Smoking Ban in Kanagawa

It seems that the governor of Kanagawa is proposing a prefecture wide ban on smoking in public and state facilities and requiring separate smoking areas in restaurants and hotels. His original proposal was even more severe, completely banning smoking in public facilities and other places, including stores, restaurants, bars and pachinko parlors but I he gave up on that because of objections from local businesses. The Japan Times posted that the ordinance may not be approved because some members of the the assembly are taking a cautious stance on the health hazards presented by passive smoking. (Maybe they have relatives working for Japan Tobacco. Wink, wink.) Anyway. it’s good news for us Yokohama residents because even if it doesn’t go through this time the proposal is out there and it will surely make a comeback.

Source: Japan Times

Yokohama to be a Better Place?

Recently I read an article in Wired magazine about a company that wants to change the auto industry by creating and infrastructure for electric cars. It is a very ambitious but a very exciting idea but it is not just one of those concepts that people talk about but never actually get around to doing. Israel, Denmark and some Australian cities have already agreed (I believe) to start implementing this system.

This morning in the Japan Times I came across and article titled Renault-Nissan teams with Yokohama to develop ‘green’ transport. As Renault is making electric cars for Better Place I am guessing that perhaps this new electric car being built by Renault-Nissan is for the same project. I couldn’t find any mention of it on the Better Place website though. You can see a video about Better Place below.