The Short Hope cigarette brand shown in the photograph was the first filter cigarette sold in Japan. A 10-pack cost ┤50 at that time. An electric gas lighter used to light the cigarettes can be seen to its left. They cost ┤5,800 each. Cheap throw-away lighters (the so-called ┤100 lighter) had not yet appeared, so this could be called the age when smokers gained status by carrying an expensive lighter.Smoking is said to have been a custom in South America, a tobacco growing region, since ancient times. After it was transmitted to Spain in the early sixteenth century, it quickly spread throughout the world. It arrived in Japan in the Ando-Momoyama Era (late 16th century). Smoking is now being restricted as a threat to people's health.