Why Japan has so many vending machines

There is a vending machine for every 23 people in Japan. That's the highest vending machine per capita on the planet. After the business card fiasco I started to become keenly aware of all the vending machines that I saw here in Japan. I noticed: they are everywhere! Indeed, what we're looking at here is a Japanese institution. Behind me sits an entire shop dedicated to chopsticks. Yes, I'm about to go inside. The first thing you have to know in order to understand the vending machines, is that Japan is an aging country. The average age here is 46 years old, which is almost double the world average. And the fertility rate is 1.4 which means the population is actually shrinking. This is actually a looming crisis for Japan generally, but one of the effects of it is that the labor market is very expensive. There's a scarcity of low-skilled labor. So, instead of paying a sales clerk to sit and collect your money when you buy a piece of gum, they just put it in a machine and automate the whole thing. And the same goes for real estate. Japan is one of the densest countries in the world. 93 percent of the population lives in cities. People literally live in apartment smaller than your SUV. So instead of paying a lot of money for a store front, retailers will just slip a little machine into an alleyway to save a lot of money and they can still turn a really good profit. According to one essay that I read from a Japanese economist here in Tokyo, the bigger explanation for the vending machines is a fascination or even an obsession with automation and robotics. Everything that can be automated here, is automated. When I go into order like a ramen or breakfast, more often than not i order on a machine and I give a little ticket to someone. It's indicative of a broader cultural trend of wanting to automate every system you possibly can. Every taxi in Tokyo has automated doors that the driver controls. I don't want to overstate this. There's still a major appreciation for handcrafted artisanal goods here in Japan. A good example of this is the seven-year-old coffee shop I just got out of, where they literally use a weighted scale to weigh their coffee beans before grinding them and brewing them to order To cool down their coffee they put it into a metal vessel and spin it around a giant ice cube. So yes, they love automation but they're still very much in touch with the handmade. So another thing that totally contributes is this: coinage. So much coinage. The one big caveat to the whole automation thing is that they haven't really gotten on board with credit cards yet. Everything is cash based. And because of that you always have coinage. One of their highest coin is worth like five dollars and let's be honest: there's nothing more satisfying than unloading some of the change in your pocket into a vending machine for some yummy treat. My personal favorite item is hot green tea comes out wonderfully warm and you just wonder how you got so lucky. So Japan is an aging nation with expensive labor and a love for robots and too many coins in its pocket

Channel: Vox

Views: 4,648,480

Rating: 4.8470984 out of 5

Keywords: vox.com, vox, explain, Borders, Johnny Harris, Vending Machines, automation, robotics, Japan, Tokyo, Macro Economics, Supply and Demand, labor market, robots, dispatch, travel, international

Id: 9UJzVLXmBG4

Length: 4min 46sec (286 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/1------6EQUJ5-11--1-]

I once climbed a one of the biggest hills in Sappora, Japan, with a friend and half way down the hill there were three vending machines on the path in the middle of nowhere on a hill.

[u/neocommenter]

I'd imagine the ordering kiosks have to make it way easier to order things if you don't speak Japanese, assuming they put in an option to switch languages.

[u/mocmocmoc81]

Part of the reason is because theft, vandalism and property crime is not common in Japan. With those out of the equation, vending machine is a no brainer; cheap rental, low maintenance.

[u/Capt-Zardin]

Been to Japan 7 times now, every time you notice something different. very interesting country for a Brit to visit...a lot better than just going to the Med for a holiday.

[u/casper2002]

What did the chopstick store have to do with anything?

[u/[deleted]]

Whatever gimble this guy is using is top notch

[u/Ravenman2423]

Man fuck this comment section. I like Voxs youtube channel. They consistently upload interesting videos on topics I didn't know I'd care about with good looking animations and cool editing.

Why you guys always gotta hate everything? Goddamn...

[u/GoldenJoel]

He's mostly right on a lot of things, but the thing that stuck out to me was his throw away line, "People here live in apartments the size of SUVs!" Before cutting to a famous architecture installation as 'proof' of that...

If you want a better idea of how apartment life is in Japan, check this video out.

Vending machines are so prevalent though, they even have one on top of Mount Fuji... That's a whole day hike with freezing temperatures at the top. Sure, they have a truck ramp, BUT STILL! IT'S JUST SITTING THERE.

[u/cheeseman52]

Ive literally seen vending machines in the middle of rice fields in japan. its insane.