A price rise of just a few yen per pack of cigarettes would prompt nearly a third of Japanese smokers to cut down and many to quit entirely, according to a study released on Tuesday.

Calls have risen in the government to hike cigarette taxes, both to help repair tattered public finances and to discourage people from smoking in a nation that is still so smoker-friendly that even the health ministry has cigarette vending machines.

Most brands of cigarettes cost 250 yen ($2.12) per pack of 20, the lowest price among group of seven advanced nations, AFP reported.

Raising that to 300 yen would convince 30 percent of smokers to smoke fewer cigarettes per day, while 16 percent said they would quit outright, according to a survey of 2,100 people.

If the price doubled to 500 yen, 42 percent said they would abandon the habit, according to the study, carried out by a lifestyle research center affiliated with the Health Ministry.

"A price rise would have an undeniable impact both on individuals and on tax revenue," said a researcher who worked on the survey. "Even a small rise would likely prompt some people to quit sooner than they would have otherwise."

Some Japanese officials, most notably Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa, want higher cigarette taxes to help bolster the government's coffers.

But the idea faces fierce resistance from tobacco growers and industry giant Japan tobacco inc., which is two-thirds owned by the government.

About 47 percent of Japanese men are smokers and nearly 10 percent of women, compared with nearly 26 percent of men and 21 percent of women in the United States.

The study estimated that if a pack of cigarettes cost 300 yen, 4.7 million of the slightly more than 28 million smokers in the country would give up.

The number of people who die from smoking-related diseases each year would decline by 17,000 to less than 90,000 and more than 200 billion yen would be saved in medical costs, it said.