London/Tokyo — British American Tobacco will begin selling its heated tobacco product, Glo, in Japan next month, ratcheting up competition in the country that has become the top battleground for next-generation cigarettes. Glo, a silver device that resembles an iPod and heats tobacco without burning it, will go on sale in about 600 shops in Sendai, the London-based company said on Tuesday. A starter kit will sell for ¥8,000 ($76.4), about 20% cheaper than Philip Morris’s rival iQOS device. "Japanese consumers are always hungry for innovation and we want to be the number one in the Japanese market," Donato Del Vecchio, a spokesman for British American Tobacco’s next-generation products, said by phone. Japan — the world’s fifth-biggest tobacco market — is the only country to have three heat-not-burn smoking alternatives on the market. There, British American Tobacco will play catch-up with Japan Tobacco and Philip Morris, who have been the pacesetters. With smoking on the decline arou...
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