Salary for Smoking Break (SSB) of Civil Servants (CS) in Japan

Abstract

Salary for Smoking Break (SSB) of Civil Servants (CS) of Japan was estimated after a survey of the number of smoking CS during office hours at outdoor Designated Smoking Area (DSA) of two cities, namely Amagasaki and Nishinomiya. The total number of smoking CS during office hours per day at these city main offices was 547 and 400 respectively. The total SSB of CS of two cities combined per year is estimated as more than US$ 2 million. Approximately, the number of CS all over Japan is 526 times as much as that of two cities combined. Based on this data, total SSB during office hours of CS all over Japan is estimated as more than US$ 1,052 million. The source of this huge amount of SSB for CS is the tax paid by the people and is not acceptable from tax-payers’ point of view. Ban on smoking of CS during office hours is beneficial not only for smoking CS to have the chance to quit or reduce smoking, but also for no smoking colleagues to be free from extra work during the absence of smokers for smoking break and to avoid the risk of the exposure to third-hand smoke from returned smokers. Therefore, ban on smoking of CS during office hours should be welcomed not only by the people, but also by CS regardless of smoking status. This ban could be extended to private work places as a good role model, and protect the health of workers from the risk of active and passive smoking including third-hand smoke. The implementation of this ban may help the better understanding of Japanese people for tobacco de-normalization as the social norm.