Analysis of a tobacco vector and its actions in china: the activities of japan tobacco
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Analysis of a tobacco vector and its actions in China: the activities of Japan tobacco Peisen He1,2, Takeaki Takeuchi1*, Eiji Yano1
Abstract Japan Tobacco (JT) is the third largest tobacco company in the world, and China, the world’s largest tobacco consumer, is one of the most important targets for JT. To provide information for tobacco control, we reviewed and analyzed JT and its tactics and strategies in the Chinese market mainly by systematic examination of documents which are made available in the University of California, San Francisco Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. As a result, JT has had a special interest to expand sales of its cigarettes in the Chinese market. Introduction Smoking is a particular challenge for public health because unlike many other pathogens, this leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide continues to be actively promoted by large multinational corporations and governments. Previous writers have described the activities of the two largest transnational tobacco corporations (TTC) as summarized later. In this paper we report on the activities of Japan Tobacco (JT), the third largest TTC and one that, unlike Philip Morris (PM) and British American Tobacco (BAT), is largely owned and controlled by the Japanese government. We focus on JT’s actions aimed at penetrating the Chinese market, the largest in the world and heavily dominated by another government tobacco monopoly, the China National Tobacco Company (CNTC). The domestic tobacco business of JT in Japan faces an increasingly tough environment, as overall demand declines and competition with other tobacco companies intensifies. Growth in demand for cigarettes in Japan began to slow in the mid-1970s as a result of several factors, including an aging population, growing health concerns and price increases [1]. The proportion of smokers in Japan has been decreasing over the past 12 years. In 2007, smokers made up 26% of the adult population in Japan [2], down from 35.1% in 1996 and 32.9% in 2000 [3]. According to the smoking rate survey of Japan conducted in May 2008, * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
25.7% of Japanese adults smoke [4]. Besides, the 1987 suspension of import tariffs on cigarettes led to rapidly increased competition in JT’s domestic tobacco market, which decreased JT’s sales and market share. To combat the increased competitive pressures, JT has become more sophisticated and focused in their marketing efforts, transforming the company from a Japanese cigarette “manufacturer/distributor” to an International cigarette “manufacturer/marketer”[5,6]. One of its tobacco strategies is to “expand internationally into new markets to provide growth for the tobacco segment.” Initially, “JT will target larger markets with a good opportunity, for gaining volume and share (e.g. China, Korea, Taiwan, Iran, etc.), and will invest in
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