Given that selling cigarettes to minors is a strict no-no and that man power is extremely expensive, what is a Japanese supposed to do? Why, create an intelligent vending machine which can tell your age of course. The new type of Cigarette vending machines, to be approved by the Japanese ministry, can read the date of birth on an inserted driver's license.

Earlier the government had decided that smokers must have a special card for the vending machines which would allow them to buy their smokes. However owing to the fact that these cards would need to be obtained specially and this would put them through some trouble, the concept never picked up. Now, the new machines will be able to read both, the smart cards (Taspos) as well as driving licenses.

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