Japan Tobacco Inc. (JTI) results of its Japan Smoking Rate Survey..

October 23, 2008 - JTI today, 10/23/2008 announced the results of its Japan Smoking Rate Survey, a study that has been carried out annually since 1965. Based on official population figures from the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that in April 2008 put Japan’s total population at 104.22 million, including 50.23 million men and 53.99 million women, Japan’s smoking population is 25.7 per cent of the total population, down from 26.0 per cent last year. Japan has about 26.80 million smokers, down from 27.00 million last year, according to a survey carried out in May by Japan Tobacco Inc, which has been conducting annual surveys since 1965.

The number of male smokers was down from 20.16 million last year to 19.84 million this year, while the number of female smokers was up from 6.84 million to 6.96 million. According to the survey, 39.5 percent of men are smokers, down from 40.2 per cent last year, while 12.9 percent of women smoke, up from 12.7 per cent.

In 2007, JTI had a 66.2 percent cigarette market share, followed by Philip Morris International with 24.3 percent and British American Tobacco (BAT) with 8.4 percent.

Reference: JT's Annual Survey Finds 25.7 percent of Japanese Adults Are Smokers..

50% of JTI is owned by the Japanese government.