Saving Lives in Japan
The experts at THR.net are pleased to share their latest report, "Lives Saved: Saving 2.04 Million Lives in Japan,” highlighting the transformative potential of integrating tobacco harm reduction strategies
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by Dave Cross
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The experts at THR.net are pleased to share their latest report, "Lives Saved: Saving 2.04 Million Lives in Japan,” highlighting the transformative potential of integrating tobacco harm reduction strategies with enhanced lung cancer treatments and smoking cessation programs. They say the report demonstrates that these measures could save over 2.04 million lives in Japan by 2060, setting a global example of how science-based innovations can reshape public health outcomes.
Key fact:
- Between 2011 and 2023, cigarette sales in Japan declined by over 52%, largely due to the rise of heated tobacco products
They say: “The analysis shows that over 2.04 million lives could be saved by 2060 through these interventions, compared to continuing with current WHO-directed tobacco control efforts alone.
“Global progress to end smoking has stalled. Current approaches to tobacco control have not been sufficient. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that 1.27 billion people globally will smoke by 2025. Over eight million annually will die from tobacco use. This is unacceptable from a public health perspective.”
Focussing on Japan, the report looks at the 127.7 million people who live in the country and the 157,180 who die prematurely every year because they use tobacco products.
Through the adoption of reduced harm products, smoking prevalence in Japan has fallen from 31.7% to 19.4%. Despite this, there remains 21.2 million smokers in the country.
The report’s authors continue: “There has also been a seismic shift, as cigarette sales in Japan have declined rapidly and significantly. Between 2011 and 2023, per capita, and total cigarette sales have declined by 52.6% and 52.7% respectively. The increased sales of heated tobacco products (HTP) appear to be a factor in this dramatic decline. Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) or otherwise known as e-cigarettes, are not yet approved.”
Data presented in this report shows that tobacco use contributes to several major causes of death in Japan that are set to increase over the next few decades. These include ischemic heart disease (IHD), lung cancer, COPD, and stroke. They will impose significant human and economic costs.
The authors add: “The report considers how tobacco harm reduction (THR) products could reduce this burden. THR products use nicotine without the deadly exposures that cause harm. THR products (e-cigarettes/vapes, heated tobacco products, snus, oral nicotine pouches, and e-shisha products) are rapidly gaining traction among consumers worldwide. But these innovations have not yet been embraced by physicians and governments as key to cutting premature deaths. Evidence suggest that the more harm reduction choices smokers are offered, the faster they reduce their smoking rates.
“The report comes as the quality of evidence on the benefits of smoking cessation and THR has strengthened. Cessation at every age is associated with longer survival, and switching to vapes/e-cigarettes is almost twice as effective for cessation as nicotine replacement therapies.”
References:
- Lives Saved: Saving 2.04 Million Lives in Japan - https://media.thr.net/strapi/bd8287dd14e44ed120c8aaad5e4b98f9.pdf
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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