Tokyo asks sneezing citizens to cough up for trees

TOKYO, Apr 3 (Reuters) Tokyo's city government is trying to persuade allergy sufferers to sponsor a campaign to replace the pollen-rich cedar trees that cause misery for many Japanese each spring.

Hay fever sufferers are being asked to donate 1,500 yen to cover the cost of cutting down one of about 1.8 million cedars in a western Tokyo forest and replacing it with a low-pollen variety, a city official said today.

The city expects the project to cost three billion yen and take 10 years.

A reforestation programme after World War Two sparked Japan's pollen allergy problem -- the authorities only later realised the cedars were leaving millions of Japanese sneezing and teary-eyed.

Tokyo has been engaged in a push to help allergy sufferers since last year, when city governor Shintaro Ishihara himself developed the symptoms of hay fever.

Reuters SY GC0838