Where can I smoke, and where can't I?

Indoors is the banned part

Smoking is not allowed inside most restaurants and bars, and the exception is a designated smoking room rather than a section of the floor. Those rooms have to meet technical criteria — inward airflow at the doorway, partitions that hold the smoke in, and extraction to the outside — so a venue that cannot build one has to go non-smoking instead.

Heated tobacco is inside the rules, not a way around them. A separate class of room exists for it, but it is still a room you have to be in.

Check the door before you sit down

Restaurants are required to post their smoking policy at the entrance — non-smoking, or a smoking room on site. That sign is the fastest way to know what a place is, and it is the reason you do not need to ask.

One rule that catches people travelling with family: nobody under 20 may enter a smoking room, staff included. It is not a matter of the venue's discretion.

Outdoors is not the free option

Walking and smoking is prohibited, and dropping the butt on the ground is its own offence. Both can draw a fine, and the tourism board notes enforcement is strict in the big cities. Designated outdoor smoking areas exist but are not thick on the ground.

The rules are set locally, so the detail shifts between wards and prefectures while the shape stays the same: find the marked area, use the ashtray there, and treat the street itself as off limits.

Good to know

• Restaurants post their smoking policy at the entrance — read it before sitting down
• Nobody under 20 may enter a smoking room, staff included
• Heated tobacco is covered by the same rules

Sources: JNTO — Local laws · Tokyo Metropolitan Government — Measures against second-hand smoke · Updated Jul 2026