Source: Japan Times
Date: 2010-06-26

The beach at Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, opened its bathing
season Friday with a basic smoking ban in place.

The prefectural ordinance bans smoking on beaches except for
special smoking areas but carries no penalty. The roughly
600-meter-long sand beach has five roofed smoking areas and
operators of seasonal seaside houses will patrol voluntarily to
ask smokers to use them, one of them said.

A similar ordinance is in place in Shirahama, Wakayama
Prefecture, but Kanagawa was the first prefecture to enact such a
rule in May.

Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa attending a beach opening ceremony.