Tobacco giant head Philip Morris said the company would roll out regular cigarettes in Japan within a decade, in an interview with Nikkei’s daily business on Friday.
The Marlboro manufacturer announced in 2016 a long-term goal to stop selling cigarettes and introduce alternatives that they say are less harmful – but this is the first time it has given a clear deadline.
“We want Japan to be the first market” to come out, newly appointed CEO Jacek Olczak told Nikkei in an interview published in Japanese.
The company “will see a non-smoking community in Japan within ten years”, he said.
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Philip Morris International bets its IQOS: a short form of cigarette that is inserted into a device that burns cigarettes and emits smoke.
Olczak told Nikkei that they were “planning to launch the devices using new technology”.
Japan, considered by some to be a smoker’s paradise, has long been a major smoker in developed countries.
Under a law that came into effect in 2020, the lighting of regular cigarettes is banned in many restaurants, and flammable products are allowed while eating and drinking when certain conditions are met.
The Japanese government earns billions of dollars a year from its tobacco tax, and it owns one third of Japan’s Tobacco, the world’s third-largest tobacco company.
Street smoking is banned in many places under local laws which impose a heavy fine on those who break the law.
Cigarettes cost only about $ 450 ($ 4) to 570 yen and carry health warning labels.
Besides, tobacco use in Japan has been declining, in line with widespread international practice.
