either way is fine," and unlike commands or prohibitions in rituals or prescriptions, it is fundamentally free. In recent years, "health" has begun to play an important role in this context. This word is a translation of the English word "health," meaning a "good physical condition," and it also appears in Yukichi Fukuzawa's "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization." However, the word used to describe physical condition until the Meiji era was "yojo" (regimen). This is the mindset of "not performing certain acts in order to maintain a good physical condition." Knowledge of medical sciences and medical care has changed our consciousness from "passive regimen to active health," and tobacco has come to be regarded as something containing poison and evil, causing its status to waver. "Coexistence" with tobacco has changed to "segregation," and "health" brings about the denial of tobacco liberalism. We are forced to choose between partially protecting tobacco liberalism through smoking restrictions, or partially denying tobacco liberalism and making segregation strict. Therefore, we have tried to reach a compromise between smoking and non-smoking by skillfully confusing the "denial of liberalism" regarding tobacco with the "change in smoking etiquette."

While tubs and barrels cannot be clearly distinguished, it is our habit to cherish the common sense that "a tub is not a barrel." For many matters, things that were "either way is fine" have come to be considered things that "must be one or the other." Conversely, there are cases where things that "must be one or the other" have come to be regarded as "either way is fine." Tobacco has been accepted as something that is fine whether you smoke or not, but finally, medical reasons have been found, and smoking is being denounced as an evil. The "either way is fine" existence of tobacco is being denied and is on the verge of being prohibited.

This is more than just a change in taste. Currently, it is still perceived as a change in taste, but it is certain that tobacco, which is barely being maintained, is in danger of extinction, and the current trend is to further restrict the freedom to smoke. If new benefits are found for tobacco, its status might change. That said, it is difficult to imagine anything at this point that would stop smoking from changing from an "either way is fine" habit to a "should not smoke" prohibited item. Therefore, the answer to "To smoke, or not to smoke, is that the question?" is being decided as "There is no question; you must not smoke."

The reason I feel a slight sense of loneliness regarding this tobacco situation is probably because I used to enjoy smoking.