Japan Tobacco Inc.'s cigarette sales volume for February dropped 7.2% year over year to 5.7 billion units from 6.2 billion units, according to a March 20 statement.

During the two months of January and February, sales volume dipped 5.5% to 11.6 billion cigarettes from 12.3 billion units in same period a year ago.

For February, domestic cigarette revenue fell 0.1% to ¥36.9 billion, compared with the same period a year ago. For January and February, domestic revenue edged up 1.7% year over year to ¥74.8 billion from ¥73.5 billion in the same two-month period a year earlier.

As of March 19, US$1 was equivalent to 111.34 Japanese yen.