[BBQToadRibs]

I worked in Japan for 3 years and the guy across from me chain smoked like a fiend all day long right at his desk. I’d come home smelling like I’d spent the entire day at a bar. I’d go outside for air breaks.

[Vigilanteman]

I worked for two big name companies in Japan. The first one banned smoking in the common office areas after I suggested we get those smokeless ashtrays which vacuumed in the odors. The senior executive who made the decision had worked in the New York office and could see it coming. I wasn't popular with some of my co-workers at first, but they got over it because I did more than my share of work. They also appreciated the excuse to leave their desks.

Not long after, an even bigger named company recruited me with higher pay, nice company housing and other bennies. The smoking culture there was even more horrific than the first. I had to go to the loo (or step outside) to get fresh air, beleive it or not.

Then one day, they announced they would be installing carpeting over the weekend and smoking would thereafter be banished to designated break rooms.

The first company had a reunion last November and invited me to go back . . . I had a wonderful time hobnobbing with my former co-workers. Anyone who wanted to smoke went outside. My daughter, who works there now, says that is pretty much the rule throughout Japan. Japan Tobacco, the once government owned monopoly, has long since privatized and has more export sales to places like China than domestic sales. Non tobacco products such as canned juice, coffee, soft drinks and anything else sold in vending machines now make up the bulk of their domestic sales.