working on my Research Paper

[tsukikage]

So, I had always wondered about how countries with cigarette (and alcohol) vending machines deal with underage purchases, assuming that they just looked the other way on that matter because of the incredible convenience for adults, and focused on cracking down on actual consumption.
Well, my my latest J-List e-mail (one of the few e-mails I subscribe to that I read as soon as it comes in my inbox), I learned how it's done in modern Japan:
there's a slot to stick your drivers' license into to verify your age.

So, I'm working on coming up with a topic for my Research Paper, and I thought of maybe working with hostility against German, Japanese, and Italian descendants during WWII, but any specific location I picked would end up being quite forced.
BTW, I don't think I ever properly thanked everyone for their suggestions - they helped me a lot in getting my head in the right place.

Comments

[carve037.livejournal.com]

Those vending machines sound like a forger's wet dream. All you'd have to do is fake some bar codes and you'd be set.

BTW, there used to be cigarette vending machines in the States. The St. Clair Broiler by my old house had one when I was a kid.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

I suppose... But at least that way only those with the know-how or the money to pay off those with know-how could buy cigarettes?

[akibare.livejournal.com]

That's modern, they didn't use to have it.

But, I do notice now more I go back for vacation, there are less and less booze vending machines.

When I was in school they were the standard, all over the place. And yes, people just sort of looked the other way.

I'd argue that having easy access, particularly knowing you can have another beer later if you want one, will lessen consumption some, because there's not the pressure to drink now while you CAN!! thinking it's a scarce resource.

I say that as someone who grew up with beer vending, lives over-age[1] in a US university community without beer vending, and sees the results of "unofficial ST. Patrick's day."

Still though in Japan it's okay to drink on the street, not so in the US. I was in Japan drinking outside with a friend and some police walked by and I thought "oh no! must hide the beer" and the I realize, no, that's a I sign I've been in the US too long. :) It's going on 20 years now, scary... I'm old :)


[1] Drinking age in the US used to be 18, it changed in the mid-80's with a demand from the feds to "raise to 21 or you lose highway funding." So, I had friends who drank at 18, to have it denied that same year, to wait for 21. They all got cynical about the law enforcement...

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. Kind of how people argue that drinking in the home under parental supervision leads to healthier drinking habits when you're older.
Is it really not allowed to drink on the streets? I didn't know that.

[akibare.livejournal.com]

The entire "open container" thing isn't an issue, yeah. So we were sitting on benches outside a train station, open beers (that we bought across the street at a local convenience store that sold the local microbrew, this was 日光 with 日光ビール) and no one thought a thing.

I told that story to a friend of mine here, from Japan (younger than me, but she was born there) and she laughed, ah, yes, you lived in the US too long, too.

There are lots of homeless now in parks (not so when I was young, but that is an entire other peeve post) and they very often drink the alcohol beverage, but, if no one is making a problem fighting or peeing where they oughtn't[1], it's ok. To sit and have a beer, talking to your friend quietly and then go home, is fine.

In Illinois it's not fine, it will GET you a fine, for open container beverage :)

I moved here at age 24, so did not have to deal with the entire "you can enter a bar at 19, but only drink at 21" issue.

I can't drive though, I did have someone once try to refuse me entry because I showed a US passport rather than a "drivers license," but a quick chat with the manager solved that. Since then I have a state ID card, same as DL only not giving me drivers priviledge, but since then, my hair is half grey too, so, not so much carding happens to start with :D

[1] Any park has a public bathroom, and also, water spigots. This impresses me, it is easier to "perma-camp," as it were, over there, than in my town here in the US.

I rented a room without a bathroom for a while, there was a toilet down the hall but not bathing facilities, that was fine because like any neighborhood, there was a public bathhouse down the street, but it got me to thinking, in the US, there aren't the bathhouses.

I had some snafu on my water bill that caused it to cut off on a Friday, actually, and there is not a 銭湯 in my neighborhood, I am friends with my neighbor so I just took a bath at his house over the weekend, but it got me to thinking, in Japan it's not such a problem because there are facilities assuming people without a tub, but in the US, not so much.

Walking with my soap and washcloth in the container to his house actually it struck me with nostalgia, made me to think of it. :)　I never have a reason to wear pyjamas outside my house now.

銭湯はやっぱ懐かしいもんだなぁ…って。

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

The bit about the pajamas reminds me of dorm life. ^_^;
I really hope to get the opportunity to go to a 銭湯 some day, but I'd definitely want to have at least a shower in my builiding.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

My general experience when I've been in Japan is that they generally don't card for alcohol in restaurants, much less in vending machines. Has a law been passed recently requiring that beer vending machines have a license scanner?

I don't think Japan is nearly as obsessed in general with ever-tightening legislation purporting to prevent "under-age drinking" as the United States is; the fanciful idea that such laws actually do much to prevent binge drinking in teens and college students who for whatever reason really want to get smashed never seems to be challenged much around here, except when someone wants to pass MORE laws regarding the problem. Offhand my guess would be that authorities in Japan usually leave worrying about teenage drinking to parents and teachers as the major moral authorities in kids' lives unless the kids are actually doing stupid shit while drunk and making a public nuisance of themselves.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

Of course, it IS technically against the law in Japan to sell alcohol to people under 20 and vendors are SUPPOSED to card - but it doesn't mean that they usually do.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

"Has a law been passed recently requiring that beer vending machines have a license scanner?"
I'm not saying anything like that. I'm just saying that such machines exist. As akibare said (and I'm sure you know without me saying), they haven't had that technology for all the time that alcohol/cigarette vending machines have existed.