Smoking around Tottori Station: The 2026 Guide to a City-Wide Ordinance

About this guide and disclaimer

This is a third-party guide compiled on 18 August 2026 from the Tottori City official website, the Tottori Prefecture official website and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare portal on second-hand smoke. It does not judge whether any individual smoking area, shop or facility permits smoking. Whether smoking areas exist and where they are, the content of ordinances, and the designation of environmental beautification promotion districts can all change without notice. Always confirm the latest information with Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture and the facility itself before you go. This article does not encourage smoking. Smoking under the age of 20 is prohibited by law in Japan, and people under 20 may not enter a smoking area at all, even without the intention to smoke (source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/).

City-wide, not a priority district

Most Japanese municipal rules on street smoking work by drawing a boundary: a priority district is designated, and inside it street smoking is banned. Tottori City is built differently. Its ordinance applies across the whole city, so there is no line on a map that you cross to leave the regulated zone. For a visitor this changes the planning problem entirely. There is no map of restricted blocks to memorise; instead there is a single standard of behaviour that follows you from the station to the shopping street to a residential area to a sightseeing spot. "I have left the station area, so it is fine now" is not a conclusion the ordinance supports.

Prohibited acts versus restricted acts

The ordinance separates prohibited acts from restricted acts, and it is worth knowing which side smoking falls on. Littering in public places, leaving dog waste in public places, and unnecessary idling are listed as prohibited acts. Smoking in public places is treated as a restricted act, with concrete guidance attached: when you are about to smoke outdoors, smoke at a place with an ashtray, or stop somewhere you will not trouble other people and use a portable ashtray. Two behavioural rules follow. First, do not smoke while moving — the city page headline names smoking while walking directly as subject to the fine. Second, secure an ashtray before you light up, either a fixed one on site or a portable one you carry. Going outdoors with neither does not fit the shape the ordinance asks for.

• Ordinance: Tottori City Ordinance for Securing a Comfortable Living Environment, applied from 1 October 2008
• Scope: the whole of Tottori City — not a designated priority district
• Prohibited acts: littering in public places, leaving dog waste in public places, unnecessary idling
• Restricted act: smoking in public places — stop at a place with an ashtray, or stop where you will not trouble others and use a portable ashtray
• Penalty: "if you violate this ordinance, you may be subject to a fine of up to 20,000 yen"
• The prefectural ordinance separately makes littering in an environmental beautification promotion district punishable by a criminal fine of up to 20,000 yen

The prefecture adds a second layer, and no local second-hand smoke ordinance was found

Tottori Prefecture's ordinance on promoting environmental beautification prohibits dropping litter, listing "empty cans, empty bottles and other containers, cigarette butts, chewed gum, waste paper and the like," and asks people to take home any rubbish generated outdoors. Districts where beautification needs to be pursued systematically are designated by the governor as "environmental beautification promotion districts"; the prefectural page records 18 such districts in the prefecture as of July 2013, so check the current designations with the prefecture. Littering inside one of those districts carries a fine of up to 20,000 yen (source: Tottori Prefecture https://www.pref.tottori.lg.jp/dd.aspx?menuid=27156). Note that the city ordinance uses an administrative penalty while the prefectural ordinance uses a criminal fine — different instruments that happen to share a ceiling. On second-hand smoke, we could not confirm any prefecture-specific or city-specific ordinance on either official site; the guidance follows the national revised Health Promotion Act, with Category 1 facilities smoke-free across their grounds since 1 July 2019 (a designated outdoor smoking place remains possible where the necessary measures are taken) and Category 2 facilities non-smoking indoors since 1 April 2020 (source: Tottori Prefecture https://www.pref.tottori.lg.jp/285987.htm).

To look for smoking areas around Tottori Station, use MottoSuitai's smoking area map. For the four types of smoking room and how facilities are classified, see our guide to the revised Health Promotion Act; for how fines differ between municipalities, see street-smoking fines by municipality. Visitors to Japan may also want the smoking guide for travellers, and for a contrast, the Akita Station guide shows a prefecture that regulates stations instead of streets.