Another version of the same flavor with 8mg of tar is actually a little more widely available, and can be purchased in convenience stores for 500 yen (tax included)
On March 18, 2011, the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (an advisory panel to the FDA) concluded that removing menthol cigarettes from the market would benefit public health in the United States, but stopped short of recommending that the FDA take any specific actions, like restricting or banning the additive
They began to run commercials in the 1960s with Black athletes, particularly Elston Howard of the New York Yankees, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, all selling these products, said Gardiner, who wrote the most comprehensive study on the tobacco industrys advertising efforts in Black communities
More details on this in a bit