This Japanese company is offering nonsmokers extra vacation days


Japanese marketing firm Piala is rewarding nonsmokers in the best way it knows how: with vacation days.
In September, Piala's CEO announced that employees who did not smoke would receive six extra vacation days per year, The New York Times reports. The move was aimed to encourage smokers to quit, but it's also about equality.
Smoking is a big part of Japan's business culture, with office buildings often offering indoor smoking rooms. But Piala's smoking room is in the basement, which caused smoking employees to leave the 29th-floor office for breaks multiple times a day. Because smokers and nonsmokers would still leave work for the day at the same time, nonsmokers started complaining.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Since the initiative started in September, the company says four of its employees have decided to quit smoking. Piala's CEO said he hopes incentives, not penalties, will help more employees nip their habit in the butt — er, bud.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
NASA reveals ‘clearest sign of life’ on Mars yet
Speed Read The evidence came in the form of a rock sample collected on the planet
-
Former top FBI agents sue, claiming Trump purge
Speed Read The agents alleged they were targeted by a “campaign of retribution”
-
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk shot dead at 31
Speed Read Kirk was holding a debate session at Utah Valley University
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year