Toyota Motor Corp. will ban its employees from smoking at its headquarters as well as all branches and offices nationwide, including production facilities, by the end of the year, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The Toyota, Aichi Prefecture-based company plans to abolish all indoor smoking areas and persuade its employees to quit smoking in an effort to prevent second-hand smoke.
According to a Teikoku Databank Ltd. survey in October 2017, less than 20 percent of major companies said they had completely banned smoking in all workplaces. The figure is particularly low for production facilities, at about 10 percent.
The decision by the top manufacturer is likely to affect other companies' efforts to introduce total smoking bans.
Toyota has been organizing classes to encourage employees to quit smoking and handing out medication to treat nicotine addiction.
Toyota banned smoking during working hours in principle in 2013.
As a result, the smoking rate within the company plunged to 25.4 percent in 2018 from 51 percent in 2004.
The company hopes the total smoking ban at all facilities will accelerate efforts to get employees to stop smoking.
Major trading company Toyota Tsusho Corp. of the Toyota group will also introduce a smoking ban at its headquarters in Nagoya and Tokyo by the end of fiscal 2020.
The revised Health Promotion Law will take full effect in April 2020 ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The law will, in principle, completely ban smoking at workplaces, restaurants and other facilities.
Businesses are considering what steps to take in line with the revision. Nisshin Fire & Marine Insurance Co. will introduce a total smoking ban at all facilities next month, while Shimadzu Corp. will ban smoking during working hours starting in April 2020.
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