Also it needs to be said that tobacco products in most of Asia and are generally quite inexpensive, even relative to their local economies.

One of the big things that lessens tobacco consumption is dramatically increasing the price, usually through taxes, which is what you see in a lot of the western world.

There’s also the “cool” factor. The coolness of smoking is far less in the west than it was 100 years ago, 50, even 20. But in most of Asia, it’s still pretty cool—and coolness in Asia is arguably more important than it ever was in the west.