Philip Morris woos puff-happy Japan for post-smoking era

Описание: (24 Oct 2018) LEADIN:
Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro and other major cigarette brands, is maneuvering to keep itself in business in a post-smoking world with an advertising blitz in Japan and other tobacco-loving markets.
The company is renewing its effort to win over new generations of tobacco users to its iQOS devices, which heat tobacco without burning it.
STORYLINE:
One of the biggest purveyors of tobacco products, Philip Morris says making the world "smoke free" is its goal.
It's promoting a new generation of its pen-like iQOS devices in Tokyo - more than five million of the nearly six million users of the product are in Japan.  
"I think Japan is a country where people like innovation, like to experiment and try new products," says the company's chief executive Andre Calantzopoulos.
By heating tobacco without burning it, iQOS gives users vapour and flavour without the hazards of smoke and tar from cigarettes, cigars and pipes, the company claims.
It's different to e-cigarettes, another popular "reduced risk" product, which don't contain tobacco, but instead vaporizes a liquid usually containing nicotine.
The iQOS has yet to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, but it's sold in much of Europe, in Turkey, South Korea, New Zealand and Colombia.
The company's rebranding effort seems to be paying off in Japan, where the company has opened nine iQOS stores offering free WiFi and drinks in trendy districts nationwide.
Mami Kugishima, a 32-year-old hair stylist and iQOS user, says she likes the way the smell doesn't get in her hair.
The World Health Organization points to tobacco as a leading cause of death, killing up to half its users, or more than seven million people every year.
Of those, about 890,000 deaths are non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke.
Philip Morris says research it has funded shows health risks are reduced with iQOS, while they are not zero.
The device's lower temperatures release less cancer-causing substances than when tobacco is burned in regular smoking, while still providing nicotine to the user.
Calantzopoulos claims wider use of the device would help people's health.
Critics accuse the company of glossing over the risks in its effort to lure new generations of tobacco users, an allegation it denies.
Some believe Japan is going too easy on tobacco, including iQOS.
The government has a big stake in the tobacco business, owning a third of stocks in major cigarette company Japan Tobacco Inc. as its top investor.
The industry was a government monopoly until 1985 and is a huge source of tax revenues.
Cigarette packs don't carry graphic pictures and warning labels about the "risks of a stroke" or "addiction to nicotine" are in fine print.
Philip Morris is still one of the biggest makers of conventional tobacco products. Apart from Marlboro, its brands include Parliament, L&M and Chesterfield.
It sells the local "heritage" brands Dji Sam Soe, Sampoerna A and Sampoerna U in Indonesia; Fortune and Jackpot in the Philippines; Belmont and Canadian Classics in Canada; and Delicados in Mexico.
A basic iQOS kit, which includes a charger, starts at 7,980 yen (approx. $71 USD) in Japan. Fancier versions cost more.
Refills, made of tobacco leaves that are ground, made into sheets and then crimped, look like tiny cigarettes.
They go for 500 yen (approx. $4.40 USD) a pack - about the same as a pack of Marlboros at 510 yen (approx. $4.50 USD).
In Japan, as elsewhere, smoking is gradually tapering off.
Forty years ago, 75 percent of adult men were lighting up and non-smoking spaces were a rarity.

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