Take-up slow for 'smoker's Smartcard' system

Aimed at preventing minors purchasing cigarettes from vending- machines, Japan's taspo (tobacco passport) proof-of-age Smartcard system was introduced in July in the seven prefectures of the Kanto region, including Tokyo, as well as in Yamanashi and Okinawa prefectures, completing a nationwide rollout that commenced in March. Now 420,000 of Japan's cigarette-vending machines will require customers to have taspos.

According to taspo developers, the Tobacco Institute of Japan, however, only around 6.41 million Japanese smokers have registered for a card. This is about 24.6 percent of the estimated 26.08 million smokers in Japan. The institute views the slow uptake as a result of some people being deterred by the involved application procedure, which requires an ID photo, but expects registrations to increase now that the system has been fully introduced. The institute aims to issue 10 million cards by the end of the year. "We want to achieve greater uptake of the taspo card, and we hope that in doing so we can raise the level of social awareness about preventing underage smoking," Institute managing director Yuji Abe said.