Ask John: Why Are Anime Characters Always Smoking?

Question:
What’s with anime characters and smoking. I know it’s supposed to show that they have an edge or dark past, but an anime character can still be cool or have a dark, secret past and not smoke. It seems like every one, Cowboy Bebop, Great Teacher Onizuka, and even Solid Snake, is lighting up. Sometimes I wonder if they are getting funding from cigarette companies. I know it’s a different society, but tobacco is tobacco and people are people no matter where you’re from; smoking is going to have negative affect. And I realize that the titles I listed are for the older audience but still everyone doesn’t need to smoke. These animators should start taking responsibility for how they depict their characters. If people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on cosplay then they might also imitate their acts knowingly or unknowingly.

Answer:
Your point is well intended and certainly valid, but also rooted in American social awareness. Unlike America, which is very conscious of the social acceptance and effects of cigarette smoking, Japanese society doesn’t really regard smoking with the same sensibilities that America does. Smoking indoors and in public is not prohibited in Japan as it is in America. Airports and train stations in Japan do have designated “smoking areas,” but usually these areas are simply distinguished only by a sign and public ashtrays and nothing to prevent tobacco smoke from going wherever the wind takes it. Likewise, most Japanese hotels and restaurants do not have separate non-smoking rooms or areas.

Simple social etiquette prevents Japanese smokers from lighting up in crowded conditions, but Japan, for the most part, has no social prohibitions or governmental warnings regarding smoking or smoking in public. Animators including director Hayao Miyazaki and character designer Range Murata are unrepentant chain smokers. The Japanese press has even publicly recognized Hayao Miyazaki’s characters as the most frequently seen smoking characters in all of anime (unfortunately, in a public report which I recall reading, but can’t find any online reference to now). As anime is created for and reflective of Japanese society and viewers, anime reflects Japanese attitudes toward smoking. It’s not unfair to argue that animators should be responsible for the social effects and influence of their works, but at the same time animators also have a responsibility to make their works seem natural and accessible to their primary intended audience. So short of demanding that Japanese animators “clean up” their work specifically for the benefit of American viewers, it’s necessary to just accept that smoking in Japan is considered an acceptable public vice, thus it frequently appears as such in anime intended for Japanese viewers.