In a 1963 news article, a debate was struck regarding vending machines in Japan. Specifically, why America had chosen to create an exhibit based on the vending machine idea. The fundamental point of this exhibit was to showcase industrial achievements, but what confuses the audience and author of the article is why America chose vending machines as one of its biggest achievements. ‘In view of past exhibits when America showed the world such developments as space capsules and cars that float on a cushion of air, why did the U.S choose vending machines to display in Tokyo?’ ¹ The expectation for this exhibit was to allow people to understand certain achievements by being able to hold them within their own hands. The other expectation was to catch the interest of Japanese businesses and ensure that vending machines would become a part of Japanese consumption.

The exhibit showcased the vending machine as an invention that could practically do everything from cooking food to dry cleaning clothes. Therefore, creating a new space of consumption that took away human interaction, allowing businesses to run a low-cost vending machine venture with almost no employees. However, in comparison to the introduction of department stores to Japan, this space of consumption meant that customers were left with no employee interaction, therefore, dismissing former expectations within a space of consumption.

‘In selling food, companies again position products less for personal pleasure than as a means for their customers to appropriately fulfil social expectations.’²

Vending machines posed a risk of disrupting Japanese values and expectations because it took away the standards placed on businesses to ensure customer satisfaction, and due to having no human contact these standards could not be met. Therefore, what this created was a generational shift, in which young people were expected to use these machines and housewives were encouraged to stay away and use supermarkets.

‘Housewives still buy many of their beverages from the supermarkets, and older people are just beginning to use can vending machines. Older people didn’t use the machines as much because they didn’t feel comfortable with them. They felt service was too impersonal.’³

This is similar to the stereotypes placed on department stores because of the association between being an adult and the step up to adulthood. Therefore, what this highlighst is that spaces of consumption are not just built on socialization and the exchange of goods, but they are also shaped into a generational environment that might be used to encourage family ideals. This is perhaps why newspapers would mention housewives and their resilience to avoid vending machines and remain committed to using supermarkets. Young people were not attacked by the media for using vending machines, but what is presented is a stereotype that young people use these machines because they have not yet matured and come to understand the value of customer service.

Consequently, however, vending machines also became associated with crime because they lacked human interaction, therefore, allowing them to be broken into or smashed because they could not provide change.⁴ Without the necessary security to keep these machines safe, they became easy targets for thievery. Not only was the lack of human interaction a factor which caused a large amount of crime, but it was also because of what vending machines began to offer as a result of popular demand. Cigarettes were just as popular as drinks and food and therefore, created a different influx of customers which diminished the former stereotype of vending machines being primarily for young people. The consequence of this allowed this space of consumption to become associated with the class and status of its customers not only because of crime, but also because of what was being consumed and how it was being purchased.⁵

1. Pacific Stars and Stripes, Vending Machines Dispense bit of America (Tokyo, 1963) p.6 [↩]
2. Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan: A Transdisciplinary Perspective (Amsterdam University Press, 2018) p.37 [↩]
3. Pacific Stars and Stripes, Drink Machines a Big Business (Tokyo, 1984) p.7. [↩]
4. Pacific Stars and Stripes, Starting a Coin-Operated Rampage (Tokyo,1991) p.66. [↩]
5. Pacific Stars and Stripes, Shoplifting No Bargain for AAFES Customers (Tokyo, 1973)p.26. [↩]