Smoking Rules at Ghibli Park and Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park (2026 Guide)

About this guide and disclaimer

This is a third-party guide compiled from the official Ghibli Park site (https://ghibli-park.jp/), the official Aichi prefectural park information site Aichi Koen Navi (https://www.aichi-koen.com/), the Nagakute City ordinance database, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s passive-smoking site (https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/), reflecting the situation as of August 2026. Park rules and the number, location and hours of smoking areas may change without notice. Always confirm the latest information on each official source before you visit. This guide does not make judgements about individual venues and does not encourage smoking. Smoking by people under 20 is prohibited by law in Japan.

Inside Ghibli Park: entirely non-smoking

Ghibli Park is not a single fenced theme park with one gate. It is a set of areas built inside Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture. Its official visitor guide states that the entire area is non-smoking and asks visitors to use the smoking areas in the surrounding park. That means there is no outdoor exception inside the ticketed areas: if you want to smoke, you leave the area and walk to a smoking area provided by the park.

• Smoking: "The entire area is non-smoking. Please use the smoking areas in the park." (Ghibli Park official)
• Rubbish: visitors are asked to take home all rubbish generated inside the areas (same source)
• Food: there is no place inside the areas to eat food you have brought in (same source)
• Prohibited: bringing in dangerous items, and behaviour that inconveniences other visitors (same source)
• Luggage: large items such as suitcases cannot be brought in (same source)

The rubbish rule matters for smokers. Cigarette butts are rubbish, so bring a portable ashtray, make sure the ember is completely out before you put a butt away, and carry it home.

The surrounding park: no open flames, non-smoking in principle, with designated smoking areas

Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park is a prefectural park operated by Aichi Prefecture. Its official information page explains that because the park is a no-open-flame site it is non-smoking in principle, while adding that smoking areas are provided and publishing a map showing them. The same page states that car parks, paths and buildings are all non-smoking, and asks visitors not to smoke there and not to discard butts. In practice this means you cannot smoke while walking between attractions or on the way back to your car; you have to reach a designated smoking area first.

Because the number, position and operating hours of those smoking areas can change, this guide does not assert where individual smoking areas are. Check the official park map and the on-site signage on the day. Avoid smoking anywhere without an ashtray or a smoking-area sign. The same applies to nearby facilities and to Linimo’s Expo Memorial Park Station: the operators’ own official information is the primary source, and this guide does not assert whether smoking is allowed there.

Local rules: littering butts is prohibited by ordinance

Nagakute City has enacted the Nagakute City Beautiful Town Development Ordinance (Ordinance No. 8 of 11 January 2005, in force from 1 March 2005). Article 13 defines "empty cans and the like" to include cigarette butts, chewing gum, waste paper and similar items as well as drink and food cans and bottles, and provides that no person shall carelessly discard them. Under Article 16 the mayor may give guidance or a recommendation requiring cleaning or other necessary measures within a set period. As of August 2026 we could not confirm, on the city’s official site or in its ordinance database, any ordinance designating street-smoking-prohibited districts with an administrative fine, so this guide does not state any fine amount for street smoking in Nagakute. Check the city’s official site (https://www.city.nagakute.lg.jp/) for the current position.

Indoors: the revised Health Promotion Act

Since the revised Health Promotion Act came fully into force on 1 April 2020, facilities used by many people are non-smoking indoors in principle. Type 1 facilities such as schools, hospitals, childcare facilities and government offices are non-smoking across the whole premises and cannot install indoor smoking rooms. Type 2 facilities such as restaurants, offices and hotels are non-smoking indoors in principle, and may install a smoking-only room or a heated-tobacco-only smoking room where the statutory requirements are met (source: MHLW https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/). A smoking-only room allows smoking but not eating or drinking, while a heated-tobacco-only smoking room allows heated tobacco together with food and drink (source: MHLW https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/smoking_room/). Nobody under 20 may enter any of these rooms, and venues with smoking facilities must display the prescribed signage. Restaurants, cafes, shops and museum buildings in and around the park are covered by these rules — and inside Ghibli Park’s own areas, smoking is not permitted at all.

Find nearby smoking areas with MottoSuitai

To look for smoking areas outside the park, in Nagakute or towards Nagoya, you can browse registered entries near your location on MottoSuitai's smoking area map. For how another major theme park handles this, see the Tokyo Disneyland smoking guide, and for the overall picture for visitors to Japan, see the guide to smoking in Japan for tourists.