Nowhere on Earth has cigarette consumption dropped as rapidly as it has in Japan over the past few years.
Just look at the numbers: In the first quarter of 2021—January, February and March of this year—domestic cigarette sales in Japan totaled about 25 billion sticks. In 2016, that same period saw around 43.6 billion domestic cigarette sales in the country. There has been close to a 43 percent decline in half a decade.
It is an extraordinary success. And it seems attributable to a single shift: Japan’s population of smokers, with the government’s acquiescence, has embraced heated tobacco products (HTPs), which heat tobacco sticks to produce vapor—not smoke—that is inhaled.
There are currently at least three such products on the Japanese market, with the first introduced in 2014, and Japan has become a testing ground of sorts. Market analyst reports estimate that Japan has the world’s biggest HTP market, with 85 percent of global sales in 2018. Nearby countries—notably South Korea—have followed suit by making HTPs available, also seeing cigarette sales fall.
Alex Norcia – Filter – 2021-05-13.