If you run out of cigarettes in the middle of the night, you won't be able to restock from automatic vending machines from this April. In an effort to prevent minors from smoking, a union of cigarette retailers has decided to halt operation of outdoor vending machines between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.
According to the union, there are around 494,000 cigarette-vending machines across the nation, of which approximately 350,000 located outdoors will be affected by the union's decision. About 210,000 of these machines already have built-in timers that will switch them off automatically, but the remaining 140,000 machines will have to be fitted with timers. Because of this, it may take up to a year to get the system operating in major cities that have large numbers of vending machines, such as inner-city Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Chiba, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Kita-Kyushu.
Around 334.4 billion cigarettes, or about 3.8 trillion yen's worth, were sold in fiscal 1994 (April 1994 to March 1995), around half from vending machines. Although the self-imposed restriction will inevitably have a negative effect on sales, the union feels the sacrifice is unavoidable if it is to meet society's demands.
(The above article, edited by Japan Echo Inc., is based on domestic Japanese news sources. It is offered for reference purposes and does not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.)