Japan: The beginning of the end of an era

One of the things about Japanese culture that always amazed me was their reliance on vending machines for a massive array of retail products. As in the U.S., you can buy basic food and drinks, but in Japan, beer, smokes, pizza, sex toys, and articles of clothing (sometimes worn). To be fair, as far as I can tell, the latter two are mostly found in love motels (yet another oddity of Japanese culture, but one that makes a fair bit of sense when understood), but even so, the Japanese are way ahead of us when it comes to vending machines; the closest thing I've seen in the U.S. was a vending machine in a major airport selling iPods, which didn't make a lot of sense to me -- how are you going to get music on an iPod in an Airport!?

Anyhow, the great thing about the alcohol and tobacco dispensers in Japan is that they never asked for I.D. -- if you had correct change, you got your vice fix. However, in an apparent response to abuse of this "feature" (who knew?) the Japanese tobacco association is introducing the "Tobacco Passport", or, in true Japanese style, the "Taspo," an RFID card that can only be obtained at the age of twenty. Read more about it on the official site (In Japanese here -- showoff).

What impact this will have on 18 and 19 year old Marines and Airmen, I don't know. I suspect that cigarettes are cheaper on base anyhow, but I know a few guys who had odd fetishes for specific Asian brands of smokes, though I never cared enough to find out where they bought them.