Reactions to the penalty have been sympathetic. (Picture credit: Unsplash) A Japanese civil servant recently got in trouble for smoking on the job more than 4,500 times in 14 years. He was hit with a fine worth around $11,000 for lighting cigarettes during work hours. According to a report by The Straits Times, the authorities in Osaka laid down the law on the 61-year-old employee, along with two colleagues in the prefecture's finance department, by enforcing a 10 per cent pay cut for six months for repeatedly smoking during work hours despite multiple warnings. In September 2022, the human resource office received an anonymous tip that the trio were secretly stashing tobacco. The trio were summoned by their supervisor and warned that they may face consequences if they are caught smoking again. However, the three continued smoking and lied about it when interviewed in December 2022. Osaka has some of the strictest smoking laws in the world. It introduced a total ban on smoking cig...