Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2017/10/04/japanese-vending-machines-at-night-juxtaposed-with-a-wintry-hokkaido-landscape/

by DamonHD • 9 years ago

375 162 9 years ago

ISL• 9 years ago

Getting a hot chocolate out of a vending machine while the sky is dumping snow is one of life's many sublime pleasures.

DamonHD4• 9 years ago

Getting a painfully hot can of sake out of a street vending machine was an interesting experience for me, albeit in Tokyo.

Seeing my ryokan vending machine stock some mixture of underwear, shoes, toiletries and just possibly food (that may have been a separate machine), also!

saryant• 9 years ago

After the Fukushima earthquake I was walking from Ebisu to Roppongi (all the subways were shuttered). A cold evening and I wasn't properly dressed.

Then I turned the corner and saw a machine with Tommy Lee Jones' staring down selling hot cans of Boss Coffee. Made the night a little easier.

beefsack• 9 years ago

I used to love the coffee vending machines until I accidentally got one with jelly chunks in it and was afraid to ever try again.

We had a Cup Noodle vending machine on our university campus which sold the elusive curry flavour, possibly the food I'm most nostalgic about from my time living over there.

FajitaNachos• 9 years ago

The Hard Black. Delicious.

CryptoPunk2• 9 years ago

Do you know long the coffee cans are kept heated? I'm concerned that those cans have had hot coffee in them for days on end, which is generally not good for food (heat breaks down its nutrients and often produces free radical byproducts).

peterwwillis• 9 years ago

For me it was the hot milk tea. Almost impossible to find in the West, every morning at near freezing temps I could cling to a metal piping hot can of sweet milk tea. I can't go a day in .jp without grabbing a can.

What really surprised me is how in a place like Tokyo the machines seemed to only reliably function using change, whereas in Norway you pay for bus station lockers and public toilets with credit cards.

rwmj• 9 years ago

"Royal Milk Tea" is easy to make (although it's hard to clean the pan afterwards). Boil a cupful of milk with a teabag in it. Once it's boiled, take out the teabag and add sugar. In fact I think I might have one right now ...

rangibaby7• 9 years ago

You’ll love Teh C if you ever visit Malaysia. The real secret to good hot milk tea is using evaporated milk.

gkanai3• 9 years ago

More and more vending machines work with Pasmo/Suica stored credit cards these days fwiw, especially those near the train stations or conbinis.

masklinn3• 9 years ago

For me it was the hot milk tea.

Mine was the hot lemon tea.

tinix• 9 years ago

Why is this even posted here? It doesn't seem even remotely relevant to Hacker News.

ekglimmer• 9 years ago

Because it is 'deeply interesting'

ct0• 9 years ago

Because culture.

HillaryBriss• 9 years ago

impressive durability: some of these vending machines are friggin' snow-proof -- and they still keep the drinks warm.

slagfart• 9 years ago

Also, on snowy days, even the 'cold' contents are heated (from below freezing to just above)

starshadowx2• 9 years ago

Is there even a "relevant to Hacker News"? I've always seen it as things that people find interesting. If you don't like it then downvoting is an option if you're able to.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity"

netrap• 9 years ago

I find vending machines interesting. I think it does apply to the general feel here. I'd love to see the internals more often though!

lovemenot• 9 years ago

Fuji Electric is market leader in Japan. FE is also #1 vending machine vendor in China, where their revenues are already on a par with their domestic market.

Top of the range products feature large digital signage on the front. Also, body-shape / gait recognition (age / gender categorisation).

gm-conspiracy• 9 years ago

Cool photos of machines.

Photos of other cultures.

Provokes discourse.

emodendroket• 9 years ago

Hokkaido is a great place.

komali22• 9 years ago

Those Japanese vending machines blow my mind. I got lost on takao mountain once and was utterly hopeless of ever finding civilization again. I found abandoned and rotting tractors the forest had taken back, weird half completed concrete structures, the trail was gone, I was well and truly lost. Then, I turn a corner, and find a goddamned vending machine. Powered. With stock.

I followed its power cord back for a solid ten minutes before I found the little building on a trail it led to.

Somebody restocked that vending machine. Somebody installed it.

It's like this throughout Japan. Boggles the mind.

graedus• 9 years ago

Really interesting. There are a few scenes like this in the excellent art film Homo Sapiens[0][1] that stuck with me. Overgrown Japanese landscape with vending machines (don't remember if these were actually powered though).

[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5450084/

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgjEzB36Lo

StavrosK2• 9 years ago

Wait wait wait, so that photo of the vending machine in the middle of nowhere isn't a set up by the photographer? I thought he put the machine there, along with a generator behind it, just to take the photo!

iand6754• 9 years ago

It's really like that. In the countryside, you'll occasionally see rice fields with small walkways in between them in a + configuration with a vending machine hanging out in the middle. Presumably for the farmers to get something to drink...

twblalock2• 9 years ago

There are even vending machines at the summit of Mt. Fuji.

tinus_hn• 9 years ago

In some old arcade games you had these machines all over to dispense health. This always struck me as odd and unrealistic until I visited Japan and saw that it really is like that.

on_and_off• 9 years ago

Who buys stuff in a vending machine in the middle of nowhere though ?

I am really intrigued.

eagletusk• 9 years ago

Miki Meek a radio producer who I meet on a 4 day trek through Guatemala has a This American Life about a phone booth in the middle of nowhere in Japan with no connections to power, people go there to talk to deceased loved ones. It's a beautiful piece of radio journalism. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/597/...

rangibaby7• 9 years ago

Part of the reason there are so many vending machines around is preparation for a disaster; vending machines from at least the last 15 years will dispense drinks for free in the event of a disaster.

According to this site Coca Cola dispensed around four million free drinks on 2011/3/11 (Great East Japan Earthquake).

http://www.cocacola.co.jp/vending-machine/emergency-support

masklinn3• 9 years ago

People hiking/moving around, but they're also part of the country's disaster-preparedness system, they'll dispense product for free in case of disaster.

GuiA• 9 years ago

Man, how'd you get lost on Mount Takao? It's always so crowded... if you have any info that'd let one find that lone vending machine, I'm interested :)

ryansama• 9 years ago

Perhaps it was this one. http://jihan.30maps.com/map/54837

Takao can get too crowded. Head to Jinba 陣馬 which is just a few train stations away for fun and good food on top.

Grue3• 9 years ago

At least when I went there it wasn't very crowded. There was a group of people at the summit (with vending machine present, of course), but otherwise hardly any people. However it was a slightly foggy day, so you couldn't see much from the summit. It is possible that on a clear day there are crowds trying to see Mount Fuji or something.

mc322• 9 years ago

Reminds me a little bit of some Stephen Shore photographs of banal Americana --but set in Japan... so banal Iaponia?

nandemo2• 9 years ago

I got lost on takao mountain once and was utterly hopeless of ever finding civilization again.

Wait, what? Takao mountain is in Tokyo! Yeah, not central Tokyo but still, it's like a 45min train ride from Shinjuku. You make it sound like it's some remote place full of bears. :-p

hkmurakami3• 9 years ago

Can't you get prettttyy deep in those mountains though? Also if you go pretty deep, I imagine the trails aren't really marked well, if at all.

(was in a more remote mountain that's ~2 hours away from Tokyo last year)

DamonHD4• 9 years ago

Hmm, I think I got peed on by naughty monkeys there. I should be grateful they weren't angry bears (or even angry birds!) I suppose...

komali22• 9 years ago

That's the weird thing about it, how quickly it can turn into a total overgrown jungle!

On google maps, from NW to SE the longest point between trails I can find is 1.3km, but if you have the bad luck to head off one of the southern trails and get lost heading northeast, you could go just over 2km without seeing a trail. I mean yea, low chance of dying, but high chance of extreme discomfort :P

qarioz• 9 years ago

I never understand why people can get lost at Takao, the place is like a damned Shibuya, packed with people.

spike0212• 9 years ago

I'd love to visit Japan, and Hokkaido specifically. Seems like such a nice place.

popcorncolonel2• 9 years ago

Japan was beautiful; visually, culturally, and culinarily. I'd highly recommend it.

I just started taking Japanese classes yesterday and I can't wait to go back next year.

gkanai3• 9 years ago

Hokkaido is a land of contrasts. Amazing natural spaces, great food- especially the seafood, but also the best milk in Japan, etc.

Hokkaido is also one of the poorest prefectures in Japan and has struggled since the economic bubble collapsed 3 decades ago. You see a lot of abandoned houses, and whole towns look empty as youth have moved to Sapporo or other larger cities for work and leave only the elderly to farm or fish, etc.

The Spike Japan blog stopped in 2014 but is a very interesting look into the rural collapse of Japan, and Hokkaido specifically.

https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/

Note that if you go just by that blog, you'd not want to visit. It's a great place to visit, to ski, etc. but there is the other side that SpikeJapan highlights.

dllu• 9 years ago

Some vending machines in Japan are designed to give out free drinks during an emergency [0]. That could be one of the reasons why there are so many well-maintained vending machines everywhere, even in remote areas.

[0] http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/16-things-you-didnt-...

kwhitefoot• 9 years ago

That is such a sensible idea that it will never catch on anywhere else.

flachsechs• 9 years ago

that's because everywhere else people will just break them open during an emergency. which i think is probably the more reasonable thing to do for everywhere else.

montecarl• 9 years ago

For even more photos from this set see the photographers site: https://www.sapporo-creation.com/existence

skeltoac• 9 years ago

Are there still machines selling cans of beer? That was one of the highlights of my visit to Tokyo. My host advised me that I must either stand at the machine and drink it or put it away while I walked. No drinking and walking.

I was 14.

wodenokoto2• 9 years ago

Not in Tokyo anymore, but they do have them around Kansai still.

jamesjyu• 9 years ago

Wait, really? I thought there were copious alcohol in Tokyo vending machines, at least the last time I visited.

deeth_starr_v• 9 years ago

My hotel had beer in the vending machine on my floor. This was Tokyo last year. This was not a public vending machine though.

veidr• 9 years ago

There are fewer in Tokyo than in the 1980s, but they still exist. They are in virtually wall hotels, but there's a beer and chuhai vending machine on the street near my kids' Tokyo preschool.

nihonde• 9 years ago

They still have them in the vending room in many business hotels in Tokyo. Better than a minibar!

wodenokoto2• 9 years ago

I stand corrected. I guess it depends on the ward / district and I've been hanging out all the wrong places!

wakeless• 9 years ago

Beer isn't in 'publicly' accessible vending machines any more as far as I can tell. It is however often available in the foyer of a place that normally sells beer (that might be currently shut.)

Ski resorts are my main source of vending-machine beer. Nothing better than cracking a can of Sapporo Classic in your first gondola ride of the day.

batiudrami2• 9 years ago

It depends where you are in Japan. I haven't seen them around Tokyo (not to say they don't exist though) but other cities have them.

greggman• 9 years ago

yes there are still beer vending machines in Tokyo as well as other liqour but they now require a special liqour id card to prove your age.

nizmow• 9 years ago

I was in Kyoto in 2013 and there were plenty of beer vending machines.

joecool1029• 9 years ago

My host advised me that I must either stand at the machine and drink it or put it away while I walked. No drinking and walking.

The animation on getting drinks out of vending machines in Shenmue (Dreamcast game) makes a lot more sense now.

ohashi• 9 years ago

The attitude is strange with vending machines and other cultures. I saw a vending machine selling 20oz and 1.5l (I think?) bottles of coke for the same price. In America, that would be unheard of, why would anyone buy the 20oz bottle. But in Japan, it seemed like many people just bought what they needed.

m_mueller• 9 years ago

I'm not even Japanese and I'd buy the small can. I have no use for 0.5l of coke, let alone 1.5l. It's supposed to make me a bit more concentrated, not replace my water.

stephengillie• 9 years ago

It's common for American grocery stores to sell 20 oz bottles for +-20% of the price of 2 liter bottles. The differentiation here is entirely in perception. The smaller bottle is usually chilled and seems like an individual serving. The larger bottle is considered to be a bulk purchase. Often, consumers will purchase both in the same trip, intentionally oblivious to the value differential.

bsder2• 9 years ago

For me, it's preceived carbonation level.

A 2-liter bottle seems like it starts becoming flat remarkably quickly.

So, the average carbonation level of 4 bottles of coke is perceived higher than the carbonation level of 2 liters.

vinhboy• 9 years ago

In America, when I ask for half a cup of coffee at Starbucks (no I don't ask for a discount), because I don't want/need that much coffee, I get weird looks.

Or when I am at Taco Bell and I just want a small cup of soda, instead of that giant cup they give, I always get the "are you sure?"

rspeer• 9 years ago

You probably have to bring the trash with you for a while, so ending up with a smaller empty bottle can be preferable. There aren't a lot of public trash cans.

(Before I realized this, I was once perplexed by where to throw out a food wrapper. I went into a restroom in the subway station and threw it out in the only receptacle I saw, which turned out to be the hand dryer. That was embarrassing.)

bschwindHN3• 9 years ago

While we're on the subject of Japanese vending machines, how do they implement the IC card scanning feature? Does it need to be connected to a special network or is the logic all done on the card? I'm specifically talking about the payment verification and logic. I have one in my office that accepts IC card payment and I'm not quite sure what is required for that to work.

shidoshi• 9 years ago

Suica, Pasmo and the like are all contactless SCs. The Wikipedia page is a good start, and you can go deeper from there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica

bschwindHN3• 9 years ago

Ah sorry, I mean how the machine verifies the validity of the card.

eaeertae• 9 years ago

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iand6754• 9 years ago

I'm not entirely sure, but yesterday I observed some vending machines at a local university that worked with student IDs. The machines had a small antenna encased in the drink display, so presumably that model broadcast payment and/or inventory updates to some nearby receiver or via stock WiFi networks.

I'd expect that there would be a strong incentive to have the cards require network access to verify balances or else some enterprising hackers could potentially reverse engineer the process to add additional funds to the card.

krapp4• 9 years ago

When the story about the Bodega startup[0] came out, it occurred to me that what they were trying to do was essentially what Japan is already doing with vending machines - automate retail at scale. Unfortunately, Bodega tried to undermine, transform and rebrand the local culture in a way that many found offensive, but that aside, I wonder what particular cultural elements make vending machines seem so successful in Japan, but not as much in the US?

Maybe Amazon could bring back Automats[1]?

[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15291795

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat

davidw3• 9 years ago

particular cultural elements make vending machines seem so successful in Japan

Not being vandalized is mentioned in the article.

People in Italy were always kind of surprised to hear about US newspaper machines - the ones where you put in some coins - and you can take out as many newspapers as you want, essentially. They'd joke that people would regularly take them all in Italy, and in Naples they'd probably just haul off the whole machine, change, newspapers and all.

krapp4• 9 years ago

People in Italy were always kind of surprised to hear about US newspaper machines - the ones where you put in some coins - and you can take out as many newspapers as you want, essentially

Honestly, I have no idea why those things even exist or how they make anyone money. It's baffling.

jefurii• 9 years ago

Nope, different. Many of those pictures have vending machines sitting outside neighborhood mom-and-pop stores. From my experience living in Japan, those machines are most likely owned/leased by the owner of the store, who stocks them and collects the profits. They function as a labor-saving device for high-trafficked items and a way to sell during off-hours.

My understanding of Bodega is that they want to replace the mom-and-pop store with a centralized vertically-integrated company (theirs).

prawn2• 9 years ago

"They function as a labor-saving device for high-trafficked items and a way to sell during off-hours."

Seemed to be Bodega's plan also.

If they want to go after a particular market, so be it. I'd rather it be a new business than a venture by a corporate giant. That opportunity has been available to every mom-and-pop store too, right? Even if it was just one vending machine in one nearby apartment building?

I can appreciate the romance of corner stores, but if they're not innovating or marketing, they risk losing out to others who are.

mc322• 9 years ago

I don't get the bodega hooplah. Every startup is taking away some way of making a living of someone else.

It's like saying pizza hut coopted Italian pizza joints and drove Italian pizza makers out of biz. Sure, it did, but aside from the fact jobs were lateralized, what's the big deal about transforming the biz?

Same with Uber et all.

cwkoss• 9 years ago

It's because New Yorkers have a romanticized ideal of bodegas.

Cthulhu_4• 9 years ago

The main big deal is that it managed to lower the price of those products. The TL;DR effect of that is that it removed people from the middle class and drove most of the jobs to the lower class (e.g. pizza delivery, production line pizza making), and a few to the upper class (a handful of companies owning the pizza market, instead of dozens if not hundreds of local pizza restaurants).

Same with Uber, it drives the price down and turns taxis into a fairly exclusive and respectable job (I'm mostly thinking about the London Black Cabs or the fancy Mercedes taxis I see here in NL) to a race to the bottom. The same happened to the postal service, turning it from a respectable middle class uniformed government or semi-governmental job to something stay-at-home moms do part-time. Mind you, the market changed and snail mail is nowhere near what it used to be. The markets for pizza and taxis haven't changed that much in comparison though.

protomyth• 9 years ago

In the US, RedBox (well, CoinStar in general) seems to have figured out the right formula for successful vending machines.

spookthesunset• 9 years ago

I wonder what particular cultural elements make vending machines seem so successful in Japan, but not as much in the US

Mostly a lack of, for a better term, conformity. There is very little crime in Japan and people trust each other way more.

In the US, those vending machines would get vandalized and probably stripped of their metal in under a week. Even if there was a market demand for them, the cost to service those machines would be astronomical.

mirimir• 9 years ago

That's why there are upholstered seats in Japanese subways, but typically not in US subways.

davidw3• 9 years ago

There were a lot of weird small vending machines in Austria too, like on some random street corner, you'd find a gumball machine. Stuff like this:

http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/48c88dd9aea741de95fec46fd33f47be/g...

I never really figured that one out.

girvo• 9 years ago

Heh, those machines are great. The temporary tattoo + chewing gum is the best. I have a collection of the weird toys and figurines from those machines (and similar ones around the world)

goochtek• 9 years ago

A little random but I thought some of you might want to know what the stores were that were next to the vending machines in the photos.

Pictures:

1. Alcohol and food store

2. No store

3. No store

4. Alcohol store

5. Eel restaurant

6. No store

7. Egg vending store (direct from farmer)

8. Rice polishing vending machine (turns brown rice in to white)

9. No store

10. Sightseeing ferry office/shop

11. Apple store (actually name of company but they import brand name products)

12. No store

That's obviously only a small sample but as someone who lives in Japan I can tell you that usually where there are alcohol stores, there are vending machines. Of course there are other places they are too, but in my experience, it's rare to find one without vending machines.

rangibaby7• 9 years ago

I've seen photos of people gathered around beer vending machines having a jolly time from before 24/7 convenience stores took over that particular market segment.

iand6754• 9 years ago

The odd thing to me about Japan's vending machine situation is that it's largely drinks. Not much in the way of the snack vending machines that one frequently encounters in the U.S.

I suppose it's probably due to the Japanese aversion to preservatives / prevalence of convenience stores, but one would think they'd have come up with some tricks like the ones they've perfected with cup noodles.

addedlovely• 9 years ago

I remember also getting vended fries, but hot and cold drinks alone blew my mind coming from the U.K.

iand6754• 9 years ago

Yeah, there are fresh food vending machines around in a few places... notably in government offices like city hall or ward offices where you might have to wait for a while.

aikinai• 9 years ago

Soups seem to be pretty common in the winter. One time I had a hot corn soup from a vending machine somewhere out in the mountains.

batiudrami2• 9 years ago

Walking while eating is considered impolite which is why I suspect vending machine food never took off. Just a cultural thing I think.

popcorncolonel2• 9 years ago

Then again drinking while eating is also impolite.

oculusthrift3• 9 years ago

some train stations have banana vending machines

kazinator• 9 years ago

What mountain is this: http://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Eiji-...

It kind of looks like a miniature Fuji-san.

jcl• 9 years ago

Could be Mount Yōtei, a Hokkaido mountain known for its resemblance to Mount Fuji:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Y%C5%8Dtei

baursak• 9 years ago

Reminded me of this art: http://keebs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Night-in-Shinjuk...

sergiotapia• 9 years ago

Those vending machines look so /comfy/. :)

barking5• 9 years ago

In many ways Japan seems like a paradise. Crime free, almost, 70%+ forest coverage, technologically advanced but still respect for long-standing cultural traditions. It's unrivalled social cohesiveness comes at the cost though of a lack of diversity. For example, I read somewhere it gets less than 100 asylum seekers a year.

Rainymood• 9 years ago

social cohesiveness

Also known as xenophobia.

For example, I read somewhere it gets less than 100 asylum seekers a year.

And this is by definition a good thing?

Don't forget the awesome working hours and working culture! It's so good that they even have a word for the awesome overworking: Karoshi [1].

I wouldn't romanticize Japan this hard as you are doing right now, it has it's own sleuth of problems just like any other country.

[1] Karoshi (Overwork Death) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi

hellofunk• 9 years ago

Indeed, I say this time and again to friends and family who marvel at a lifestyle that has allowed me to live on several continents: there is no such thing as a perfect place to live.

barking5• 9 years ago

Social Cohesiveness is not also known as xenophobia. Where foreigners tend to be so rare as to be exotic there tends not to be xenophobia. It's when the host community perceive themselves to be overrun that the xenophobia comes out.

squimmy2• 9 years ago

technologically advanced

You might revise your opinion about that somewhere around the hundredth time somebody tells you that you have to communicate with them by fax.

bjornsteffanson• 9 years ago

I would definitely describe "putting two coins into a vending machine to receive a ticket to hand to someone in exchange for a tasty bowl of ramen" as more technically advanced than "table for two?...[waiting, waiting]...one ramen, please...[waiting, waiting]..."everything ok here?" "yes go away" [waiting waiting] ... "here's the bill"...[waiting waiting]..."have a nice night"

Advanced tech doesn't have to be high tech.

barking5• 9 years ago

LOL, though I recently had the same experience of when a doctor's secretary rather imperiously informed me that my test results would be faxed to my GP. Maybe fax is regarded as more secure than email?

rangibaby7• 9 years ago

Crime free

It's because there are police everywhere, which keeps petty crime under control. There is a bounty for turning in lost money (and if it is not claimed after a certain period the person who turned it in can keep the whole amount).

Police are also mostly respected here because they (mostly) are helpful and don't harass citizens. Someone being beaten or shot by police like overseas just doesn't happen here.

lack of diversity

I once worked at a place that was known for being a safe place for ethnic Koreans to "come out" about their real ethnicity. I was considered to be safe to work there because some were public figures and I would not recognize them, or at least not blab on social media about x TV presenter having Korean heritage.

I guess my point is that a lot of things in Japan are completely different to how they appear to a casual observer. Even asking Japanese people is not going to get you far, because most people will not tell you their real feelings or opinions unless you are a very close friend.

DamonHD4• 9 years ago

I've picked up substantial dropped money on the ground, handed it into the police, and had it returned to us in full after some time, in the UK; it's not just Japan!

close friend

I terrorised one Japanese work colleague by crying in front of him on a train (can't remember whether in London or Tokyo), but another long-standing Japanese colleague/friend would be entirely cool about it I suspect!

odiroot• 9 years ago

This may be a bit ignorant but why do they care so much about someone being Korean / of Korean ancestry?

Both are East Asian. It's really hard to understand for my European mind.

TorKlingberg• 9 years ago

If you ever live in Japan, you will alternate between "wow, this country is so wonderful, why can everywhere be nice like this?" and "this is so dysfunctional, how has the whole thing not collapsed yet?" Both are true in different ways. Economically, Japan is not doing great though, and I worry about the future of the big companies.

Also all foreigners in Japan seem to hate each other for ruining the "purity".

ersii• 9 years ago

For example, I read somewhere it gets less than 100 asylum seekers a year.

I'll clarify that image by tell you they roughly get 9000 asylum requests a year according to the Japanese Government themselves [1]. They are however extremely reluctant in accepting any of the requests, which is what I assume you were speaking about.

To some I can imagine that's quite a shock and horror, for some, it's a dream.

"Japan accepted just three refugees in the first half of 2017 despite receiving a record 8,561 fresh asylum applications, the government said on Tuesday"

"Only four refugees were accepted in the first half of 2016, when fresh asylum applications totaled 5,011, the Justice Ministry said."

[1] https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-accepts-3-ref...

barking5• 9 years ago

I hadn't known the reason for there being so few. I assumed it was because it was 'off the beaten track'.

krapp4• 9 years ago

And, it may be worth mentioning that Japan is more tolerant of immigration than asylum-seekers. Often, when Japan's refusal to accept refugees is held up as an ideal, the fact that not most foreigners in Japan aren't refugees seems to be overlooked.

taway_12122• 9 years ago

It's unrivalled social cohesiveness comes at the cost though of a lack of diversity.

Why is that a problem though? Does it make their life worse in some way?

zhengyi13• 9 years ago

Well, if you're the nail, and you have the temerity (or simply bad luck) to stick out, then you get hammered down, while everyone around you either pretends they don't see it happening, or tell you it's your fault.

If you're there, and you're actively paying attention, you'll see an awful lot of nails.

blondie9x• 9 years ago

Great photos. But these photos highlight one of the biggest problems in Japan. Plastic consumption. Japanese hardly use reuseable bottles and places to refill a canteen or your reusable bottle are near non-existent.

HeyLaughingBoy• 9 years ago

If that's the biggest problem a country has, I'd say they're doing pretty good...

Japanese Vending Machines at Night Juxtaposed with a Wintry Hokkaido Landscape

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