STOCK QUOTES     More market data...

Company successfully bucks Japan's smoke-tolerant ways

Shirleen Holt
Seattle Times business reporter

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES Japanese workers at the Nagano manufacturer ITEC watch Ichiro bat for the Mariners in Seattle last month as a reward for quitting smoking. Their employer paid for the trip.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Overcoming years of lax attitudes about smoking in the workplace (it's common for Japanese to smoke even in business meetings), Ohno prohibits workers from smoking on the premises.

To get his addicted employees to quit, he paired them with nonsmoking partners — giving each a bonus for every week or month the smoker abstained.

The peer pressure worked to such an extent that some smokers who lapsed ended up paying their partner's share out of their own pockets.

Most of the 10 smokers who quit for an entire year got an all-expenses-paid trip to Seattle in September to see Ichiro bat for the Mariners.

The incentive program costs about $50,000 — the same price it would have cost to set up a ventilated smoking room in the factory.

"I'm not going to pay people," Ohno says, "to continue smoking."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More business & technology headlines...