Ad Text in Japanese:

受動喫煙防止のため, 歩きたばこはやめましょう。

jidoukitsuenboushi no tame, aruki tabako ha yamemasyou.

Literal Translation:

To prevent passive inhalation of cigarette smoke, let’s quit walking while smoking.

Harvey Translation:

Let’s stop walking while smoking to prevent second hand smoke.

Grammar and Vocab Points:

「受動」

「受動」(jyudou) is not a word I commonly see, but literally it means passive. In this sense, when combined with the world 「喫煙」which means “smoking” as specifically related to cigarette smoke (as in, you wouldn’t use this word if smoke was coming out of your hair dryer or something) it means second hand smoke. It makes sense if you think about it, people who breath in second hand smoke are essentially, passively smoking.

「喫煙」

As mentioned in the 「受動」explanation, this means smoking. You have probably heard it in Japan when going to a restaurant. The waitress will ask you if you want the「喫煙席」(kitsuenseki) which is “smoking seat” literally, and means “smoking section”… Or if you want the 「禁煙席」(kinenseki), which is the “non-smoking section”. It would be a good idea to memorize 喫煙 and 禁煙 as a pair. You will also hear these words when reserving a seat on the 新幹線 (shinakansen) bullet-train!

「防止」

「防止」(boushi) means prevention, and is usually only used in used in semi-formal cautionary sign boards like this, or announcements. You would need to be in a pretty special situation to hear it in daily conversation. Check the entry for 「防止」on the ALC dictionary to see what I mean.

「のため〜」

The grammar structure 「ため」means “for” or “in order to”. For example, 「日本語を覚えるために留学しました。」nihongo wo oboeru tameni rugaku shimashita. I studied abroad in order to learn Japanese.

Sometimes Japanese learners get this grammar pattern confused with 「〜ように〜」, for example, 「風邪を引かないように気をつけてください。」which translates to “Please be careful so that you do not catch a cold.” The difference in use here is pretty tricky… If anyone is seriously studying this right now and wants a more detailed explanation let me know in the comments and I’ll go into it.

「あるきたばこ」

「歩く」(aruku) is the verb “to walk”. 「たばこ」(tabako) is cigarette. It comes from the English word “tobacco”, and normally it is written in Katakana, not Hiragana. However there is in fact Kanji for 「タバコ」like this 「煙草」(tabako). Remember in the Docomo commercial a few days back the word 「携帯」(keitai) for cell phone was written in Katakana, even though there is Kanji for it? Again, this is just a style thing from whoever made the sign. Same goes for 「あるき」which could also have been written in Kanji.
「やめましょう」

Actually, did you notice the particle before 「やめましょう」in this case is 「は」but normally you would expect 「を」? Changing the object-marker「を」to 「は」often serves the purpose of putting more emphasis into the sentence, making it sound more forceful. Anyway. 「やめる」is the verb “to quit”. For example, 「日本語を勉強していたが、やめた」(nihongo wo benkyou shiteita ga, yameta) means “I was studying Japanese… But I quit.” Maybe this person was a slacker or something.

The verb conjugation 「〜ましょう」has the meaning of “let’s”. So in this case it literally reads, “Let’s quit”. Often Japanese sayings which would likely read “Stop walking and smoking!” or something more direct in English, will instead of the “Let’s all do this together” kind of twist on it. One that comes to mind would be 「ポイ捨てをやめましょう」(poi sute wo yamemasyou) which means “Let’s stop throwing trash (cigarette stubs) on the street.”

I’m sure there will be more advertisements with this “let’s” twist on it in the near future.

Okay, that’s all for that ad! I didn’t cover it but the smaller black text under the main header is saying roughly, “For example your cigarette is dangling right at a childs eye level…” hence the picture.

Poor kid!

- Harvey