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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe _To the editor_—Your August editorial1 calls attention to one of the most dire threats to global health—smoking. According to the World

Health Organization (WHO), four million people die each year from tobacco-related illness, and that figure is expected to rise to about ten million by the year 2030 (ref. 2). In Japan in

1998, the number of deaths due to lung cancer (50,867) exceeded stomach cancer deaths (50,662), making lung cancer Japan's leading cause of death due to malignant tumors3. Lung cancer

now accounts for 17.8% of all cancer deaths—a tenfold increase since 1950. Although tobacco undoubtedly contributes to this increase, Japan has done little to respond to this growing

problem, and as a result lung cancer and other tobacco-related diseases are on the rise. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through

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Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * Tobacco control—drawing breath. _ Nature Med._ 5, 851 (1999). * Roemer, R. Legislative Action to Combat the World Tobacco Epidemic

(World Health Organization, Geneva, 1993). * Ministry of Health and Welfare. The 1998 Vital Statistics of Japan (the Ministry, Tokyo, 1999). * Peto, R., Chen, Z.M. & Boreham, J.

Tobacco—the growing epidemic. _Nature Med_. 5, 15–17 ( 1999). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Ministry of Health and Welfare. Smoking and Health (White paper on tobacco) (Japan Health

Promotion and Fitness Foundation, Tokyo, 1993). Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Towa Clinic Dept. of Community and Family Medicine Jichi Medical School, 468

Showa, Towa, 786-0511, Hata Kochi, Japan Kazuo Inoue Authors * Kazuo Inoue View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS

Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Inoue, K. Japan's tobacco tragedy. _Nat Med_ 5, 1091 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13386 Download citation * Issue Date:

October 1999 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/13386 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is

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