TOKYO -- More than 70 percent of respondents to an online survey supported a proposed ordinance to prevent passive smoking that was approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Wednesday.
The survey was conducted June 8-12 for the metropolitan government by a private polling firm on 1,000 male and female Tokyo residents aged 20 to 79.
The results showed that 42.4 percent said the proposed ordinance was "good" and 31.9 percent said it was "more good than bad," for an overall approval rate of 74.3 percent.
A total of 10.1 percent of respondents said the proposal was "more bad than good" or "bad," with 15.6 percent responding that they "cannot say either way."
Among the 785 nonsmokers surveyed, 80.9 percent said the proposal was "good" or "more good than bad." Among the 215 smokers, the proportion supporting it fell to 50.3 percent, though a majority of smokers supported passing an ordinance that is stricter than a bill being considered by the Diet.
The ordinance would in principle ban smoking indoors at eating and drinking establishments with employees.
When asked how they would feel if they were an employee of an eating and drinking establishment, 39.8 percent said they would "not want to encounter passive smoking" and 35.4 percent said they would "want to avoid" it, much higher than the 19.3 percent who said "encountering passive smoking would be unavoidable."
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