PROJECT MEMBER

PROJECT STORY

01.Background

The trigger for the launch of this project was the SDGs.

From several years earlier, the R&D Group had thought about what kind of creation they could carry out if they focused on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). However, since the SDGs are not an easy topic to address, it was decided to request the support of Noriaki Natsume, a consultant from Kyoto University Original Co., Ltd., to incorporate outside viewpoints and ideas.

When the project was launched, Mr. Natsume raised the question of “What is the value of tobacco products, “shikohin”, and JT’s businesses?” to the R&D Group project members as a measure to start thinking by going back to the beginning. When thinking about the SDGs, it is important to understand the value to society of a company and the products it supplies. However, if we move forward while only having a superficial understanding of those points, we could lose their significance and they could be abandoned at some point.

That is why Mr. Natsume proposed to start by going back to the very beginning.
Although the project members normally engage in research and development activities while thinking about and reflecting on the value of tobacco products and “shikohin”, there is an unavoidable tendency for their perception and thinking to be affected by biases unique to those involved.
Therefore, they thought and considered deeply from the very beginning about the questions posed by Mr. Natsume and the researchers from Kyoto University, focusing on the process and deliberately not setting goals for the project.
As a result, this project came to not have the initial goal of finding specific measures to address the SDGs. However, it was instead designated as an opportunity to take a multifaceted, extensive view of the transitions in the history, culture, and sense of value associated with tobacco products and “shikohin”, and to hold repeated discussions in order to discover their essence.

02.Approach

The project members thought hard about the questions, “What is ‘liking’?”, “What is a ‘group’?”, and “What is ‘culture’?”

Knowledge and expertise in the humanities and social sciences are effective in order to go back to thinking from the very beginning and gain understanding. Therefore, Mr. Natsume arranged some opportunities for discussion with Associate Professor Naoki Miyano from the Kyoto University Center for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Education and Research. Project members and Associate Prof. Miyano exchanged their opinions freely while also engaging in light conversation. The members received many indications (suggestions) from Associate Prof. Miyano, thinking independently about keywords selected from them and sharing their opinions with other members. This was repeated many times to move discussions forward.

As an example, discussions were held on the theme, “the process of forming preferences.” According to Mr. Natsume, the process for people to “like” something is stratified into three stages, where Stage 1 is acquiring an animalistic “like” for something through learning. Stage 2 is acquiring a “like” for something through the process of thinking about one’s own loss and gain, and advantages and disadvantages, and then making judgments. Stage 3 is a “like” at a more noble, conceptual level, such as the ideas of “truth, goodness, and beauty” described in philosophy. The members said that by applying that process of forming preferences to tobacco products, they were able to gain unique viewpoints. One member thought about it as follows: “Stage 1 is ‘liking’ tobacco simply for its flavor, taste and refreshment. Stage 2 is ‘liking’ it for the communication that it makes possible in smoking rooms and other areas. Stage 3 is ‘liking’ it as a symbol of adult taste.”

Furthermore, unique investigations on culture and groups were also conducted. New questions were raised asking about the nature of behavior where groups of people having the same opinion that “XX is cool” are formed, and then other groups are formed which imitate them. Members thought about what “culture” and “groups” are in the first place, and how they are created. There is a well-known story that wild Japanese macaque monkeys living on Kojima in Miyazaki Prefecture displayed the behavior of washing potatoes in seawater before eating them, which was imitated by other surrounding monkeys and eventually spread throughout the entire island. From this story, a hypothesis was made asking, “Is culture created starting from an individual who engages in behavior that deviates from the normal behavior carried out by its group in the past?”, and the members thought deeply about topics such as hypothetically replacing the potato-washing monkeys with the tobacco industry.
In this way, the members applied knowledge of the humanities and social sciences to think intently and repeatedly about the value of tobacco, the “groups” consisting of consumers and the R&D Group, and the R&D Group’s activities.

03.Results

“What is the value and essence of tobacco products?”

It is very important for each person to think fully about that question individually instead of having a common answer. The members spoke about the high value they placed on this project: “This project is still not completed. Therefore, its results have still not been organized. But the knowledge on the humanities and the thought processes gained from it will undoubtedly be extremely valuable to the future activities of the R&D Group.”
No matter how many discussions are held, it will never be possible to reach a unified answer on the value and essence of tobacco products. However, what is important is not reaching one common answer, but for each member of the R&D Group to continue thinking earnestly about the value and essence of tobacco products, to have his or her own ideas, and to reflect them in work operations. Of course, the sense of value, principles, and assertions that are necessary for this, and the experience to back them up, cannot be obtained from external sources. They must be created within oneself, and it is that process that is the true significance of this project.

The amount of information traveling around us in our modern society is enormous, with unbelievable speed and constant changes. The tobacco market has also been undergoing changes at a dizzying rate in recent years. We believe that rather than just passively responding to such information and changes, having a strong will of one’s own is essential. We are also certain that putting creation into practice based on our strong-willed stance will be a source of potential power for the R&D Group. There is great significance in thinking about things which may not have a correct answer in the first place instead of just retrieving an answer laying within easy reach. Furthermore, experiencing the process of such thinking and absorbing it into ourselves are also meaningful.

Even though the start of this project was the SDGs, its members look back saying that confronting the broad theme of “What is the value and essence of tobacco products?” once again was extremely beneficial. This is because the discussions about this theme will be highly valuable when the R&D Group thinks about creation that should be undertaken with respect to the future, as demand is shifting from cigarettes to heated tobacco products. The process in attempting to find that answer may allow us to paint a picture of the future of our activities for creation. It is within that picture that we will undoubtedly find the answers to achieving the SDGs.