Vending machines, long a symbol of Japan, are disappearing across the country as a shrinking population and rising operating costs erode their profitability. On remote islands without a single store, their removal is leaving residents uneasy.
On Debajima, a remote island belonging to the town of Mugi in Tokushima Prefecture, the last two vending machines on the island were removed in May last year, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 19th.
About 35 people live on the island, most of them older adults. With no stores at all, the vending machines were the only retail facility where residents could buy drinks.
But as the residents who hauled the beverages themselves grew older, supplying the machines became increasingly difficult. Combined with deteriorating profitability at beverage companies, the operation was eventually halted.
A Remote Island Without a Single Store — Even the Last Two Machines Are Gone
On Japan's remote islands and in its rural areas, vending machines have become an important facility supporting daily life. In normal times they served as a place to buy drinks and run into neighbors, and in disasters they acted as a lifeline for securing beverages.
Their presence mattered even more in areas where typhoons and other events cut off transport links to the mainland.
But as resident numbers fell, so did the number of people using the machines. Against low sales volumes, the cost of transporting products and maintaining the equipment grew, making continued operation difficult.
On Debajima as well, the burden of transport amid population aging combined with worsening margins at the operator, and the last vending machines disappeared.
Logistics Costs Up, Profits Down — Japan's Beverage Industry Restructures
Behind the removal of vending machines across Japan lies the financial strain on the beverage industry. With rising raw material and logistics costs adding to the burden, beverage companies are clearing out their least profitable vending machines first. Some have begun restructuring by scaling back the business or selling it to other companies.
The deterioration in earnings is clear. Dydo Group Holdings, one of Japan's leading vending machine operators, has posted its largest loss on record since last year. Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan and Ito En are also reported to have booked heavy losses in their vending machine operations.
Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage handed over its vending machine business to Life Drink Company on the 1st of this month. The business environment in the vending machine market has worsened to the point that even major beverage companies are reorganizing their operations.
It is not only vending machine operators that are struggling, but also the small and midsize firms that service and repair the equipment. With bankruptcies among such companies mounting one after another, the effects of restructuring are spreading across the industry.
A Convenience Residents Depend On — but Public Support Is Hard to Come By
Vending machines have long been seen as a convenience facility that represents Japan. Installed on streets throughout the country, they were also a symbol of Japan's high level of public safety and its convenient consumer culture.
But because they are commercial facilities operated by private companies for profit, they face a structural limit in qualifying for public support.
On sparsely populated remote islands and in rural areas in particular, sales volumes alone are not enough to cover operating costs. Even when a facility is essential to residents' daily lives, companies have little choice but to consider removing it once profitability falls.
Residents in areas where vending machines have disappeared are looking for alternatives on their own. On Debajima and in some other areas, residents are pursuing options such as installing unstaffed refrigerators themselves or setting up small stores.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that with industry restructuring and the limits of public support overlapping, residents are moving to secure convenience facilities for themselves.