Heated tobacco did not receive any support from the Japanese government at the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).
Some stakeholders, such as Japan Tobacco (JT), feared the entire premise of harm reduction and reduced-risk products could be under threat at COP10, but Japanese authorities confirmed to TobaccoIntelligence that they believed the science on the potential benefits of heated tobacco versus smoking were not yet conclusive enough for them to support any harm-reduction position concerning the popular tobacco alternative.