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Show CAMPUS NEWS ESL Asian s~udents fortn backbone of SU stnoking culture much of which is aimed at younger customers (see related story below). Yukihiro Momose of Nagano, Japan, and Mizuki Takazona of Fukoka, Japan, both claim that peer pressure had a lot to do with the reason that they smoke. SENIOR STAFF WRITER Momose, 22, has been smoking for four years while Takazona, 19, has been puffing his life away for the past three years. SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon "I smoke now," said Momose, "but I think that maybe I will quit some day. " Monoxide "I would like to quit," said Takazona, "but it is a very hard thing to do." Unless you've been living in a cave for, say, the last 25 years and the last Another Japanese student claimed that the threat from smoking did not bother television commercial you saw was some one with Joe Namath hawking Camel him. cigarettes and telling you just how good a "I know it is bad to smoke," he said smoke is after he throws for a touchdown or between drags on his filtered Camel, "but I something, then you probably have figured do not fear for my health. " out by now that smoking is bad. Not only is According to both Takazona and Momose, it bad, but it is hazardous to your health. smoking is still very popular in Japan despite Aside from the fact that this is southern the health warnings. As in this country, Utah and, as a rule, people just don't smoke warning labels are placed on cigarette here, smoking is still very popular in other packaging in an effort to warn users. They parts of the world and indeed, is growing in both say that men smoke more than women popularity among the citizenry of other in Japan where cigarette advertisements are nations. legal on television. Evidence of this is usually milling around Japanese movies, say many, are replete outside the General'Classroom Building with heroes and heroines who indulge in the between classes in the form of English as a habit. Recently Hollywood has also seen an Second Language (ESL) students who, it's influx of puffing silver screen stars raking in clear, smoke in far greater proportional :;! the millions at the box office, after many numbers than U.S. students here. ~ years of downplaying the act of smoking. It would appear that in countries like g In spite of th e proliferation of smoking in Japan and Korea the vigorous an ti-smoking i?i their culture, both Megumi Tsuchida of campaign has taken a ... smoke break, or ~ Niigata, Japan, and Akemi Obuse of something. ::l Nagano, Japan, haven' t picked up the habit This has eveolved over the past several "' ( Tf f~ yet. years as U.S. tobacco companies, seeing a V ~~fl ~ 1 "Smoking is bad for your health," ESL decline in the numer of domestic customers, ..., _, '--··"..:....~1;..l....L----.ll:...L. l _ _......__ ESL students, largely from fapan, can be seen during each class break student Tsuchida said. "I do not plan to be a have sought to expand their foreign markets smoker for this reason. " and have increased advertising in those areas, milling around in sm oking groups outside the GC Building. By J. ARTHUR FIELDS i l" Tobacco companies look to Asia's young market By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS In Beijing, young cyclists race in the blue and white colors of Kent cigarettes, cheered on by fans wearing sun visors emblazoned with "Kent." In Bangkok, children play with toy racing cars bearing the logo of Japan's Mild Seven tobacco company. Philip Morris hands out fine arts prizes to young competitors in several Southeast Asian capitals. Multinational tobacco companies are forging aggressively into Asia, looking to the region's vast young population and booming economies to offset the loss of business in the West . Over the criticism of health activists, the companies are getting their products known to young people by sponsoring numerous sports, music and cultural events that effectively elude bans on direct advertising. Asian girls in particular could mean big profits. Very few now smoke, but economic growth is providing more pocket money and fraying cultural traditions that considered a woman with a cigarette ugly and immoral. "In every country we've looked at girls smoking, even Singapore, it's increasing.... We're losing everywhere," says Judith Mackay, director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control. She and others blame promotional campaigns that link smoking to sophistication and glamour - an appeal to the Westward-looking attitudes of many Asian youths. It is a charge also heard in the West, and tobacco company executives offer the same defense. They say they never target children, contending their campaigns are aimed at getting adults.to stay with their brand or to switch from other brands. Traditional Asian tobacco is harsh, and foreign cigarettes, which are advertised as "light" and "mild," make it easier for young people to start smoking. If current trends continue, 50 million of the children and teen-agers alive in China today will eventually die from health problems related to smoking, says Richard Peto, a British epidemiologist. Anti-smoking movements are growing in Asia but the habit will spread because government resolve is weak, says Hatai Chitanondh, president of the Asia Pacific Association for Control of Tobacco. The World Health Organization says tobacco consumption in Asia increased 15 percent between 1988 and 1992. The tobacco industry has predicted that sales in Asia will increase 33 percent between 1991 and 2000. Smoking is increasing among all ages of students in South Korea, Mackay says. And in Taiwan, the number of 15- to 17-year-olds who experimented with smoking increased from 3 percent in 1985 to 20 percent in 1991 Despite tough legislation and a government that tries to fashion the ideal citizen, Singapore's Health Ministry found that the proportion of young people aged 18 and 19 who smoke tripled to 15 percent from 1987 to 1991. To make cigarettes less affordable for youths, the Hong Kong government has proposed banning the sale of individual cigarettes. In Seoul, South Korea, a new law says all new cigarette vending machines can be installed only in places off-limits to minors, such as bars. In Jakarta in Indonesia, Manila in the Philippines, and other cities, keeping cigarettes away from youths is doubly difficult because huge numbers of cigarettes are peddled by street children. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, tobacco companies hire pretty young girls in sexy uniforms to hand out free samples to young men. But in China, where the huge bulk of Asia's smokers live, recent laws restricting advertising are not well enforced and there are no laws against smoking by minors. A survey found that 18 percent of primary and middle school students smoke, the China Daily recently reported. Smoking starts at childhood in China's countryside, particularly in Yunnan, the tobacco-growing area. Restaurants, trains and other public places are filled with clouds of smoke. Cigarette brand names appear on baseball caps, jackets and table umbrellas in restaurants. In Chengdu, a huge, lighted billboard showing the Marlboro cowboy looms over a night market. To get their names known in countries that ban direct advertising, tobacco companies use their brand or company names on other goods and services that they advertise widely. Offers of Kent Leisure Holidays and Salem High Country Holidays contain mottoes and ·depict scenes like those in cigarette advertisements. Marlboro Classics shops sell cowboy-style gear. Drawing more controversy has been the tobacco companies' sponsorship of activities involving young people, including establishing university departments. Philip Morris has sponsored the Hong Kong Arts Festival for several years and the musical "The Phantom of the Opera" during its three-month run in the British colony last year. Such sponsorship has increased since the colony banned cigarette advertising on TV and radio in 1990. The "Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Arts Award" was given in several Southeast Asian countries in 1994. In each country, a company executive had his picture taken giving out the award. Michael Chang, the American tennis star who is idolized by teen-age girls in Asia, plays in Marlboro and Salem tournaments in the region. And the Chinese bicycle team in the recent Kent Tour of China wore Kent's colors and name on their jerseys while teen-age girls in shorts offered journalists Kent cigarettes on silver platters. Japan's Mild Seven recently held a Formula One auto racing fes tival in Bangkok. A minitrack with cars was set up for children to play with. Kids got prizes for drawing pictures of racing cars. At sports events, cigarette logos appear on uniforms, equipment and billboards. The logos are glimpsed hundreds of times during an hour's televising of a game. Many of the events are carried by uncensored satellite television, which reaches countries where cigarette advertising is banned. Star TV, based in Hong Kong, is seen by 220 million people in Asia. |