NEWSWORTHY
In smoker's paradise Japan, 81-year-old Bungaku Watanabe has spent decades leading a war on tobacco
"Is it OK if I smoke during the interview?" I ask Bungaku Watanabe, reaching into my coat pocket. A look of incandescent outrage flashes across the 81-year-old's face, before I quickly reassure him that I was joking. "No. No. No," he says firmly, breaking into a ...
Smoking rate in Japan has declined by half since beginning of Heisei Era in 1989
The proportion of smokers is dropping in Japan, with the figure in 2018 down by half from the rate of 36 percent when the Heisei Era began in 1989. Japan Tobacco Inc. attributes the decline to increasing health awareness, an aging population, tougher smoking regulations ...
Price hikes in second half to raise burden on Japanese households
Households will face greater financial burdens from Monday, the start of the fiscal second half, when prices for a variety of products and services ranging from cigarettes, wheat and cram school fees go up. Tobacco makers will raise prices for their products in line with ...
Japan Tobacco seeks approval for price hikes from Finance Ministry
Japan Tobacco Inc. on Tuesday filed for Finance Ministry approval of its plans to raise the prices of most of its products in line with the tobacco tax hike set for Oct. 1. If approved, its cigarette prices would go up by ¥20 to ¥40 ...
Turkish lira crash may affect some Japanese companies with operations there
Your next vacation in sun-drenched Turkey may now be a lot cheaper. On the flip side, corporate profits from selling goods locally are dwindling by the day when converted to home currencies. The effects of the imploding Turkish currency are now rippling through the boardrooms ...
Japan Tobacco Inc. has agreed to buy a Bangladeshi cigarette manufacturer for 124.3 billion taka ($1.5 billion), taking its acquisition strategy to one of Asia's fastest-growing economies. The Tokyo-based company is acquiring the tobacco business of Akij Group, the second-largest tobacco company in Bangladesh, Japan ...
Japan's watered-down smoking ban clears Diet
Lighting up in public facilities prohibited for the first time as the nation scrambles to combat secondhand smoke in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
As people in Japan smoke less, Japan Tobacco's new CEO looks abroad for growth
Japan Tobacco Inc.'s Masamichi Terabatake is in the hot seat. The 52-year-old started off 2018 by taking the helm of the world's third-largest tobacco company. While the view from his new Tokyo office may be different than the one from his previous stint at the ...
Japan Tobacco targets emerging markets with fewer health controls as rivals go high-tech
While most tobacco companies have embraced smokeless products to survive ever-tightening controls, the Japanese maker of Winston and Camel cigarettes is pressing ahead with a more low-tech strategy: Selling smokes to emerging markets. Japan Tobacco Inc., whose domestic market is predicted to shrink 27 percent ...
Japan Tobacco to buy Philippine cigarette maker for $1 billion
Japan Tobacco has said it would pay nearly $1 billion to buy Mighty Corp., the Philippines' No. 2 cigarette firm, marking its second acquisition in Southeast Asia this month. One of the world's biggest tobacco companies, whose global brands include Winston and Camel, Japan Tobacco ...
Tobacco tax revenue to shrink by ¥50 billion this year: study
Japan's tobacco tax revenue is likely to drop by more than ¥50 billion ($460 million) this year as more smokers switch to heated tobaccos containing less tobacco leaves, according to an estimate compiled Friday by Kyodo News and a research institute. The fall is sure ...
The tobacco industry continues to subvert government attempts to prevent tobacco-related deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday in a fresh call to counter corporate lobbying and litigation. Countries with partly state-owned tobacco companies, such as Japan, which has a stake in Japan ...
