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[stocks]

The anti-smoking hysteria has not arrived in Japan yet, and smoking is still relatively popular. The smoking rate among adult men is almost 50%, while for women it is below 15%. The law prohibits the smoking of cigarettes to persons under the age of twenty. Cigarettes can be bought in tabacco stores and at vending machines.

If you are a sensitive person concerning smoke, you may have a hard time in some situations in Japan. Non-smoking areas are not very common in restaurants and public areas, not even in fast food or family restaurants. Furthermore, you won't be able to enjoy pachinko, since the parlors are extremely smoky places. On the other hand, all trains have non-smoking cars.

http://www.japan-gui...om/e/e2228.html

LIVING LONGER: The Japanese still live longer than anyone else. Japanese women born in 1993 are expected to live 82.51 years- up .129 years from the previous year. Men are expected to live 76.25 years- up .16 years. French women placed second at 80.94 years followed by Switzerland at 80.90, Iceland at 80.89 and Sweden at 80.79. American women placed at 79.10 years. For men, second place was Iceland at 75.74 years, Sweden at 75.35, Hong Kong at 74.90 and Israel at 74.54. U.S. males were at 72.2 years. The Japanese said their long lives was due to moderation in eating and drinking. Other advice was early to bed and early to rise religious faith and hard work.

http://www.efmoody.c...m/lifespan.html

I have taken the figures from the list of 87 countries, based on figures by the WHO and CIA and compiled the Top 15 life expectancies for males and females.

I find the (male) figures for Japan(!), Israel, Greece, Cuba and Spain very interesting. How could three countries with smoking prevalences of 45-59% show up in the Top 15 at all?
The percentage of Japanese smokers is 2.7 times higher than that of the Swedes, but an avarage Japanese still lives one year longer!

http://www.kidon.com...ercentages2.htm