Tokyo — On Wednesday, Japan Tobacco, the world’s number four tobacco company, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit, hurt by a sharp drop in domestic cigarette sales as more smokers switch to vaping products. Its operating profit came in at ¥156.4bn ($1.37bn) for the third quarter ended September, calculations based on Japan Tobacco’s nine-month results show, up from ¥149.6bn a year ago but below an average estimate of ¥162.2bn from five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. For the first nine months of the year, profits were down 5% at ¥469.7bn, also below an average estimate of ¥475.5bn from five analysts. Japan Tobacco, which commands more than 60% of the cigarette market at home, has been caught on the wrong side of a growing popularity of "heat not burn" cigarette alternatives and has lagged behind rival Philip Morris International in the category in its own backyard. Philip Morris started selling its IQOS vaping device in Japan in 2014 and expanded nationwide in April la...
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