Smoking Rules in Yufuin 2026 — A JPY 2,000 Fine Applies Around Yunotsubo Street

How the Yufu City ordinance is structured

The ordinance works in two layers. City-wide, dumping any waste including cigarette butts is prohibited. Inside a designated priority area, a violation can additionally carry a non-penal fine. The wording matters: the fined act is described as "smoking somewhere other than a designated smoking place", not "smoking on the street". In practice, that means you should establish where you may smoke before you set out, rather than assuming that anywhere not explicitly signposted is acceptable.

The city's guidance also asks people not to smoke while walking or where no ashtray is nearby, and to use a portable ashtray if none is available (source: https://www.city.yufu.oita.jp/newly/article_82676). Note that the city's page does not explain where the designated smoking places are, so this article does not claim their locations or number. Contact the Yufu City Environment Division (+81 97-582-1310) or ask your accommodation.

• City-wide: dumping cans, PET bottles, paper, cigarette butts and any other waste is prohibited
• Priority area, individuals: littering / not collecting dog waste / smoking outside a designated smoking place — JPY 2,000
• Priority area, food-and-drink retailers: no collection container, or improper management of one — JPY 50,000
• Priority area includes Yufuin-cho and the area around Yunotsubo Street; the exact boundary is published in the city's official notice
• Enquiries: Yufu City Hall Environment Division, +81 97-582-1310

Walking Yunotsubo Street and Lake Kinrin

Yunotsubo Street runs between Yufuin Station and Lake Kinrin and is the main food-walking route in town. Pedestrian density is high and many people are carrying food and drink in their hands. Carrying a lit cigarette through that crowd puts fire and smoke next to other people's clothing and food — which is precisely the situation the city's guidance addresses. Around Lake Kinrin the path runs beside the water, where a dropped butt is effectively unrecoverable.

The town also has wooden inns and shops with noren curtains, wooden fences and hedges right at the street edge. Under Japan's Fire Service Act every municipality maintains a fire-prevention ordinance, and in a hot-spring town fire management is the heaviest consideration of all. Never light up beside a wooden wall, under eaves, or near a hedge or lantern.

To see which smoking spots are currently registered, open the Yufuin smoking-spot map, or search anywhere in Japan from the MottoSuitai map. For background see our guide for visitors to Japan, the municipality-by-municipality street-smoking rules, and the guide to smoking-area signs. Other destinations: Kumamoto, Kinosaki Onsen and Ginzan Onsen.

The national baseline still applies

Since 1 April 2020, facilities used by many people are non-smoking indoors as a rule. Four types of smoking room may be installed where the conditions are met, each with its own restrictions — eating and drinking are allowed in a heated-tobacco-only smoking room but not in a smoking-only room. Facilities with smoking equipment must display a designated sign, and people under 20 may not enter a smoking area under any circumstances (sources: https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/point/ and https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/smoking_room/). Heated tobacco is regulated too — the city's ordinance text refers to "smoking" without carving out an exception, so do not assume a device makes the priority area rules inapplicable.

Official sources

■ Yufu City — littering prevention ordinance guidance: https://www.city.yufu.oita.jp/newly/article_82676 ■ Yufu City official site: https://www.city.yufu.oita.jp/ ■ Yufuin Onsen Tourism Association: https://yufuin.gr.jp/news/news-3178/ ■ MHLW passive smoking portal: https://jyudokitsuen.mhlw.go.jp/