Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/550325
28 tobaccoasia / Issue 3, 2015 (July/August) Overall, Japan's cigarette market continues to be dominated by three key players, home-grown Japan Tobacco Inc. (JTI) and multinational companies Philip Morris Japan K.K. (PM) and British American Tobacco Japan (BAT). In 2014, Japan Tobacco claimed a total market share of 60.4%, compared to 60.5% in 2013. However, sales volume declined to 112.2 billion sticks in 2014, representing a contraction of 3.6% over the 116.5 billion sticks sold in 2013. Ryohei Sugata, JTI general manager, attributed this development to a range of issues such as "the ag- ing of Japanese society, growing awareness about the health risks associated with smoking, the tightening of smoking-related regulations, and tax hikes." Meanwhile, PM cited Tobacco Institute of Japan (TIOJ) IMS data, which stated a total market share for the company of 25.93% in 2014, down 0.73 percentage points from 26.66% in 2013. Japan Report: Finally Going with the Tide Sales Volume Sales Value [billion sticks] (% of prev. FY) [billion Yen] (%of prev. FY) FY2014* 179.3 (91.0) 3,841.8 (94.3) FY2013 196.9 (100.9) 4,074.4 (100.7) FY2012 195.1 (98.8) 4,046.5 (98.5) Source: Tobacco Institute of Japan *Fiscal Year 2014 ran from April 1, 2013, until March 31, 2014 ***Deployed exchange rate: JPY 1 billion = USD 8,133,720 (oanda.com; July 04, 2015) Table 1. Annual Cigarette Sales 2012 - 2014 Japan may still be one of the most smoker-friendly industrialized countries in the world, but several compounding factors put increasing pressure on sales which should gradually slump over the next years. A typical Taspo cigarette vending machine iQOS device with Marlboro HeatSticks A Taspo card Virginia S. Rosé Menthol By Thomas Schmid