Japan’s bullet trains to nix smoking rooms by spring amid health trend

Smoking rooms inside Japan’s shinkansen bullet train cars will completely disappear next spring, as more railway operators adhere to the country’s growing health consciousness and decline in smoking habits.

Central Japan Railway Co., better known as JR Tokai, West Japan Railway Co. and Kyushu Railway Co. announced in mid-October their respective decisions to abolish the smoking rooms from their bullet trains connecting major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka.

Vacant spaces created by the abolishment of smoking rooms will be used to store drinking water for passengers in times of emergen...