Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JT to Redesign Box Packaging of Five Products in Mild Seven Brand to Unify "Blue Wind" Brand Symbol
Three products to receive changed taste and flavor at the same time

Tokyo, April 17, 2006 --- Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) (TSE:2914) announced today that it would change box packaging designs for five Mild Seven brand products sold in the Japan market, incorporating the "Blue Wind" symbol, in the middle of May 2006. At the same time, the taste and flavor of three of the brands will also be changed. The Mild Seven brand is one of the JT group's Global Flagship Brands1 and is the world's second best-selling cigarette brand. Mild Seven brand's market share in Japan was 32.3 percent as of December 2005.

1. Package Redesign

In May 2004, JT redesigned seven of its major soft package products in the Mild Seven brand with the adoption of the Mild Seven symbol mark called "Blue Wind." Since then, all newly launched products belonging to the Mild Seven brand have had the "Blue Wind" symbol placed on their packages. With today's announcement, five box packages including "Mild Seven Box," "Mild Seven Lights Box," "Mild Seven Super Lights Box," "Mild Seven Extra Lights Box" and "Mild Seven Extra Lights 100's Box" will be redesigned with the addition of the "Blue Wind" symbol with the intent to visually unify the image of Mild Seven brand products.

2. Change of taste and flavor

As the three box package products, "Mild Seven Box," "Mild Seven Lights Box," and "Mild Seven Super Lights Box," are slightly stronger in taste than their soft package counterparts, and in accordance with customer requests for smoother tasting box package products, the company is taking this redesign opportunity to change the taste and flavor of them to be more in-line with the soft package products.

In addition, "Mild Seven Box" will receive a slight reduction in tar content from 11mg to 10mg and "Mild Seven Super Lights Box" will have a slight increase in its tar content from 5mg to 6mg and nicotine content from 0.4mg to 0.5mg. Once the changes have been made, the contents in the products in question relating to tar and nicotine values will be identical with those of soft packages.

¹Global Flagship Brands = Camel, Winston, Mild Seven and Salem.

Table of redesigned products

Name	Product Size	Filter	Package	Price	Taste & Flavor	Tar	Nicotine
Mild Seven Box	Filter King size	Dual Charcoal Filer	20 sticks per box	280 JPY	Change	11mg => 10mg	0.8mg
Mild Seven Lights Box						8mg	0.6mg
Mild Seven Super Lights Box						5mg => 6mg	0.4mg =>0.5mg
Mild Seven Extra Lights Box					Remains the same	3mg	0.3mg
Mild Seven Extra Lights 100’s Box	Filter 100mm				Remains the same	3mg	0.3mg

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Japan Tobacco Inc. is the world's third largest international manufacturer of tobacco products. The company manufactures internationally recognized cigarette brands including Camel, Winston, Mild Seven and Salem. Since its privatization in 1985, JT has actively diversified its operations into pharmaceuticals and foods. The company's net sales were JPY 4.664 trillion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005.