Underage Tobacco Crackdown
Source: Wired 04.08 “Japanese Schoolgirl Watch: Birthday Card”
Much like America had for the longest time, Japan has cigarette vending machines. I remember buying them for myself as a schoolgirl. The machine can’t verify your age… but wait, maybe it can. Japan is issuing cards (“taspos” short for tobacco passports) that are inserted into the new “smart” vending machines to verify age before purchase. I say this is pretty silly since the machine won’t be able to tell who the card really belongs to. In my opinion, this is just ridiculous. There are still “dumb” vending machines, and as I mentioned, the smart ones don’t seem too bright. Buying, borrowing, or stealing the cards won’t take long. Also, counterfeit ids don’t sound like they’ll be too tricky. My suggestion is investing a little more resources upfront and using biometrics. For example, the taspo could be reliable if backed up with a fingerprint. On the other hand, maybe Japan should remove these vending machines, and acknowledge that it was a bad idea to start with.
