Their relaxed attitude to enjoying a pull is probably conducive to their longevity. Plus, Japan appears not to have been invaded by the Puritans. Not yet, anyway; and hopefully, never.
It is interesting to note that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lung cancer develops in around 10 to 20 per cent of all smokers. (MedicineNet) Listening to the health fanatics, however, one would be forgiven for concluding that a much higher percentage of smokers die from lung cancer. But happily, this is not the case.
We are living in dreadful times. People are not supposed to enjoy themselves anymore. These days, it seems that all pleasures are considered to be either unhealthy, sinful or forbidden by religion.
All we hear about is advice on how to stay healthy. Yet, ironically, populations of most countries have never been as unhealthy as they are today. So many people will die young, having led miserable lives either because of poverty or because of depriving themselves a few pleasures in life, in the vain hope that deprivation of these pleasures is conducive to living a longer life. And where and when their lives have been prolonged by just a few years, they can look forward to being shunted off to an old people’s home by their uncaring families, in order to stare at the ceiling and wait for their visa to the ‘Land of Milk and Honey’! I fear that they are in for a big disappointment!
Meantime, the insouciant Japanese cock a snook at the advice of so-called health specialists and continue to smoke as if there was no tomorrow. – © Mark Alexander
