With 69% of Japanese smokers possessing a portable ashtray, it is no surprise that MAM, the Mobile Ashtray Museum created by Japan Tobacco, is doing well with sales right now. In Japan, 7.4 million have sold this year, and a mini-MAM opened last week inside the lifestyle store, Loft, in Shibuya. MAM has over 300 portable ashtrays on sale, alongside lighters, cigarette cases and cigarettes. 27% of the portable ashtray owners use their’s on a daily basis, and in a bid to keep cigarette butts off the ground, the company aims to increase that figure to 30% by 2007. In a country where there’s museums for drums, washing machines, kites and parasites, MAM doesn’t seem that out of place.

Source Japan Times

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