The economic effects of smoking restriction within casual dining chain restaurants in Japan

One of the popular casual dining chain restaurants running 255 outlets under the same brand name adopted the separation policy, mandating the differentiation of smoking and non-smoking zone in 2000. Following this, they started renovating the outlets' interiors because two thirds of them are dated. Going a step further, they have decided to implement stricter countermeasures against secondhand smoke. This includes the introduction of smoking prohibition outside the designated smoking room where foods are not served, and in some cases the separation of the smoking zone with glass walls and automatic doors. This study examined the economic effects of the smoking prohibition within a non-designated smoking zone of casual dining chain restaurants in Japan.

We selected 59 outlets that prohibited smoking outside of the designated smoking room (prohibition group), and 17 outlets that separated the smoking zone with glass walls and automatic doors (separation group), all of which were renovated during the same time period, that is, February to December 2009. We compared the relative change in monthly sales of each restaurant two years before the renovation (24~13 months, 12~1 months) and one year after the renovation (1~12 months) in order to exclude the effects of social economic regression and usual seasonal changes. Eighty-two outlets were not renovated during the observation period; hence, they were treated as the control group. For comparison purposes, the relative monthly sales of each outlet was collected and compared to the sales in January 2007, using a two-way repeated measures ANOVA and post-hoc analysis (Scheffé test) using SAS ver. 9.3.

There was a significant difference among three groups across three different periods, P for group×time<0.0001. Relative sales of the prohibition group was significantly increased after the renovation (P<0.001); however, there was no significant increase in the relative sales of the separation group.

Prohibition of smoking outside of the designated rooms in casual dining chain restaurants increased sales, while separation of the smoking zone did not.