Why Are Japan's Vending Machines So Different?

On today’s Bullseye –  The Guardian reports that Japan has extended its natural disaster preparations to vending machines, which will offer free food and drink in the event of a major earthquake or typhoon.  Experts recently raised the possibility of a “megaquake” occurring along the Nankai trough, off Japan’s Pacific coast, within the next 20 years from 50% to 60%, and at about 90% within the next 40 years. It’s in a beta test and two vending machines have been installed in the western coastal city of Ako, located in a region that seismologists say is vulnerable to a powerful earthquake that is expected to hit the country’s central and south-west pacific coast in the next few decades.

The machines, which contain about 300 bottles and cans of soft drinks and 150 emergency food items, including nutritional supplements, have been installed near buildings that have been designated as evacuation shelters. These machines are designed to “unlock” and make their contents available free of charge in the event of a heavy rain warning, or an evacuation order after a quake of an upper five or higher on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of seven, according to the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.  In non-disaster times, the vending machine’s contents must be paid for the rest of the time.  The manufacturer of these vending machines is Earth Corp, which has a factory in the city, and says the machines are the first of their kind in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active countries, and where increasingly powerful typhoons have caused widespread flooding and landslides in recent years. A city official was quoted in the newspaper as saying: “We expect that the stockpile will lead to the safety and security of our residents.”