Instead of keeping the status quo for employees who want to spark up on the job, Japanese companies are getting creative in efforts to encourage smokers to kick the habit -- some introducing total cigarette bans or incentivizing employees to quit by giving extra paid holidays to nonsmokers.

Indeed, more companies are not only changing their smoking areas into rest zones where workers can relax, but in some cases, companies are refusing to hire smokers outright.

A room at the headquarters of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Himawari Life Insurance Inc. in Tokyo was used as a smoking area until last year. Now, with the walls refreshed with a white motif, there is a fresh feeling, no longer does it have the stale stench of an area dedicated to cigarettes.

Smoking bans went into effect at all of the company's locations nationwide in August last year.

Sompo Japan says it deems it essential that employees stay healthy as it aims to promote healthy living to its insurance customers. It also offers to pay part of the treatment cost for those wishing to get help to quit.

"If there's a smoking room, I'll end up smoking...It was my intention to quit, so this has acted as a way of pushing me to do it," said Mitsuki Yano, 31, who says he went cold-turkey last May after smoking for 10 years.

Yano said there were times he would go to the smoking room more than 10 times each day. He said his habit acted as a diversion but also interrupted his work. "I am able to work in an efficient manner now, and I go home earlier."

From last year, major convenience store operator Lawson Inc. instituted smoking bans at its headquarters and regional offices. Yahoo Japan Corp. plans to remove smoking rooms at all its hubs in fiscal 2020.

According to a recent survey conducted by credit research agency Teikoku Databank involving about 10,000 companies, 56 percent reported having ventilated smoking areas that were completely closed-off. Twenty-two percent had implemented full smoking bans, while 92 percent had introduced some type of restriction on smoking.

The study also found that the number of people who said they are smokers, which was about 50 percent of the workforce half a century ago, dropped dramatically to just 18 percent in 2017.

Although there has been an outcry against passive smoking, particularly ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, opinions in the workplace vary.

Some smokers feel they are not causing trouble as long as they smoke in a partitioned area, while nonsmokers complain that their smoker colleagues get special treatment if they are provided a room and time to relax.

Hoshino Resorts Inc., a leading hotel and resort chain based in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, pushes the envelope further. The company asks potential employees if they smoke during the interview. "Do you smoke cigarettes? We do not hire smokers," reads a company pamphlet.

"We have a responsibility to protect employees from the adverse health effects of tobacco. If we're going to have a smoking area we ought to utilize it for customers," said a company representative.

Elsewhere, employees are being rewarded with perks. Piala, a web marketing business based in Tokyo, started giving six extra days of paid holidays to nonsmokers last year.

Employees told the company president that there was a clear difference in the time spent working between those who take smoke breaks and those who do not.

Sae Enoki, 24, a Piala employee, used the new system to take more vacation time during the year-end and New Year holidays. "I was envious of people who were taking smoking breaks to refresh, but (with this new system) I am satisfied," she said.