Smoking in Tokyo must be challenging

First time I’ve been to a place where life is made really hard for smokers. Untill now, I thought you could smoke outside in most of the countries (with a few exceptions of railway platforms, ….).

In Tokyo, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Everywhere on the street, there are reminders not to smoke, … I suppose one of the main reasons is not to block the hughe, continuous stream of walking people on the pavements.
I even noticed some kind of police/guards watching out for smokers (see picture).

The funny thing: they still have some dedicated places in the street where you can smoke. Some walled-off little rooms, covered on the outside with some vertical gardens! Packed inside with smokers.

I thought California was going far in their smoking regulations, but in Tokyo they seem to stretch it even further.

But, on the other hand, one evening, I did end up in a restaurant where a whole table was smoking. So it seems the ‘non-smoking in restaurants’-rule doesn’t apply in Tokyo!