Convenience Store Owner Arrested for Buying 100 Million Yen Worth of Cigarettes Reveals Why Japanese Cigarettes Are Booming Among Chinese Resellers

Arrest made for unauthorized purchase of large quantities of cigarettes

On May 14, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested a convenience store owner, 50, and four men and women in their 20s of Vietnamese nationality on suspicion of computer fraud for using illegally obtained credit card information to purchase heated cigarettes at a convenience store in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo.

The five conspired with someone else between November 8 and 10 last year to use offline payment on a smartphone with someone else’s card information registered at a convenience store owned by the male owner. They are suspected of fraudulently purchasing approximately 2,800 boxes of cigarettes for a total of approximately 1,630,000 yen. The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that the owners illegally purchased and resold approximately 170,000 packs of cigarettes worth approximately 100 million yen between May and November of last year, and profited from the sales.

The credit card information used is believed to have been obtained illegally through phishing and other fraudulent means. Normally, credit card transactions are disabled when unauthorized use is detected, but it is possible to make ‘offline payments’ by operating a smartphone and temporarily disconnecting communication with the outside world.

The upper limit for offline payment is 10,000 yen, and it seems that they repeatedly paid 9,860 yen for 17 boxes of cigarettes at 580 yen per box. The Vietnamese were invited in by the owner late at night and spent about three hours at the store’s self-checkout counter, repeatedly purchasing cigarettes using their smartphones, which was caught on the store’s cameras,” said a reporter from the Social Affairs Department.

Many people make suspicious purchases because of its location

The convenience store run by the man who owns the store where the illicit purchases were made is located in a busy part of Kabukicho where many people pass by. When we interviewed a man who runs a restaurant nearby, he said that he had seen people making suspicious purchases.

He said, “I have seen people occupying the cash register at the convenience store owned by the arrested owner for a long time, buying cartons of cigarettes in large quantities. I had no idea that those people may have been there for the purpose of resale. I myself have bought cigarettes at that store many times, and there is quite a demand for cigarettes, with people in the water business coming in at night to buy cigarettes for their customers. I feel the store was well stocked.”

The store was originally located in a heavily trafficked area, and in addition, it was in the Kabukicho area. The store was originally located in a high-traffic area, and because of its location in Kabukicho, there were quite a few people making questionable purchases.

On what seemed to be a birthday party for a cabaret girl, I saw a fat customer buy up all the Icos in the store,” he said. There are many unusual customers to begin with, so no one cares if their buying habits are a little strange, such as repeatedly paying by credit card. There are people with bleeding heads and half-naked men all over the place, so the residents of Kabukicho probably don’t think it’s strange to buy cigarettes in large quantities,” he said.

Japanese Cigarettes Popular in China

The purchase of cigarettes for resale has been a trend for several years, and many of these cigarettes are exported to other countries and resold at high prices. Sales of heated cigarettes to China have been particularly prominent, and we found a website on SNS that sells them outside of the country.

In fact, heated cigarettes made in Japan are popular in China and are sold at higher prices than those in Japan. Although it is illegal to import, sell, or possess Japanese heated cigarettes, resale organizations are smuggling them in and selling them. When we spoke to a writer familiar with the resale situation, he told us the reason for this.

They sell very well. Japanese cigarettes are very popular in China because of their quality and taste, and there are many people who want to buy them.

In addition to demand, there are other reasons why cigarettes are chosen as a resale commodity.

Although the exact price of cigarettes traded on the Internet is not indicated, it is said that they sell for 1.5 to 2 times the domestic price. When bought in Japan, a carton costs about 5,800 yen; the unit price is lower than that of iPhones and game consoles, and they can be purchased anywhere in Japan for the same price, making it easy to collect a number of them. It is easy for resale organizations to make money. One of the reasons for their popularity is that customs inspections are lax, and profit margins are high even though large quantities can be brought into Japan in carry-on cases” (see above).

Since any adult can buy cigarettes, there are cases where foreign students are recruited on social networking sites as part-timers to send cigarettes from Japan to China.

The Kabukicho case was caught for fraudulent use of a credit card, and buying cigarettes in large quantities is not illegal in Japan. However, in many cases, it is illegal for individuals to bring large quantities of cigarettes into foreign countries. Furthermore, heated cigarettes are prohibited in China to begin with. The risk of violating the law is what makes resale organizations profitable.

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