Japanese Girls Start Smoking Pipes!?

If you are in the west and you saw a younger person smoking a pipe, you'd probably immediately think, "What's in that pipe!?" But, in Japan, a pipe, called Kiseru, is very old fashioned and it looks like what folks back home would consider a  "pipe for smoking dope."

Well, the kiseru has been around for centuries in Japan and smoking tobacco in pipes is making a comeback, especially amongst younger people as being now fashionable and cool.

The Japanese government raised taxes on cigarettes on Oct. 1, 2010 but the taxes on loose tobacco went up only a pittance. Now, some people are smoking pipes to be different and save money.

As the Independent UK reports:

The increase in the tax on cigarettes in October has reignited sales of loose tobacco in Japan, which is designed to be smoked in old-fashioned pipes known as "kiseru."

The Japanese government raised the tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products as much as 40 percent on October 1, with retailers reporting "panic buying" in the weeks leading up to that date.

Figures released by the government show that cigarette sales were up a remarkable 88 percent in September.

But the increase on shredded tobacco was a mere Y30 (€0.27), raising the price to Y360 (€3.25) for a box, because of a difference in tax rates between ready-rolled cigarette and loose tobacco.

Sales of "Koiki" brand loose tobacco accounts an "extremely small" percentage of Japan Tobacco Inc.'s total sales, according to spokesman Yoshinori Tsuchiya, but that is creeping up as the company has not witnessed the steep decline in sales in the months since the tax hike.

" 'Koiki' is fine-cut Japanese tobacco that is not for roll-your-own cigarettes or a regular pipe, but for the traditional 'kiseru' pipe," Tsuchiya told Relaxnews.

"The biggest differences between roll-your-own tobacco and that for a Japanese pipe is that Koiki is cut finer than hair - less than 0.3 milimetres - and no additives are included, so the smoker can enjoy the original flavour of the tobacco," he said.

Japan Tobacco stopped producing kiseru in 1979 as the popularity of cigarettes soared, but "Koiki" was launched in 1985 to meet demand from purists who yearened for a revival of Japanese tobacco culture, Tsuchiya said.

The product is made by hand at a single JT factory, but the company also owns the "Old Holborn" and "Amber Leaf" brands of rolling tobacco, while "Golden Virginia" and "Drum" can also be purchased in Japan.

"I first tried roll-your-own cigarettes on holiday in Europe because they are not at all common in Japan, but I liked the taste and I do prefer them to regular cigarettes," said Kanako Hosomura, 28, a bar worker from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. "And it is nice to be doing something different from everyone else around me." 


Thanks to News on Japan

Two Cigarette Brands Are Selling Well in Japan

I just came back from a late night run to the convenience store where I was surprised to see, for the first time in my entire time in Japan, convenience stores selling what people consider to be "B-grade" Japanese cigarettes. It is quite unusual to see these low-end cigarettes at a convenience store.

I wrote before about how the Japanese government insanely raised taxes on cigarettes here. Now, the news is coming out that people have seriously curtailed their smoking and it has hurt government tax coiffures as well as the tobacco industry... Well, duh!

Wakaba cigarettes... Notice the cool and trendy design! 

¥220 (about $2.50 USD) for twenty 18 mg. cigarettes 

It used to be that convenience stores, due to lack of space, only sold the premium brands of cigarettes; Seven Star, Marlboro, Camel, Lark, Lucky Strike, etc... (Japanese cigarette, High-Lite, was considered low-end)... But now since a pack of premium cigarettes costs about ¥420 a pack or more (about $5.00 USD), it seems that sales of the low-grade tobaccos are soaring. Low-grade tobaccos sell for about half what premium brands sell for - between ¥220 ~ ¥250 a pack ($2.50 ~ $3.00)!

The guy at the convenience store told me that Wakaba cigarettes, especially, are enjoying brisk sales!

Wakaba is a very old brand in Japan and is definitely not considered cool by the younger people (I think it is very cool!)... The other brand the store clerk said was selling well was the other brand that is considered very low-class and only smoked by nearly homeless old men; Golden Bat.

Both Wakaba and Golden Bat are strong cigarettes at 18 & 21 mg. But as my Japanese friend says about people who smokes one mg. cigs, "Are you going to smoke cigarettes or not smoke cigarettes?" 

Both these brands are not trendy at all and have the image of depression era Japan...

Good thing, maybe their time has come again!

Hooray for the folks that elect to buy the cheaper stuff. If everyone did the same, the other cigarettes would have to lower their prices!

Here's a Golden Bat TV commercial from about 10 ~ 15 years ago:



Wakaba is too low grade to have ever had a TV commercial as far as I know.

Hell, and, come to think of it... The older stuff is always better anyway, right? And if these two are not cool, then I don't know what is!