A company is granting non-smoking employees an extra six days of paid holidays a year after they complained that they were working more than staff who took time off for cigarette breaks.
"One of our non-smoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems", said Hirotaka Matsushima, a spokesman for the company.
Resentment among the non-smokers grew because the company's head office is on the 29th floor of an office building. Anyone wanting a cigarette had to go to the basement level, with each smoking break lasting around 15 minutes.
To date, no fewer than 30 of the company's 120 employees have taken additional days off under the new system since it was introduced.
The scheme has also encouraged four people to give up smoking, he added.