Smoke Signals
Japan is instituting an RFID age-verification system to prevent underage kids from buying cigarettes at vending machines.
By Mary Catherine O'Connor
June 1, 2008—The legal age to purchase cigarettes in Japan is 18, but roughly 75 percent of underage smokers easily dodge age checks at stores by using the 500,000 cigarette vending machines in the country, according to a 2004 study by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
That's about to change, thanks to an RFID age-verification system being rolled out this summer by the Tobacco Institute of Japan (TIOJ), working with the Japan Federation of Tobacco Retail Associations and the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association.
In 2004, Japan signed the World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative, an international treaty designed to improve controls on tobacco, among many other smoking-related public health initiatives. The treaty states that signers must ensure that tobacco vending machines are not accessible to minors and do not promote the sale of tobacco products to minors. The Japanese government looked to the TIOJ, which was involved with other smoking-related public health initiatives, to take action, says Hitomichi Tanaka, public affairs manager for the TIOJ.
June 1, 2008—The legal age to purchase cigarettes in Japan is 18, but roughly 75 percent of underage smokers easily dodge age checks at stores by using the 500,000 cigarette vending machines in the country, according to a 2004 study by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
That's about to change, thanks to an RFID age-verification system being rolled out this summer by the Tobacco Institute of Japan (TIOJ), working with the Japan Federation of Tobacco Retail Associations and the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association.
In 2004, Japan signed the World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative, an international treaty designed to improve controls on tobacco, among many other smoking-related public health initiatives. The treaty states that signers must ensure that tobacco vending machines are not accessible to minors and do not promote the sale of tobacco products to minors. The Japanese government looked to the TIOJ, which was involved with other smoking-related public health initiatives, to take action, says Hitomichi Tanaka, public affairs manager for the TIOJ.
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