A university Japan has said it will no longer hire teachers who smoke. Nagasaki University said it wants to create a healthier environment its workers and students. The university's president Shigeru Kono said: "Our job as a university is to look our staff. We feel we have to discourage them smoking." Many companies have also started not recruiting smokers. Mr Kono said there would be a ban smoking anywhere the university teaching and other staff August. In addition, staff and students will be banned taking cigarettes and lighters into any areas of the university from April 2020. Approximately eight per cent the university's professors and teachers are smokers.
The no-smoking policy taken Nagasaki University is part a growing trend in Japan to ban smoking public spaces. There are currently bans in many public places, including restaurants and bars, in the lead- to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. There are many areas Tokyo and Kyoto in which people cannot smoke the streets. The number of people in Japan who smoke is the decline. In 1966, 49 per cent of adults smoked, including 84 per cent men. Last year, 18 per cent of adults smoked, including 28 per cent of men. One company in Japan is trying to get its staff to quit smoking offering extra days to employees who did not smoke. Several staff soon quit the habit.
