Caster (cigarette)

The first Caster variant was launched on July 1, 1982 by the former "Nippon Monopoly Corporation", the newest brand among the brands launched since the current Monopoly Authority was established (the last brand of Monopoly Authority released in October 1984 (- Cosmos was sold until 2003). The name of Caster was taken from the news caster.[2]

Tobacco used in Caster cigarettes used the finest vanilla from Madagascar (Caster Frontier used chocolate fragrance). Later on variants were also introduced, such as Caster Mild, Caster Super Mild and Caster One.[3]

In 2003, Caster Super Mild was released in Hiroshima prefecture with a limited edition design that emphasized the initial letter C of Caster. After that, in the summer of 2004, the 5-packs of Caster cigarettes (at the same time supermarket changed some designs and a yellow line added to under and it was released nationwide from September 2004) were renewed, but the Mild and Super Mild packs were not renewed and were using the old design.

In the middle of April 2007, "Taste better than Casters" was introduced as a catchphrase, the taste, flavor and smell more than usual, the taste of using the vanilla.

In December 2007, all Caster variants got a new design, and the old logo and emblem were restored.

Since early April 2010, the cigarettes have an improved perfume balance and "D-spec" (the name of a low-odor cigarette) was introduced.

Caster Mild is the most popular variant, sometimes abbreviated as "Casemai" in Japanese.[4]

As a result of price revisions in October 2010, the prices of soft packs and box packs which had different prices so far hade been unified A pack of Caster cigarettes is 10 yen higher than in the end of October 2010.

After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, Japan Tobacco announced they would stop selling the Caster One, Caster Menthol variants.[5][6] However, the original duty-free shop only packs of Caster Classic were renewed and were sold again.

The pack design changed again around the beginning of August 2012, as the emblem designed on the upper left became bigger, a new nickname with motif was created as well as a tune that makes the image of a relaxed adult appear. In addition, "Frontier Light" was integrated into the Caster brand and renewed to "Caster Frontier One" (here the "D-spec" was not yet introduced, and the filter was also a common charcoal filter. The product was a dual charcoal filter bundled sheet charcoal filters)). In addition, it was renamed as "ERR 1" at the time of transition to the Winston brand.

In In 2015, all the products except Gold Silk were merged with the Winston brand. (At the same time, the King size of one box was abolished), only gold silk was sold as brand of Caster alone in general sales products, but was discontinued as well in November 2016.

In the 1980s, Japan Tobacco created various poster advertisements in which famous actor Tatsuya Fuji appeared. "I'm me, this tastes like" was a slogan he used in those adverts.[7][8]

In the 1990s, some television advertisements were also made to promote Caster cigarettes.[9][10]

Some old telephone cards also had Caster advertisements on them.[11][12]

Caster cigarettes were mainly sold in Japan, but were also sold in Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.[13][14][15][16]

Below are all the variants of Caster cigarettes, with the levels of tar and nicotine included.

• Japan Tobacco
• Smoking in Japan
• Fashion brands