E-cigarettes in Japan
The vape market in Japan has seen a steady decline in recent years, marking the way for other related products, such as heated tobacco. This page provides all of our material relating to Japan and its vaping market. This includes all of our full-length Japanese market and regulatory reports, our extensive news coverage – both business and regulatory – our numerous trackers and databases, as well as our live alerts.
Business briefing
Industry news and updates with a focus on companies and businesses in the sector
Regulatory briefing
Global legal and regulatory news and updates from the vape industry
Market reports
Detailed full-length reports including data and analysis of numerous vaping markets around the world
Regulatory reports
Thorough reports providing legal and regulatory analysis of different countries and sections of the e-cigarette industry
Regulatory report: Japan
10th May 2021
Pricing trackers
Online e-cig pricing guides for numerous markets around the world, updated twice a year and provided in database format
Online e-cig pricing: Japan Q3 2021
22nd October 2021
Regulatory trackers
Up-to-date information about current regulations around the world, presented in user-friendly maps and Excel spreadsheets
Global regulatory tracker: current regulation of e-cigs October
23rd October 2021
Brands trackers
Our online price benchmarking project, analysing multi-brand retail websites in selected vape markets
Flavour & nicotine trackers
Analytical insights of the most significant vaping flavours and nicotine strengths
Databases
User-friendly databases with key global analysis, statistics, directories and more
Key global e-cigarette markets database: November 2021
5th November 2021
Charts and infographics
A brief highlight of what can be found in our full-length e-cigarette market reports
IQOS growth slows as market matures
2nd December 2019
Vaping situation in Japan
Nicotine-free e-cig products and devices are not tackled by tobacco-related legislation and are subject to general consumer safety regulation.
One of the distinctive characteristics of the Japanese e-cig market is that nicotine-containing e-cigarette products cannot be sold without a pharmaceutical licence. However, limited imports are allowed for personal use as long as the amount of nicotine contained in e-cigs and liquids is limited.
There are no laws specific to e-cigarettes, however the issue has been discussed in the past by the House of Representatives and the Legislation Examination Bureau.
In addition, there are several administrative circulars published by the government. The circulars are not enforceable but are still followed by the industry.
Nicotine-containing e-cigarette products cannot be manufactured, imported, marketed, sold or distributed without a pharmaceutical licence.
However, the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act does allow imports for personal use, as long as the amount of nicotine they contain is limited. Informally, personal imports of up to 120 ml of nicotine-containing e-liquid or 60 cartridges (a month’s supply) are acceptable, according to the customs authorities.
The heated tobacco market, which forms a major part of tobacco alternatives sector, is currently in something of a stagnant phase.
Nevertheless, heated tobacco products are quite popular in Japan partly due to tough regulation on nicotine-containing e-cigarettes.
