Japan Tobacco Inc said yesterday it hoped to catch up with Philip Morris International in respect of smokeless tobacco by expanding the number of smoke-free restaurants and public places that allowed its vaping product to be used, according to a story by Taiga Uranaka for Reuters.
Tobacco firms see Japan as a test ground for alternative vaping products because the country’s pharmaceutical regulations ban the nicotine e-liquids used with electronic cigarettes.
While PMI’s heated-tobacco product IQOS is already enjoying strong demand in Japan, JT’s launch of its Ploom Tech product has run into delays due to production shortages.
But JT was due to start selling Ploom Tech at its flagship shops today and at 100 tobacco stores in Tokyo on July 10. The company says it plans to sell the product nation-wide during the first half of the next year.
The company test-launched the product in Fukuoka in March last year and at its online shop, but it had to suspend sales after demand overwhelmed supply. It had apparently sold 250,000 Ploom Tech devices by the end of last year.
Unlike Philip Morris’s IQOS, Ploom Tech does not directly heat tobacco leaves. Instead, the battery-powered device generates vapor that goes through a capsule packed with tobacco leaves.
Japan Tobacco said the mechanism produced less smell than heated tobacco products produced, and the company hopes this will be a strong differentiating factor against its rivals’ products.
The Reuters story is at: http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKKBN19J0EP.