Kenji Doihara
As part of the plans for the exploitation of China, during the 1930s and 1940s the subsidiary tobacco industry of Mitsui had started production of special "Golden Bat" cigarettes using the then-popular in the Far East trademark. Their circulation was prohibited in Japan and was used only for export. Local Japanese secret service under the controversial General Kenji Doihara had the control of their distribution in China and Manchuria, where the production was exported. In their mouthpieces, there were hidden small doses of opium or heroin and by this, millions of unsuspecting consumers were addicted into these narcotics, while creating huge profits. The mastermind of the plan, the General of the Imperial Japanese Army Kenji Doihara was later prosecuted and convicted for war crimes before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentenced him to death, but no actions ever took place against the company which profited from their production. According to a testimony presented at the Tokyo war crimes trials in 1948, the revenue from the narcotization policy in China, including Manchukuo, was estimated to be 20 to 30 million yen per year, while another authority stated that the annual revenue was estimated by the Japanese military at 300 million dollars a year.