Can You Smoke on the Shinkansen? "I Was Appalled by the Amount of Smoke in the Smoking Car": Japanese Riders on the Booths Japan Closed

What Japanese people said — picked from the top 200 of 357 comments

• When I was a kid there was a cloud of cigarette smoke on the shinkansen, so I used to ask my parents to book non-smoking seats. The trip itself made me feel sick and I couldn't enjoy the sightseeing.

  新幹線にタバコ雲が出来ていた子供の頃、親にお願いして禁煙席をとってもらっていたな。移動時が気持ち悪くて観光を楽しめなかった

  — @丸祐-z2w22 likes

• In the distant past, when I traveled with a boss who smoked, I had no choice but to sit with them in the smoking car. Today it would be full-on harassment, but back then it was just normal. Of course, I felt terrible.

  喫煙者の上司と同行すると、喫煙車で一緒に座らざるを得なかった遠い過去。 今なら完全にハラスメントながら、当時は普通のことだったなぁ。 もちろん、最悪の気分でした。

  — @senaku-d5j28 likes

• I don't smoke, but I hate this trend where everything is off limits. So 551 Horai is out too? I wouldn't be surprised if station bento go next, then coffee, then the rock hard ice cream……

  非喫煙者だけど、あれもこれもダメっていう世の中の流れは嫌だなぁ。 551蓬莱もだめなのか。そのうち駅弁もダメ、コーヒーもダメ、ｶﾀｲｱｲｽもダメになっても何も不思議じゃないな……。

  — @naoyahikoshima18 likes

• If they were going to scrap them, they should have done it when they rolled out the new N700S.

  廃止にするなら新型車両のN700Sを投入するタイミングにすれば良かったのに

  — @osaka-u6p38 likes

• To begin with, what companies are required to do is protect the health of their employees, not just the passengers. Even if you build it so passengers can't go in and out, the conductor may still pass through, so that thinking no longer holds up. JR Central going fully non-smoking is clearly far too late. (JR East went fully non-smoking back in 2007.) Restaurants and hotels are going fully non-smoking too (I can only think it's because non-smoking sells better than smoking). There are even hotels that charge you a penalty if you smoke in a non-smoking hotel.

  そもそも、乗客というよりも従業員の健康を守る義務が企業に求められている。 乗客が出入りのできないような感じにしても、車掌は通る可能性があり、その考えは通用しない時代になっている。 JR東海が全面禁煙にするのは明らかに遅すぎ。(JR東日本では、2007年に全面禁煙に踏み切っている。) れすとらんでもホテルでも、全面禁煙のところが増えている(喫煙の方よりも禁煙のほうが多く売れるにほかならないと思う。)。 あるホテルでは、全面禁煙のホテルで喫煙したら、罰金を求める例もあるくらい。

  — @takachans19 likes

• Cleaning a smoking room has legal conditions attached, so even the cleaning is getting difficult. Smoking areas in public facilities keep disappearing. Airports have cut them drastically too. And the effect on the people around you is bigger after you've smoked, things like that.

  喫煙室の清掃も法的には条件があり清掃も難しくなっている。 公共施設は喫煙所がどんどん減っている。空港も激減だし。 吸ったあとの方が回りの人に与える影響が大きい等々ですかね。

  — @のぶ-t6q15 likes

• I think it's simply that having smoking rooms is a negative for JR in revenue terms. I use EX and ride the green car a lot, and unless something unusual happens the seats near the smoking room in car 10 stay empty right to the end. On the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen, where trains run so often, it seems a lot of people skip the seats near the smoking room and take the next train instead. That means the theory Tetsu-Bozu often talks about, that a train packed full is the most profitable, keeps getting dragged down completely, so of course they stop it at some point. It's lowering revenue, so as a private company they can't accept it.

  単純にＪＲにとって喫煙ルームの設置は売り上げ上でデメリットになっているからだと思います。 EX使ってグリーン車によく乗りますが、10号車の喫煙ルーム付近はよほどのことが無い限り最後まで席が空いています。 東海道・山陽新幹線ほど頻繁に出ていると、喫煙ルーム付近だけ最後まで乗らずに次の便にしちゃう人が多いようです。 そうなると鐵坊主氏がよく仰っている、満員に詰め込んだ電車が一番儲かるの理論上完全に足を引っ張っている状態が続くわけで、そりゃどこかでやめますよ。 売り上げを下げているんだから民間企業としては容認できないのでしょう。

  — @masaomiyazaki7 likes

• Given that the space is being reused to hold emergency drinking water, the real motive is probably cutting cleaning costs. The slow return of business travelers after covid probably pushed it along too. Since the smokers who used to cluster near the smoking space will now be spread evenly across all 16 cars, I am a little worried that the smell from the next seat will bother people more often from here on.

  跡地利用が災害時用飲料水確保ということから、本音は清掃コスト削減が目的でしょうね。 アフターコロナで出張客の戻りが鈍いことが後押しにはなったとは思います。 喫煙スペース付近に固まって座っていた喫煙者が16両にまんべんなく座ることから、隣席の臭いが気になる場面が今後増えそうなことは気掛かりではあります。

  — @gourmet848111 likes

• I don't smoke. I hate the smell of cigarettes. Even so, I think they could have kept the smoking rooms. Being able to smoke on board could have stayed as part of the service. I feel a bit sorry for smokers, like their space keeps getting narrower. For what it's worth, when I ride the Tokaido Shinkansen I avoid the cars near the smoking room to keep away from the smell. Well, the number of smokers really has dropped. I suppose that's the times.

  私は非喫煙者です。たばこのにおいは嫌いです。 ですが、喫煙ルームは敢えて残してもよかったと思います。客室内で喫煙できるのをサービスの一環としてもよかったと思います。 喫煙者の方々の肩身がますます狭くなるような気がして、何だか気の毒です。 ちなみに私は、東海道新幹線に乗るとき、たばこのにおい対策のため、喫煙ルーム近くの車両を避けて利用しています。 まあ、喫煙者はかなり減ってはいるのでしょうね。時代の流れなのでしょうか。

  — @srapid7018 likes

• People are going to start smoking in the multipurpose toilets. I'm a wheelchair user, and the multipurpose toilets at stations smell of cigarettes a high percentage of the time. Honestly I think smoking is unavoidable, but what's a problem is how long and how often they get occupied 😅

  多目的トイレで吸う人が出て来るんでしょうね 自分は車椅子ユーザーですが駅の多目的トイレは高い確率でタバコ臭いですからね 実際、吸うのは仕方ないと思いますが占有される時間や回数が増えるのが困りますね😅

  — @しゃい-j4r15 likes

• The multipurpose toilets on the shinkansen have smoke detectors, so hardly anyone is going to smoke in them. Though an idiot might smoke and set the alarm off lol

  新幹線の中の多目的トイレは火災報知器があるから吸うやつはほとんどおらんでしょう アホな奴は吸ってブザー鳴らすかもしれんがw

  — @hokkaido_wajd14 likes

• I used to smoke too. It's been 23 years since I quit and I'm never going back, but I do think there's no need to corner them this much. As you said, they are helping to pay off the old national railway's debt.

  私もかつて喫煙者でした。止めてから23年でもう喫煙者に戻ることはありませんが、 ここまで追い詰めなくても良いのにな、と思います。 仰るように国鉄の債務返還に貢献していただいていますし。

  — @rabc51612 likes

• I'll give up the shinkansen and fly instead. The time you have to hold out is shorter!

  新幹線やめて飛行機にします。我慢する時間が短いから！

  — @kuwada09177 likes

• These days I have a condition that has kept me off cigarettes for ten years. A train that had come up from the depot and was sitting at Tokyo Station, car 15, reeked even after it had been cleaned. That I really couldn't stand, so I held out for two and a half hours and finally had a smoke at the taxi rank at Shin-Osaka, then saw people lining up on the right on the subway escalator and confirmed all over again, ah, I'm here....... By the way, three weeks in hospital and even I, on three packs a day, could quit.

  今は持病でタバコ吸えなくなって10年。基地から上がってきて東京駅に据え付けられた列車の15号車は清掃済でも凄え臭かった。流石にこれは辛抱出来ないのでともかく2時間半我慢して、新大阪駅のタクシー溜まりのところでようやく一服して、地下鉄のエスカで右並びに「ああ、来たんだな」と再確認した。。。。。ちなみに3週間入院すると、毎日3箱の私でもタバコやめられる。

  — @塩島聖一8 likes

• I'm not going to quit smoking, so I just want it done in a way that doesn't bother people who don't smoke.

  タバコを吸うことは止めないから、吸ってない人の迷惑にならないようにして欲しい。

  — @user-gordon441 likes

• It's become a hard world for smokers. Being able to smoke while traveling was one of the advantages of taking the shinkansen, so business travelers who love a cigarette have it rough… There aren't many places to smoke around Tokyo Station, so I often pay for a platform ticket and smoke on the shinkansen platform. Instead of that, I'd like them to put a smoking area on every station platform. The far end is fine.

  喫煙者には辛い世の中になりましたね。 移動中にタバコが吸えるというのは新幹線利用のメリットでもあったのですが、愛煙家の出張族は大変ですね… 東京駅周辺だと吸える所が少ないので、入場券払って新幹線ホームで吸う事が度々あるので、代わりに各駅ホームに喫煙所を設けて欲しいです。端っこでいいので。

  — @ペガサス-10467 likes

Can you smoke on the shinkansen?

No. The onboard smoking rooms on the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu Shinkansen closed on 16 March 2024, and no shinkansen has one now. The space is being fitted out with emergency drinking water, to hand out if a train has to stop for a long time away from a station.

Sources: travel.watch.impress.co.jp · watch.impress.co.jp — checked 2026-09-15

Where can you smoke at a shinkansen station?

Every station on the Tokaido Shinkansen has a smoking room inside the ticket gates. Five of them have one on the platform itself, at Tokyo, Mishima, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu and Nagoya, and twelve have one in the concourse, including Shinagawa, Shin-Yokohama, Kyoto and Shin-Osaka. They are usable while the gates are open.

Sources: jr-central.co.jp — checked 2026-09-15

Did Japanese passengers mind losing the smoking rooms?

Mostly not. The thread's top comment (69 likes) welcomes it, and the most-liked smoker in it says he won't quit but wants it arranged so non-smokers aren't bothered (41 likes). The loudest complaint is about timing rather than the ban: 38 likes for the view that JR should have waited for the N700S rollout.

Will you smell cigarettes near your seat now?

Less than before, but the commenters expect it to spread out. One rider notes that seats beside the car 10 booth used to stay empty to the end, and another says he deliberately avoided that car. A third (11 likes) points out that smokers who used to cluster around the booth will now sit evenly across all 16 cars.