NAGOYA--A contact lens producer that has banned employees and business partners from smoking at work is trying to extend the prohibition to all visitors before they arrive at the company.

Menicon Co. is encouraging visitors to stop smoking at least an hour before they show up, saying harmful substances in their exhaled air could damage the eye health of employees and others.

Menicon started asking visitors to suspend their smoking habit in March 2016. But to drive home the point, the company late last year installed a poster with large characters at the reception counter at its headquarters to “ask for cooperation of partner firms” to urge their officials not to smoke within an hour of visiting.

The poster drew mixed reactions from visitors to the headquarters here on July 3. Two of them were smokers.

A 24-year-old computer system developer, who usually smokes nearly 20 cigarettes a day, said he had “not enjoyed even a single cigarette” that day because of a morning meeting.

“I was initially taken aback,” the man said of Menicon’s anti-smoking policy.

While his colleague, 26, said he understands “the concept of the policy because the maker handles medical apparatuses,” he said he “will puff away after returning to my company.”

The five nonsmokers interviewed praised Menicon’s decision.

A 48-year-old trucking company worker who visits the headquarters every day said, “I will not be troubled by the awful smell here.”

“I can easily accept the policy,” said another man, 49, from a warehouse operator. “I talked about the campaign at the morning meeting of my own company.”

STRICTER REGULATIONS

According to the health ministry, tobacco smoke includes dimethylnitrosamine, benzopyrene and other carcinogens, even in secondhand smoke.

Hidenari Tanaka, 59, president of Menicon, who is also an eye doctor, said the company decided to protect its employees from exposure to cigarette smoke, which can lead to cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Menicon, a company listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developed Japan’s first corneal contact lens in 1951.

In June 2016, the company revised its articles of incorporation, the basic rules on company operations, to include “the promotion of anti-smoking activity” in its business scope.

“It (Menicon) is working to create social value via smoking prohibition through its business processes,” said Mayumi Takahashi, an associate professor of law at Hitotsubashi University, who is knowledgeable about the Companies Law.

“The articles of incorporation were likely amended to present its activity in a visible manner for investors. It is rare for such a large firm to specify an anti-smoking campaign in its articles of incorporation,” Takahashi said.

TOP-DOWN DECISION

Despite the large number of customers, shareholders and other investors who smoke, Menicon is taking thorough countermeasures against smoking because Tanaka deeply regrets his own experience as a heavy smoker.

The second-generation president from the founding family had smoked 20 cigarettes daily on average since he was young. But after realizing that the smoke and odor were making people nearby uncomfortable, he kicked the habit around 10 years ago.

“Thinking that smoking is permitted if there are ashtrays is selfish logic of smokers,” Tanaka said. “Times have changed. I want to make more people understand that giving up cigarettes will result in better health.”

Menicon started holding anti-smoking seminars for employees in 2015. Subsidies to cover medical costs are provided to those who receive therapy at hospitals to quit smoking.

In its recruiting campaign, Menicon tells students thinking of entering the corporation that they will not be allowed to smoke during working hours and other periods covered by the worker’s accident compensation insurance.

As a result, only nonsmokers have recently joined Menicon, while 100 of its 1,300 employees smoke cigarettes or electronic substitutes.

In April this year, Menicon started selling an anti-smoking assistance product at the exhibition facility beside its main office. The product comprises a postcard-sized sheet of thick paper on which disks 3.8 centimeters each in diameter and the words “delicious but smoky” are printed.

The disks can be cut along the perforations and placed on ashtrays at restaurants.

The round pieces of paper are used to express “disappointment” at the restaurants for allowing customers to smoke.

A set of six sheets of paper with the disks are available for 500 yen ($4.63), including tax.

The milk bottle cap-like product was designed out of a desire to “put a cap on cigarette smoke.” The disks can also be used as spinning tops if their center holes are pierced with toothpicks.

Partly thanks to the playfulness of the product, 300 sets were sold within three months of its release.

EFFORTS BY BUSINESSES

The government is currently calling on business operators to take more effective health measures to protect their employees and others from tobacco smoke.

The revised Health Promotion Law became partially effective on July 1, banning smoking on the grounds of schools, hospitals, administrative agencies and elsewhere. When it is fully enforced in April next year, smoking inside all types of facilities, except private residences and rooms of ryokan and hotels, will be prohibited.

As offices are covered by the regulation, companies are expected to take more aggressive steps against the health hazards from smoking.

Auto parts supplier Denso Corp. abolished all smoking areas inside its headquarters and plants by March this year. Toyota Motor Corp. plans to prohibit smoking in all buildings at its main office, factories and other facilities by the end of the year.

Employees of food maker Ajinomoto Co. will be banned from smoking during working hours, even if they are outside visiting clients, by July 2020. Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Himawari Life Insurance Inc. has announced that it will not hire recruits who are still smokers at the time of entering the firm, starting in April next year.