日本[にほん]の喫煙率[きつえんりつ] (= smoking rate)が減[へ]っているそうです。A percentage of smoking population in Japan has decreased.
今日[きょう]の朝日[あさひ]新聞[しんぶん]によると(= according to)、1966年の49.4%をピークに少[すこ]しずつ減[へ]り続[つづ]けていたそうです。今年[ことし]の調査[ちょうさ] (= survey)ではじめて、20%を下[した]回[まわ]りました(= went under)。19.7%だそうです。
健康[けんこう]意識[いしき] (= health concerns)の高[たか]まりと消費税[しょうひぜい] (= consumer tax)の値[ね]上[あ]げ(= raising price)が理由[りゆう]だということです。朝日[あさひ]新聞[しんぶん]のこのページに、1965年から2014年までの喫煙率[きつえんりつ]のグラフがあります。見[み]てみてください。
ちなみにOECDの2010年のデータによると、NZの喫煙率[きつえんりつ]は、日本[にほん]の喫煙率[きつえんりつ]より少[すこ]し低[ひく]いようです。NZの詳[くわ]しいデータはここで見[み]られます。
Asahi Shimbun Newspaper reports that the rate became under 20% this year (more accurately it is 19.6%); it reached the peak in 1966 (49.4%) and then kept decreasing. The report says it is due to people’s health concerns and raised GST this year. Please have a look at this page of Asahi Shimbun Newspaper; it has a graph showing the movement of smoking rate between 1965 and 2014.
By the way, according to the OECD data as of 2010, the smoking rate in NZ was slightly lower than that of Japanese. If you are interested in the details of Tabaco smoking data in NZ, please have a look here – it shows all sorts of data such as smoking rate by gender, race and so on.