Article posted on Vaping post - Author: Diane Caruana - Translator: The Vape Club
With vaping becoming more popular and its demand increasing exponentially, Japanese manufacturers, with the two leading contenders being Philip Morris International Inc and Japan Tobacco Inc, could not keep up with the demand. When Japan Tobacco Inc found itself facing a shortage of supplies, it had to accept that PMI, the world’s largest tobacco company, would take the lead in the Japanese market.
A clear direction on harm reduction
“Our goal for Japan is to get every consumer we have to switch to vaping,” said Paul Riley.
“Our goal for Japan is to get all the consumers we have to switch to vaping,” said Paul Riley, president of Philip Morris’ Japan division. He added that, since vaping is safer than smoking, switching is a no-brainer.
“PMI’s goal is clear. We all want smokers to be able to switch to less harmful products,” Tommaso Di Giovianni, Philip Morris’s head of global communications, told the Vaping Post in Warsaw in June.
Tommaso Di Giovianni told Vaping Post: “PMI’s goal is clear. We all want smokers to be able to switch to less harmful products.”
In just a decade, the vaping industry has exploded. It started with a single manufacturer in China in 2005, to 466 brands in the international market according to WHO statistics. Statistics show that more than $50 billion could be spent by consumers each year by 2030. In 2014, the organization released a report citing concerns about the tobacco industry in the market, and the fear that vaping could lead to smoking. And this theory has been disproved time and time again.
With the rapid development of the vaping market, some tobacco companies have also followed PMI and started to focus on these non-combustible tobacco products, Altria even asked the FDA not to make the bill too strict. From a health perspective, it is not tobacco and nicotine themselves that affect health, but the chemicals contained in tobacco. And now it seems that the media still confuses vape products using essential oils with cigarettes.
The evidence is tilting in favor of vaping.
In 2014, when the WHO published the report, e-cigarettes and e-liquids had not been tested enough to determine their real effects, however, since then, many related studies have been published. Examples of such studies include a study by the Royal College of Physicians in the UK that found e-cigarettes to be 95% safer than cigarettes, a study by the Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Research Center in the US that found e-cigarettes could reduce deaths from cigarettes by 21%, and an online survey conducted by Dr. Farsalino in Malaysia that showed smokers who switched to vaping had significant health improvements.
Cigarette sales have been steadily declining in recent decades, while e-cigarette sales have increased fivefold to 4.6 million last year, according to data released by Euromonitor International. Japan Tobacco’s market share has fallen by 14% this year.
Japan is a country known for its high standards of hygiene and health. According to Akari Utsunomiya, a research analyst with Euromonitor in Tokyo, e-cigarettes are growing rapidly in the Asian country because they fit both requirements. That is why “tobacco companies are looking for opportunities in the new potential of the Japanese market.”
Tetsuo Yamamoto, a 40-year-old Tokyo designer and former smoker, said he turned to IQOS, a smokeless e-cigarette from Philip Morris, as a way to quit smoking. He added that he can’t stand the smell of cigarettes these days. Ninety-five percent of the product’s monthly sales come from Japan, where it has become a temporary vaping product.
Still struggling with rising consumer demand
For now, Japan Tobacco is still testing the waters, as its Ploom Tech vape product has failed to meet significant demand. “The market response has been greater than we expected, and our product supply is still limited,” Japan Tobacco CFO Naohira Minami said on a conference call with analysts and investors.
In the US, the most popular vape is the one that contains nicotine, while in Japan, nicotine is considered a medical substance and is strictly controlled. However, the tobacco vapor products mentioned above are considered pipe tobacco, while the nicotine-free versions are unregulated and can be purchased by young people. Store owners like Keiichi Ando, who only sell nicotine-free vapes, have reported that sales of these products have been steadily increasing.
A Promising Future for Vape Products in Japan
Japan Tobacco’s current goal is not only to regain its position in the market but also to become its leader, said Vice President Hideki Miyazaki. And in what is considered good news for both the vaping industry and health, on August 1, the Japanese tobacco company also invested in tobacco and intends to invest more than 10 billion yen in vape products. Over the next four years, they intend to increase production and investment because their e-cigarette products are currently out of stock.
