A government demand to prohibit smoking in workplaces in order to protect non-smoking employees from secondhand smoke probably will be adopted next year. This measure would significantly extend regulations from the present nonbinding rule, which already has left many restaurant and bar owners incapable to ignore the wishes of visitors who want to smoke, concerned about how to honor the new restrictions.

The government plans to submit the bill in order to review the Industrial Safety and Health Law. The given regulation would compel all business establishments to prohibit smoking or create special smoking areas from which smoke would not leak out. According to a survey that was conducted in 2007, 53.6 % of businesses had yet to implement either a complete ban on smoking or create separate smoking areas.

In February, the ministry adopted a recommendatory notice that prohibited smoking in all public places including bars, cafes and restaurants. “The given recommendatory notice didn’t produce a significant effect. We want to reinforce the regulation in order to oblige business owners to choose between a complete ban and creating special smoking areas,” a ministry stated.

In those buildings which are separated into rental units, each proprietor will be responsible for creating its own smoking room. In case the building’s proprietor does not permit to create a smoking room or if tenants can’t afford to reconstruct, the only choice would be a complete smoking ban. Ryuji Abe, president of the real-estate firm stated that he would have to use a part of its office in order to create a smoking room.

“It would be very difficult in this general purpose building, because the work will be too costly. But we can’t tell our client not to smoke,” he said. The ministry plans to allocate money for creation of smoking rooms. But a spokesman of the ministry’s Labor Standards Bureau encouraged to take another decision, stating,” Stopping smoking is the cheapest option. We hope that business owners will choose this variant and will completely ban smoking.”

However these new regulations would permit exemptions for hotels and restaurants if adhering to the rules would affect to a greater degree their business. Such enterprises would have to guarantee that their establishments are sufficiently ventilated.

In a currently conducted survey, 50% of respondents stated that they wanted to prevent second-hand smoking but business should come first. Only 32% declared that exposure to secondhand smoke must be stopped.

However, even if such exceptions are given, only separating smoking and nonsmoking areas would be insufficient. That is why, buying qualitative ventilators or other equipment would be essential.

The nation’s smoking rate constituted 23.4 % in 2009. With the number of smokers decreasing and coming tougher regulations, Japan Tobacco Inc. is in crisis mode. Recently Japan Tobacco sent a letter to ministry stating that these regulations would produce a lot of negative effects, as for example decrease in profits at restaurants and bars.