Twenty-seven percent of all Japanese are regular smokers; only 18 percent of all Americans are.
While more than 3.6 million Americans have kicked the habit since 1988, last year alone Japan-with half the population-added about 680,000 new smokers.
Cigarette smoking is an overwhelmingly male habit in Japan. Only 20 percent of smokers there are female, compared with 47 percent in the United States.
