Smoking In Asia

Over winter break,  I travelled to Singapore. On our way home, we had a four hour layover in Japan. While sitting in a chair at our gate, I looked over to see a smoking room. During the many hours i was sitting there, i noticed tons of people walking in and out, and was actually surprised by the number of people going in for a smoke, especially since it was early in the morning. I was reminded of this a few days ago, so decided to do some research. What I found out, is that Japan has a fairly high smoking rate, and i came to the conclusion that it's because they are less restricted then most other countries. From statistics, I learned that in 2010, the total smoking rate was 24%, 36.6% of Japanese men and 12.1% of women. Also, it is not as strictly banned in restaurants and public places like we are used to. Upon reading this, I began to wonder if it was just Japan, or other places in Asia as well. 


In Singapore when walking down the main streets, I noticed many more smokers than I was used to seeing walking around downtown Chicago or anywhere else in the country. China also has very high smoking rates, and this is also due to the fact that Japan and China are very large producers of tobacco, and that in some cities, it is even socially acceptable to smoke in public.


In the picture to the left, Japan (purple) is usually the highest, aside from the Netherlands (red) a few times. Why do you think the Netherlands has such a high percentage? What other factors do you think attribute to why smoking rates are significantly higher in Japan and Asia in general?