Expanding personal connections and relationships with tobacco.
I wanted to work in tobacco product development because I love circles of people.

The reason I entered the JT Group was that I love the communication through tobacco products.

After entering in 2018, I was assigned to a department in charge of technological development for tobacco products, and am now responsible for the development of tobacco leaf blends for new cigarette and RRP*.
Although flavors other than that of leaf tobacco are added to tobacco products, the foundations for their taste are blends of tobacco leaves. My work consists of designing those blends and evaluating their tastes. Tobacco products actually include blends of several dozen types of tobacco leaves. These blends are essential to bring out better taste with moderate amounts of smoke, and to achieve consistent quality. We also perform chemical analysis and other procedures on components related to tastes, but ultimately we decide on blends according to human sensations. It is work that demands a unique sense and advanced techniques like those of a craftsman.
The reason I entered JT was that I wanted to do work that gives shape to the things I like.
After starting to smoke, I came to love the comfortable sense of community through cigarettes, and the expansion of personal connections and relationships that it can bring.

*Reduced-Risk Products: Products with the potential to reduce the health risks associated with smoking

Delivering the products I have worked on to the world - that is the greatest appeal of development work.

When I was a new employee, I was responsible for product development of a certain brand. While receiving instructions from senior employees, I worked to resolve development issues how to create good tastes at the right cost. I will never forget the joy I felt when seeing the product with blends I had created actually lined up in stores, and the impact of the true sense that I had made them.
In my four years since entering this company, my happiest moment occurred just recently, when we acquired patent rights for a development technology I was in charge of. That technology has not yet been incorporated into products, but when I saw my own name listed on the patent specification as a developer, I felt an incredible sense of achievement.

My goal is to create my own major tobacco product, which I am sure can be achieved with the JT’s stance of taking on bold new challenges.

I love the work that I do here because the JT Group is a company with outstanding human relationships.
Everyone in my team can express their own opinions frankly, and if they are good ideas they are accepted by everyone and fully supported. Both my superiors and senior employees tell me to attempt to do things as I want to since they will help to clean things up if there are any problems, and they are quick to give support in times of trouble.
I feel extremely fortunate to be in a pleasant working environment where I can do work under a culture of taking on bold new challenges.
From here on, I want to aim to become a developer with knowledge not only of leaf tobacco, but of subjects including other materials, products in general, and regulations and marketing, who is knowledgeable about everything related to tobacco products. My immediate challenge is to create RRP* with even better taste. It would be fantastic if I could someday create my own major tobacco product with my own hands.

*Reduced-Risk Products: Products with the potential to reduce the health risks associated with smoking