Japan: Heated tobacco disrupts cigarette industry
June 19, 2020
Par: chef-projet@dnf.asso.fr
Dernière mise à jour: June 19, 2020
Temps de lecture: 3 minutes
Sales of heated tobacco may have contributed significantly to the decline in cigarette sales in Japan, according to a study titled “What Is Accounting for the Rapid Decline in Cigarette Sales in Japan” published in the scientific journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.[1], May 20, 2020.
Cigarette sales drop in Japanese market in favor of heated tobacco sales
The study looked more specifically at sales trends for electronic devices based on heated tobacco, devices currently very popular with the Japanese population and promoted by the authorities as part of a plan to combat smoking.
By studying data from the Tobacco Institute of Japan and Philip Morris International, a Canadian-American scientific team made a correlation between the decline in cigarette sales and the increase in sales of heated tobacco over the period 2011-2019. They thus highlighted that cigarette consumption in Japan had reduced by a third in 2016, some time after the marketing of these electronic devices based on heated tobacco on Japanese soil.
According to Professor David Sweanor of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, one of the authors of the study, consumer interest in the product and their motivation have contributed significantly to the growth in sales of heated tobacco. According to him, smokers who have tried the product have also largely helped to make it known to other smokers.
The commercial success of heated tobacco in the land of the rising sun
Heated tobacco products, particularly PMI's IQOS (accounted for 12% of tobacco sales in the archipelago in 2017), are currently booming since their entry into the Japanese market in 2014.
Let us recall that "no independent research has yet been able to really confirm the slightest danger of these products. The first studies would attest to a quantity of toxic compounds lower than that contained in the smoke of conventional cigarettes, but without being able to conclude that they induce less health risks than classic tobacco products. The absence of combustion does not prevent the production of smoke or the presence of the main toxic products found in cigarette smoke. Heated tobacco also contains nicotine, giving these products the power to cause addiction."[2].
[2] https://www.revmed.ch/RMS/2018/RMS-N-625/Produits-du-tabac-chauffe-que-faut-il-savoir
[i] “Heated tobacco, the industry’s false good solution” https://www.generationsanstabac.org/actualites/tabac-chauffe-la-fausse-bonne-solution-de-lindustrie/
