HTP in Japan – the seldom told good news story for tobacco harm reduction

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has mostly been in the news lately for its partnership with Altria, trying to finally bring heated tobacco products (HTP) to the US market in a more than token way. But this week it also issued its third-quarter results, and buried in the small print there is yet more confirmation of a much longer-running and equally big story about HTP which sometimes gets overlooked: the role it has played in eliminating smoking in Japan, not just nibbling away at the edges of smoking prevalence but severely reducing the presence of the combustible cigarette.