Where to Raise Workplace Passive Smoking in Japan (2026): Free Public Channels and Internal Routes

Two laws, two different parties bearing the duty

Knowing which law is in play tells you which door to knock on. MHLW's guideline explains that the amended Health Promotion Act imposes a duty to take measures preventing unwanted passive smoking on the persons with management authority over facilities used by many people, while the Industrial Safety and Health Act, aiming at the safety and health of workers, imposes on employers a duty of effort regarding measures to prevent those workers' passive smoking indoors (source: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000524718.pdf). In short: the Health Promotion Act governs the building's rules, and Article 68-2 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act governs what your employer should be doing. The guideline adds that where the employer and the person with management authority differ — a company renting office space, for instance — the employer needs to coordinate with that person so the Health Promotion Act is complied with.

What the internal route is supposed to look like

• The employer should designate a department or person responsible for passive-smoking measures, tasked with handling consultations and with periodically grasping, analysing and evaluating conditions across worksites
• The state of passive-smoking measures should be a matter for deliberation by the health or safety and health committee
• Occupational physicians should pay attention to how the measures are implemented during workplace inspections
• Workers should ideally raise needed measures through their committee representatives rather than only informally
• Particular consideration is asked for workers who are pregnant, have respiratory or circulatory conditions, are being treated for illnesses such as cancer, or are sensitive to chemicals

It helps to know the framework before you raise anything. For facility categories and the four types of smoking room, see our Health Promotion Act explainer. If your workplace decides against an indoor smoking room, sharing the nearest designated outdoor spot from the MottoSuitai map avoids the separate problem of people smoking by the entrance.

Support the employer can use — including free equipment loans

Consultation is not only for employees. The guideline's section on support tells employers to contact the health affairs division of the Labour Standards Department at the prefectural labour bureau covering the worksite for subsidy matters, and to check MHLW's website for the current contact point for technical consultations on passive-smoking measures and for the free loan of equipment measuring tobacco smoke concentration (source: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000524718.pdf). That loan is worth knowing about: it converts an argument about how the air feels into one about numbers. Where installing or renovating a smoking room costs money, a subsidy exists for small and medium-sized employers — see our summary of the passive-smoking prevention subsidy.

Preparing, and what to avoid

Whichever route you take, set out the facts first: your facility category; whether there is a sealed smoking room or a heated-tobacco-only room indoors, an outdoor spot, or smoke-free premises; the concrete situation (where your desk sits relative to the smoking room, routes you must take, ventilation, times of day); and who you have already spoken to internally and what they said. Two things to avoid: making it about a named colleague, since the duties fall on the facility and the employer rather than on individuals; and skipping the internal route entirely, since the guideline builds on the company's own consultation structure. Raising a concern does not automatically produce any particular outcome, and this article does not predict one — for a view on a specific case, consult a lawyer.