3^rd Hypothesis:

Economic incentives for installing vending machines may include their

ability to help lower labour costs for store managers.Employing someone for

24hours can be very expensive. Installing a vending machine in place of

a person could initially be an expensive investment

(costing as much as 1,200,000 yen)[1] , but eventually the money gained

by not employing a person for the job may effectively lower the costs of

labour. This means that products can be sold cheaper, raising their

relative demand.

4^th Hypothesis:

There are about 5.4 million vending machines in Japan and 48.8% of them

sell beverages. Although irregular vending machines are currently few and

far between, the demand for convenience may see an increase in the numbers. Vegetable vending machines such as the daikon vending machine located

between ICU and Musashisakai station, may have been installed because of

how daikon production factors. The most important production factor may be

how the farm growing this product is located in Tokyo, a city of over 15 million

people. This limits the size a farm can be, and because of this, it is most likely

run by a family or in the form of a small business. This family may not be

able to maintain their farm, household chores, and selling produce at all

times of the day and therefore has settled on a vending machine to best suit

the needs of Tokyo consumers.

I went to visit three farms within 5 minute distance from ICU where there

were vending machines selling various agricultural products such as eggs,

vegetables and kiwi. However, I visited these places at least three times and

they were all closed or did not have anything inside of the vending machine

at the time I visited there. This proves my hypothesis wrong. I believed that

owners of the vending machines wanted them in order to lower labour costs

and have their products available 24 hours a day.

This may be due to their products not being in season therefore there was



nothing to sell.

However, I managed interview a farm with a vegetable stall (Mujin Hanbai).

I found a lady on the property and managed to ask her several questions.

Me: “why does the farm have a stall?

The lady: “Actually, there is almost always someone nearby, making sure

 everything is ok. Customers like to touch the vegetables before they make

the purchase. Vending machines do not allow you to do so… in fact, we all

would like to have a vending machine instead of a stall.”

Me: “What makes your family want to own a vending machine?”

Lady: “ There is a shortage of labour. Stall will require someone to be

around in case there is something wrong, like no change. ..”

「なんでここは無人販売なのですか？」

「一応、人がついているんです。確認をしながら仕事をしています。手で触って触れて確認できるので、お客さんのなかにも自分で選びたいって言う人が多いですね。自動販売機だとそれが出来ないので…。本来ならば自動販売機にしたいのですが…」

「なぜ自販機を使いたいと思うのですか？」

「手が足りなかったり、ずっとついていないといけない。無人にしていても不具合のことがあるので。。。ずっとついている子は出来ない。　午後からも仕事があるんですが」

The interview with her suggests that farmers decide to have vending

machine for the reason of shortage of labour.

[1] 自動販売機中古/たばこ自販機買取製作

3rd and 4th Hypothesis