How to Buy Cigarettes at a Japanese Combini

Almost every combini in Japan sells cigarettes — you do not need to find a special tobacco shop. The ordering system is different from what you may be used to: cigarettes are kept in a numbered display case behind the counter, and you order by number instead of asking for a brand by name.

Quick Reference

• Look behind the cashier counter to find the numbered cigarette display grid.
• Order by saying the pack’s number in English — or better yet, type it into your phone’s calculator or notes app and show the screen to the cashier, so there is no chance of being misheard.
• Confirm your age by pressing the button on the register’s touch-screen.

How to Buy Cigarettes at a Combini

The display case is built into the wall behind the register. Each pack has a number next to it.

1. Look at the display case, find the brand you want, and note its number.
2. Tell the cashier the number, or — the more reliable option — type it into your phone’s calculator or notes app and show the screen. You can say the number in English; the issue is not the language, it’s that a spoken number is easy to mishear across a counter, especially outside Tokyo and Osaka, where fewer cashiers speak English.
3. Confirm your age by pressing the button on the register’s touch-screen.
4. Pay for the pack.

The interior of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Kyoto. Shops like this sell cigarettes all over Japan.

The same display case often contains more than cigarettes. IQOS TEREA sticks and Ploom sticks for heated-tobacco devices are in the same numbered grid, and some combini also sell disposable zero-nicotine vapes and snus pouches nearby. Check the pack itself, not just the number, so you do not accidentally buy heated-tobacco sticks when you want cigarettes — for the full list of heated-tobacco products, see our guide to TEREA, Ploom, and IQOS in Japan, and for vapes specifically, our guide to vaping in Japan.

Paying: you can pay with a bank card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, UnionPay, and most other major cards), cash in Japanese yen, an IC card (Suica, Pasmo), or contactless payment such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, or NFC — all of these are accepted at most combini. Contactless payment is not accepted everywhere, though. A few specific locations, including some inside shopping malls or train stations, only accept a physical inserted card. This does not happen often, but it is worth carrying a physical card as a backup, just in case.

Age Verification

Pressing the age-confirmation button is the main step at the register. The cashier is allowed to ask for ID and take a quick look at it, but there is no requirement to scan or record it, and in practice most cashiers don’t ask — the button press is usually enough. Twenty is the legal age for both buying and smoking in Japan, set by a law that is separate from the general adult age (which was lowered to 18 in 2022).56 Sellers can be fined up to ¥500,000 (about $3,050 at the July 2026 exchange rate) for knowingly selling to someone under 20,5 so a cashier may still ask if you look young for your age.

Carry ID anyway. Even when it isn’t asked for at the cigarette register, you will want it with you as a foreign visitor for other purchases and situations where it is checked.

Where Cigarettes Are Sold

Almost every combini sells cigarettes, and the selection is the same at every chain — 7-Eleven does not have more cigarette brands than FamilyMart or Lawson; it is just the most well-known name outside Japan.

Airports work the same way: if a terminal has a convenience store, it sells cigarettes at the same fixed price and through the same number system. International departure and arrival areas also have duty-free tobacco. Domestic-only terminals are unlikely to sell tobacco at all.

Duty-Free vs. Combini Prices

Duty-free prices are lower because the tobacco tax isn’t included — that’s the tax that makes up more than half the price of a normal pack in Japan.7 Our guide to duty-free cigarette prices in Japan has exact prices by brand and airport. If you want to buy a lot of cigarettes before flying out of Japan — for example, a whole carton — duty-free shopping in the international zone is a better choice. The price on the shelf in duty-free is the final price, and there is no extra paperwork at the register.

But no country lets you bring in tobacco without any limit. Most allow around 200 cigarettes — one carton — without declaring them, but the exact number is different for each country. Check our guide to duty-free tobacco allowances for the limit in your destination before you buy more than you can legally bring home.

Cigarette Brands and Prices

Familiar Western brands are on the shelf at every combini, so you do not have to switch to something unfamiliar:

• Marlboro — ¥620 for a 20-pack (about $3.80, as of April 2026)8
• Winston — from ¥530 for a 20-pack (about $3.25), depending on the line14
• Camel (Camel Craft) — ¥470 for a 20-pack (about $2.85, as of July 2026)13
• Natural American Spirit — ¥440 for a 14-pack (about $2.70)15

Japanese brands are worth trying too. Several of them offer a stronger version alongside their regular one, because tar and nicotine limits are looser in Japan than in many Western countries:

• Mevius (Original) — ¥580 for a 20-pack (about $3.55; 10mg tar, 0.8mg nicotine)9, JT’s best-selling brand in Japan
• Seven Stars — ¥600 for a 20-pack (about $3.65)10, also very popular in Japan
• Peace — ¥600 for the standard 20-pack (about $3.65); the short, unfiltered 10-pack version (¥300, about $1.85; 28mg tar, 2.3mg nicotine)11 is one of the strongest cigarettes sold at any combini
• Hope (Short Hope) — ¥300 for a 10-pack (about $1.85), 14mg tar, 1.1mg nicotine12

A numbered cigarette display case in a convenience store. Mevius, Seven Stars, Winston and other packs each have their own number and price tag.

Cigarettes are not sold loose — only in sealed packs. The standard pack has 20 cigarettes, but Japan also has other pack sizes: American Spirit comes in a 14-cigarette pack (¥440, about $2.70)15, and Hope and Peace also have short versions sold in 10-cigarette packs.1112 A ¥300 pack of Hope is not necessarily cheaper per cigarette than a ¥620 pack of Marlboro — check the number of cigarettes in the pack, not just the price.

In addition to plain and menthol cigarettes, combini also sell flavored capsule cigarettes — these have a menthol capsule built into the filter that you crush to add extra flavor while you are smoking — plus some fruit-flavored lines. A few regular, non-capsule cigarettes are flavor-infused from the start too — Winston Caster White 5, for example, has a vanilla flavor built into the tobacco itself. Several brands, including Mevius, also sell the same tobacco in a soft pack and in a harder box-style pack (labeled “Box”). These are simply different display numbers for the same cigarettes, not different products.

For the full list of brands, tar and nicotine numbers, and how each one compares in taste to similar Western brands, see our guide to Japanese cigarette brands.

Why You Can’t Use the Vending Machines

Japan’s cigarette vending machines used to accept a card called Taspo, but that system stopped working at the end of March 2026 — the mobile network it needed was turned off.12 Machines that are still in use now check age with a Japanese driver’s license or a Japanese My Number ID card instead.3 A foreign passport or a foreign driver’s license does not work with these machines, so a non-resident tourist cannot use a cigarette vending machine at all.

A street cigarette vending machine with its red Taspo card reader. This system stopped working at the end of March 2026.

This is not a big loss. Vending machines offer far fewer choices than a combini, and they are already uncommon — fewer than 60,000 remain nationwide, down from over 600,000 at their peak in 2002.4 For more on this system, see our guide to Taspo and cigarette vending machines.

Where You’re Allowed to Smoke

Buying cigarettes is simple. Smoking them outdoors has more rules than most visitors expect. Smoking on the street is banned in most central Tokyo wards and in a growing number of other cities, with fines for breaking the rule. Look for a designated smoking room instead — hotels, shopping centers, and major train stations usually have one, and asking staff is the fastest way to find it. For full details on the rules in each area and the fine amounts, see our guide to Tokyo’s street smoking rules.