Japan Tobacco Inc.

Japan Tobacco Inc. is the Japanese government-owned tobacco company, until 1994.

= Description =

The abbreviation for Japan Tobacco Inc. is JT. For decades, JT, the Japanese government-owned tobacco company, held a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes in Japan.(New York Times, 8/4/94). JT is one of the world's largest cigarette companies in 1994.(NYT 8/4/94) The Japanese government is making an initial public stock offering of JT. The two-step process of auctioning off JT begins August 1994 and trading will start 10/27/94 (NYT 8/4/94). American trade negotiators opened the Japanese market to foreign cigarette brands in the 1980's. JT's market share is about 82 percent and shrinking in 1994 (NYT 8/4/94). Since the government controlled the cigarette business, there was virtually no serious studies in Japan of the effects of smoking, and little information was made public (NYT 8/4/94). Japan Tobacco was a member of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA) in 1994 (Reuters 5/13/94). The Leaf Tobacco Council is Japan Tobacco Inc.'s advisory council, which endorses plans to set purchase prices of leaf tobacco (Jap. Econ. Newswire 8/2/94).

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