Mom faces criminal charges for allowing underage son to smoke cigarettes

The Mainichi Shimbun
April 3, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080403p2a00m0na003000c.html

FUKUYAMA, Hiroshima -- A mother has been reported to prosecutors for allowing her 16-year-old schoolboy son to smoke cigarettes, police here said.

Documents accusing the 37-year-old mother of breaking the Law on Prohibition of Smoking by Minors have been sent to the Fukuyama Branch of the Hiroshima District Public Prosecutors Office.

The boy has apparently been smoking since he was 14, having started out of curiosity. Under Japanese law, it is illegal for minors under the age of 20 to smoke.

The mother, a part-time worker from Fukuyama, admits to the allegations.

"I told him off about smoking, but he wouldn't listen to me," she told the police. "I figured it was all right as long as he didn't let his school know about it."

Police said on the afternoon of March 3 they pulled the mother over as she drove because an officer had spotted her son smoking and thought he looked too young to be legally permitted to do so. Officers questioned the mother about her son's smoking and she admitted he was underage, police said.

(Mainichi Japan) April 3, 2008