Efforts to ban smoking in central government buildings in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district are having little effect as old habits prove tough to break.
The National Personnel Authority issued a guideline July 10 aiming for a total smoking ban in all central government buildings. But resistance from smokers, as well as the structure of the old buildings, is making it hard to protect workers from secondhand smoke.
Kyodo reporters recently checked the smoking situations in the buildings of the National Personnel Authority and nine ministries, including the Foreign Ministry, and found that none of them had implemented a total ban.