Healthy biz program may require full passive smoking measures

August 27, 2017

TOKYO- A Japanese government panel is considering proposing full measures against workplace passive smoking as a requirement for health-conscious businesses certified in a government-led program, Jiji Press learned Saturday.

The panel of experts is expected to revise the standards for the program, which certifies companies excellent at employee health management as health-conscious businesses, to make measures to prevent secondhand smoking a mandatory requirement, informed sources said.

Specifically, companies would be required to ban smoking on their entire properties or fully separate smoking areas at workplaces if they want to be certified as health-conscious firms.

The requirement would make the new standards tougher than the health promotion law, which calls for companies to make voluntary efforts to prevent passive smoking.

Under the program, launched in February, a total of 553 companies have been certified as health-conscious.

An increasing number of companies are interested in the program because some banks started to make the certification as a condition for extending low-interest loans, the sources said.

If the panel adopts the new standards at a meeting to be held later this month, they are expected to be released in early September.

Some observers say they hope that the revised standards would help speed up the currently tardy progress in efforts to prevent passive smoking. The health ministry has given up introducing a bill to strengthen smoking regulations due to opposition from some Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers. Jiji Press