JTI took its near-smokeless Ploom TECH heated-tobacco bet to Korea's corner stores

Japan Tobacco International is the overseas arm of Japan's tobacco company; JTI Korea sells its tobacco and vapor products in Korea.

Indirect heating with ~99% claimed odor reduction can win Korean smokers use at home and in legally permitted public areas

JTI Korea readied Ploom TECH, a device that heats tobacco indirectly through vapor rather than burning it, claiming about 99 percent odor reduction; GM Jose Amador framed Korea as 'a country renowned for quality, precision and innovation'.

From July 15, 2019 the starter kit was to reach tobacco retailers and more than 5,000 convenience stores — GS25, 7-Eleven, Ministop and CU — starting in Seoul, in Purple Cooler, Green Cooler and Brown Rich flavors. The company postponed its launch event, however, amid growing anti-Japan sentiment after Tokyo imposed export restrictions on Korea on July 1.

The claim attacked a different constraint than smoke itself: odor — where users can consume at all, in homes and permitted public areas.

Distribution was already built in: 5,000-plus convenience stores put the starter kit on smokers' daily routes in Seoul first.

Refill economics (4,500-won Mevius sticks) tied a recurring purchase to the hardware.

Korea gave the product a dense urban launch market whose value proposition is social permission.

For habit products the wedge is not the product but the occasion: removing the smell reopens the places where the act itself was the barrier.

As of the July 11, 2019 report, the rollout was set for July 15 across Seoul tobacco retailers and convenience stores, with the launch event itself postponed amid anti-Japan sentiment after Tokyo's July 1 export restrictions. No sales figures existed yet.