Japan's Yokohama proposes smoking ban at parks

The Japanese port city of Yokohama, near Tokyo, has proposed a ban on smoking at all roughly 2,700 parks it manages, including popular tourist spots, local media reported on Monday.

The plan presented to the municipal assembly on Monday called for revising an ordinance to add smoking to the list of prohibited acts in the city's parks, including Yamashita Park, a major tourist attraction, and Harbor View Park, public broadcaster NHK said.

Violators would face fines of 50,000 yen, or about 330 US dollars, it added.

The city plans to gather public feedback for about a month from April before submitting a bill for revising the related ordinance in September, aiming to introduce the ban in April next year, the report said.

In October and November last year, city officials conducted a trial ban on smoking in five parks and surveyed more than 2,000 people, saying that many respondents asked them to strengthen measures to tackle the problem of passive smoking.