Japanese Cigarette Brands: What to Order at the Combini Counter

Mevius is the brand most Japanese smokers buy, at ¥580 (about $3.55) for a pack of 20.1 The more interesting part of the display case is the flavored range: Japan still sells capsule and flavored cigarettes in flavors like banana, pear and melon soda, and manufacturers release new ones every year. This page covers what each brand is and what it costs. For the ordering system itself, see our guide to buying cigarettes at a combini.

Can you buy Marlboro, Winston and Camel in Japan?

Yes. All of them are sold at any convenience store. The packs look close to the ones at home, but Winston, Camel and Natural American Spirit are all made and sold in Japan by JT, not by the company that makes them in your country.678 Japanese smokers often describe the local Camel as milder and more nutty than the American one.

Brand	Variant to start with	Price	Tar / Nicotine
Marlboro	Marlboro Gold Box	¥620 (about $3.80)	6mg / 0.5mg
Winston	Winston (original)	¥530 (about $3.25)	12mg / 0.9mg
Camel	Camel Craft 6 Box	¥470 (about $2.85)	6mg / 0.5mg
Natural American Spirit	Organic Leaf Gold	¥440 (about $2.70) for 14 cigarettes	6mg / 0.8mg

Marlboro is the one exception to JT: it is sold by Philip Morris Japan, and all 16 variants went to ¥620 (about $3.80) on 1 April 2026.10 Philip Morris Japan does not publish tar and nicotine figures itself, but Japanese duty-free retailers list Marlboro Gold Box at 6mg tar and 0.5mg nicotine, taken directly from the pack’s own label.11

Camel Craft and Natural American Spirit both went up in price on 1 July 2026 — Camel from ¥450 to ¥470, and American Spirit from ¥420 to ¥440.12

Additive-free does not mean gentle: Natural American Spirit packs more tobacco into each cigarette and burns slower, around 9 to 10 minutes. Japanese smokers who have compared them report that it feels harsher than Marlboro Red even at the same tar rating, because you pull harder on it. Every pack holds 14 cigarettes, not 20.8

Which cigarette brands are originally Japanese?

Six brands are worth knowing — JT created every one of them. A few, like Mevius, have made it to other Asian markets too, but this is where they were born and where you’ll find the full range.

Brand	Flagship variant	Price	Tar / Nicotine	What Japanese smokers say
Mevius	Mevius (Original)	¥580 (about $3.55)	10mg / 0.8mg	Smooth, no rough edge, the easiest one to smoke
Seven Stars	Seven Stars (Original)	¥600 (about $3.65)	14mg / 1.2mg	Heavy, sweet with a black pepper note
Peace	Peace (20-pack)	¥600 (about $3.65)	21mg / 1.9mg	Honey and vanilla, but only if smoked slowly
Hope	Hope (Original)	¥300 (about $1.85) for 10 cigarettes	14mg / 1.1mg	Short, but a strong and concentrated taste
Pianissimo	Pianissimo Aria Menthol	¥570 (about $3.50)	1mg / 0.1mg	Very light and thin; the whole range is menthol
Hi-Lite	Hi-Lite (Original)	¥520 (about $3.20)	17mg / 1.4mg	No agreement — see below

Prices and strength come from JT’s own product pages.123459

Mevius is JT’s best-selling brand, and the plain 10mg pack above is the closest thing to a default order in Japan. It was called Mild Seven until 2013, so an older guide may still use that name. The family covers more than 35 varieties in total, running from Mevius One (1mg) up to Mevius E-series 12 — Mevius Rich, once the strongest plain variant, was discontinued on 25 May 2026.

The flavored range includes Premium Menthol Option Purple (mixed berry and menthol), Premium Menthol Option Yellow (lemon and menthol) and E-series Ice Storm (peppermint).

E-series itself is the budget line: every E-series variant, plain or flavored, costs exactly ¥500 (about $3.05) instead of the usual ¥580.

Seven Stars (Original) is a heavier smoke with a sweet, peppery taste. Seven Stars 7-Box drops to 7mg/0.6mg at the same ¥600 if you want the flavor without the weight. Also worth knowing is Seven Stars Menthol 8 (8mg/0.6mg, ¥600) — not a capsule, the menthol is infused straight into the tobacco, and it comes through very strong from the first puff.

Peace (20-pack) is known for a honey-and-vanilla taste, and it carries a certain prestige among JT’s brands — the short 10-cigarette pack is stronger still, at 28mg, the strongest cigarette sold at a normal combini, for ¥300 (about $1.85). Specialty tobacco shops (where you can also find the 50-cigarette pack) sometimes carry The Peace — a premium 20-cigarette version in a flat tin can, for ¥1,000 (about $6.10), JT’s most expensive standard-size pack. At 21mg tar, Peace turns bitter if you pull on it hard. Japanese reviewers repeat the same advice — smoke it slowly and gently, or you lose the sweetness the brand is known for.

Hope has been sold since 1957, when it was Japan’s first-ever filter cigarette — it only comes in short, 10-cigarette packs, and there is no standard 20-cigarette version. The classic Hope, at 14mg, can feel strong for a first try: Hope Light (9mg tar, 0.8mg nicotine) or Hope Super Light (6mg tar, 0.5mg nicotine) are easier starting points, both at the same ¥300.

Pianissimo is sold under four names — Aria, Petil, Precia and Iceen — and three of them sit at the same 1mg/0.1mg for ¥570. Pianissimo Iceen Menthol 5 is the strongest of the four, at 5mg/0.4mg. Most of the range is straight menthol, but Petil stands out with a soft peach note underneath the mint.

Hi-Lite (Original) has been sold since 1960 — the most old-fashioned pack in the display case. Hi-Lite Menthol drops to 10mg/0.8mg at the same ¥520. It is also the one brand where Japanese reviewers do not agree on the taste at all: one describes a sweet, rum-like flavor, another describes a salty first cigarette and a bitter second one, and a third could not taste the advertised flavor at all.

Two Seven Stars Charcoal Filter packs. This is a heavier, popular Japanese brand — every combini sells it.

What flavored cigarettes are sold in Japan?

Japan sells a large range of flavored cigarettes, and JT releases new flavors most years. Many other countries restricted or banned this category, so for most visitors this is the part of the display case with products they cannot buy at home.

There are two formats:

Capsule — a small bead sits inside the filter. You squeeze the filter between two fingers until you feel it break, and the flavor is released. You can do this before you light the cigarette or halfway through. Capsule flavors tend to be the more experimental ones — pear (Camel Craft Menthol Pear), blueberry (Lucky Strike Black Series Chill Berry) and dual-flavor combinations like Marlboro Double Burst.

But don’t forget to crush the capsule — a lot of smokers miss this and end up with plain menthol, none of the added flavor. Squeeze the filter until you feel the bead pop before your first puff.

Flavor-infused — the flavor is already in the tobacco. There is no bead and nothing to crush, and the taste is there from the first puff. This format is less common in the combini lineup than capsules — Winston Caster White (vanilla) is the clearest example still sold.

Capsule or infused — which one to pick: go capsule if you want to control the moment the flavor kicks in, or if you want to try something unusual — most of the fruit and dual-flavor combinations are capsules. Go infused if you want a steady, familiar flavor with nothing to crush — it is closer to what “flavored cigarette” means outside Japan, though your options are fewer.

An opened Marlboro Ice Blast pack. You can see the crushable menthol capsule built into the filter. This is the Japanese-market version — you can tell from the Japanese-language health warning.

The popular ones

These are the flavored cigarettes that come up most often in Japanese reviews and rankings — perfect to start with if this is your first capsule or infused cigarette.

Cigarette	Type	Flavor	Tar / Nicotine	Price
Mevius Premium Menthol Option Purple	Capsule	Mixed berry and menthol	8mg / 0.7mg	¥580 (about $3.55)
Camel Craft Menthol Berry	Capsule	Mixed berry	8mg / 0.4mg	¥470 (about $2.85)
Winston Caster White 5	Flavor-infused	Vanilla	5mg / 0.4mg	¥540 (about $3.30)
Mevius E-series Ice Storm	Capsule	Sharp peppermint	8mg / 0.6mg	¥500 (about $3.05)

Mevius Option Purple came first in a Japanese retailer survey of 63 smokers, and is generally treated as the safe choice for someone trying a capsule cigarette for the first time.1 Winston Caster White is more divided: Japanese smokers agree it is vanilla, but several beginners report that the vanilla is very faint, while other reviewers call it clearly sweet.6

The unusual ones

These are all sold in a normal combini, not just a specialty shop.

Cigarette	Type	Flavor	Tar / Nicotine	Price
Camel Craft Menthol Pear	Capsule	Pear	8mg / 0.4mg	¥470 (about $2.85)
Marlboro Tropical Splash 8 Box	Capsule	Cool menthol with a sour-sweet fruit capsule	8mg / 0.6mg	¥620 (about $3.80)
Marlboro Double Burst 5 Box	Capsule	Two capsules — crush one for cool mint, both for a stronger menthol hit	5mg / 0.3mg	¥620 (about $3.80)
Lucky Strike Black Series Chill Berry 8	Capsule	Blueberry with a strong menthol base	8mg / 0.6mg	¥470 (about $2.85)

Menthol Pear is confirmed by JT’s own launch announcement.14 Marlboro also sells a Purple version of Double Burst, but that one was discontinued in 2024, and an Amber version exists only through duty-free shops — neither is in a normal combini.

Some flavors you’ll read about are already gone: older guides and blog posts mention Mevius E-series Sunny Gold (banana)13 and Winston Sparkling Menthol (melon soda). Both are discontinued. Sparkling Menthol was pulled in October 2023, and JT recommended Sunny Gold as the closest replacement — then discontinued Sunny Gold itself about a year later, in November 2024. If you read about either one online, don’t go looking for it at a combini.

Not everything flavored is good. Marlboro Ice Blast is widely stocked, but a detailed Japanese review found the menthol weaker than expected and the tobacco bitterness stronger than the mint, even after crushing the capsule.

Some flavors need a specialty tobacco shop, not a combini: Black Devil (cocoa, vanilla), Black Jack Supasawa (a South Korean-made citrus capsule line, including a “Random” version where you don’t know the flavor until you light it) and Garam’s clove-infused kretek cigarettes are not part of the standard convenience-store lineup. You’ll find them, along with brands like Peel and Virginia S Rose, at a dedicated tobacco shop (たばこ専門店) rather than 7-Eleven, FamilyMart or Lawson. One regional exception: on Hokkaido, Black Jack Supasawa’s lemon, pineapple and lime flavors occasionally turn up at Seicomart, the island’s dominant convenience-store chain — it’s not guaranteed at every location, but worth checking if you’re there.

How strong are Japanese cigarettes?

Japanese cigarettes cover a wide range, from 1mg tar up to 28mg. Some countries limit how strong a cigarette can be, so both ends of this range may be new to you.

Strength	Example	Tar / Nicotine	Price
Ultra-light	Pianissimo Aria Menthol	1mg / 0.1mg	¥570 (about $3.50)
Ultra-light	Mevius One	1mg / 0.1mg	¥580 (about $3.55)
Light	Mevius Super Light	6mg / 0.5mg	¥580 (about $3.55)
Medium	Mevius (original)	10mg / 0.8mg	¥580 (about $3.55)
Strong	Seven Stars	14mg / 1.2mg	¥600 (about $3.65)
Strong	Hi-Lite	17mg / 1.4mg	¥520 (about $3.20)
Full strength	Peace (10-cigarette pack)	28mg / 2.3mg	¥300 (about $1.85)

The strongest cigarette you can buy at a normal convenience store is the small 10-cigarette pack of Peace, at 28mg tar and 2.3mg nicotine for ¥300.3 The 20-cigarette Peace pack is weaker, at 21mg.3

If you want a cheaper pack, Mevius E-series costs ¥500 (about $3.05) instead of ¥580 (about $3.55) and covers the same strength range, from 1mg up to 12mg.1

Two strong ones are not in the shops: Seven Stars Bold Black and Seven Stars Menthol Solid White are both 18mg tar and 1.7mg nicotine, and both are sold only through JT’s own CLUB JT online store.2 You will not find them in a convenience store display case, whatever the number next to it says.

Which cigarette should you try?

Match what you want to one of these:

An open pack of Hope. It's been sold only as a short 10-cigarette pack since 1957.

• Want an unusual flavor you can’t get at home — try Camel Craft Menthol Pear (pear, ¥470, about $2.85) or Marlboro Tropical Splash (fruit and menthol, ¥620, about $3.80).
• Want the strongest cigarette sold at a combini — try the 10-cigarette pack of Peace (28mg tar, ¥300, about $1.85).
• Want a mild first cigarette — try Mevius (Original), the closest thing to a default choice in Japan (10mg tar, ¥580, about $3.55).
• Want a souvenir with real history — try Hi-Lite, sold since 1960, or Hope, which has never been sold in a 20-cigarette pack (¥300, about $1.85, for 10).
• Want a taste close to what you smoke at home — try Marlboro Gold Box or Camel Craft; both are sold in Japan but made locally, so expect a slightly different taste from the version in your country.
• Want the cheapest pack that isn’t a short 10-cigarette one — try Mevius E-series, the same strength range as regular Mevius for ¥500 (about $3.05) instead of ¥580.
• Want your first capsule cigarette — try Mevius Premium Menthol Option Purple (mixed berry and menthol, ¥580, about $3.55); it came first in a Japanese survey of 63 smokers.
• Want something you can only find at a specialty tobacco shop, not a combini — try Black Jack Supasawa Random (¥550, about $3.35), where even you don’t know the flavor until you light it.

Found a brand you like? Our guide to duty-free cigarette prices in Japan lists what it costs at the airport, brand by brand, and how to save even more with a multi-carton discount.