Cigarette Brand Guides & Buying Notes

What Japanese Cigarette Cartons Cost

Japanese cartons are cheap in Japan and mid-priced abroad, and the gap is export cost rather than quality. At home Mainstream Japanese packs sit in the low-to-mid si…

What a Pack of Cigarettes Costs in Korea

Korea is unusual for having a largely uniform national price. A pack of a mainstream brand costs roughly the same in Seoul as in a provincial city, because tobacco t…

Are Cigarettes Expensive in Japan?

Cheap by developed-market standards, expensive by historical Japanese standards. Both statements are true, and the tension between them explains a lot about the mark…

Korean Cigarette Brands: What Exists

Korea's cigarette market is unusually concentrated: one manufacturer, KT&G, accounts for the large majority of domestic volume. That produces a brand landscape with…

Mevius is the most internationally available Japanese brand and the volume leader at home. Whether it is good depends on what you want from a cigarette, and the hone…

How Much Do Cigarettes Cost in Korea?

Korea is one of the cheaper developed markets for cigarettes, and the pricing structure is unusually simple: a single national price band rather than the state-by-st…

Buying Japanese Cigarettes Online: What to Expect

Japanese cigarettes have a devoted following outside Japan and a supply problem: the brands are only partly exported, the versions sold abroad often differ from the…

Seven Stars: Japan’s Full-Strength Flagship

Seven Stars occupies a position in Japan that is hard to translate: the premium full-strength brand, the one smokers graduate to, the one with a reputation for being…

ESSE Cigarettes: Korea’s Slim Format, Explained

ESSE is the cigarette most people encounter when they first try a Korean brand, and it is usually a surprise. The pack is narrow, the cigarette is thin, and the whol…

Japanese Cigarette Brands: A Working Guide

Japan's cigarette market looks small from outside and is surprisingly deep from inside. A handful of brands account for most volume, but each has a distinct blend ph…

Are Japanese Cigarettes Better Than American?

Better at some things, worse at others, and not better in the way the question usually implies. The health framing in particular needs correcting. Where Japanese cig…

Why Korean Cigarettes Are So Thin

The thinness is a design choice that became a market norm, and the reasons behind it are a mix of sensory preference, aesthetics and the way the Korean market segmen…