Masamichi Terabatake
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined Japan Tobacco in April 1989. He was hired four years after privatization in April 1985, belonging to a generation that never knew the public corporation. He advanced to general manager of corporate planning in July 2008, Executive Officer in June 2011 and Director in June 2013. He ran head-office planning during a period of successive overseas tobacco acquisitions, and became Executive Officer and President in January 2018 and Representative Director and President that March.
Selection
He became Representative Director and President in March 2018. In heated tobacco, Philip Morris International's IQOS had taken the lead, accounting for 10% of the domestic tobacco market by volume in April 2017. The company's own Ploom TECH had only begun selling at specialty stores in Ginza and Shinjuku in June 2017, and production of its capsule-shaped cartridges could not keep up, leaving it more than a year behind. The appointment appears to have entrusted the latecomer's comeback to someone who rose from head of corporate planning to the board.
Initiatives
In June 2018 the company began the nationwide launch of Ploom TECH, and that October integrated its heated tobacco and cigarette sales forces, shifting more than 1,700 people to heated tobacco. In January 2022 it unified its two-business structure of domestic and international tobacco, concentrating the tobacco business's headquarters functions in Geneva. In October 2024 it acquired the issued shares of Vector Group Ltd. of the U.S., and in May 2025 reached agreement with Shionogi on the transfer of its pharmaceutical business and the sale of its shares in Torii Pharmaceutical.
Career
Career
Japan Tobacco
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Apr 1989 | Joined |
| Jul 2008 | General Manager, Corporate Planning Department |
| Jun 2011 | Executive Officer |
| Jun 2013 | Director |
| Jan 2018 | Executive Officer, President |
| Mar 2018 | Representative Director, President |
| Jan 2026 | Director |
| Jan 2026 | Stepped down as President |
| Mar 2026 | Director, Vice Chairman |