TOKYO— Japan Tobacco Inc. plans to change the name of its top-selling domestic brand, Mild Seven, as part of an effort to boost overseas sales and dislodge Marlboro as the world's most popular cigarette.

The world's third-largest tobacco company by sales volume, after Philip Morris International Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC, said it would change the brand's name to "Mevius" in all markets within a year, following a redesign of the brand's packaging outside Japan earlier this year.

"We aim to make [Mild Seven] the global No. 1 premium brand," JT President Mitsuomi Koizumi said at a news conference. "We think it is right to start again with a new name."

The makeover could open the way for the company to take its flagship brand into markets such as the European Union and Canada, where smokers will pay more for premium brands but regulations on the use of words such as "mild" in tobacco marketing are stricter.