‘Lifeline’ Gone... Last Vending Machine Removed from Remote Japanese Island With No Shops

Last Vending Machines Removed from Japan's Tebajima, Home to 35 Residents
Soft Drink Vending Machines Fall Below 2 Million for First Time in 30 Years
"Equipment, Logistics and Labor Costs Are Rising"... Beverage Companies Pull Out En Masse

The last vending machine on a remote Japanese island with no shops, where residents could buy drinks, has disappeared.

On October 19, Yonhap News, citing Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that “both vending machines remaining on Tebajima, a remote island in Mugi Town, Tokushima Prefecture, were removed in May 2025.”

Vending Machines Decline Rapidly in Japan, the ‘Vending Machine Powerhouse’

A photo of a vending machine in Japan to help illustrate the article. Pexels

Tebajima is about a 15-minute ferry ride from the mainland. Of its 35 residents, 80% are elderly. There are no cars on the island, so residents transport their belongings by handcart. With no shops on the island, vending machines were the residents’ only source of drinks. They also served as a “lifeline,” providing bottled water and other drinks when typhoons and other conditions disrupted ferry service.

The first vending machines arrived on the island in the 1960s and 1970s. After electricity and running water were brought to the island, beverage companies repeatedly asked to install machines there. But the machines were eventually withdrawn as the residents who transported products to the island grew older and the companies’ profits fell.

Vending machines have recently been disappearing rapidly in Japan, known as a “vending machine powerhouse.” According to Kyodo News, the number of soft drink vending machines stood at 1.95 million at the end of 2025, falling below 2 million for the first time in the 30 years for which records are available. That was about 20% fewer than the peak in 2014. A record 90,000 machines disappeared in a single year.

Outpriced by Convenience Stores

A photo of a Japanese vending machine to help illustrate the article. Pexels.

Price is why consumers are turning away from vending machines. As beverage companies have raised prices one after another to reflect rising raw material costs, drinks from vending machines have become more expensive than those sold at discount supermarkets and drugstores. According to Jiji Press, vending machines, once the largest channel for beverage sales, were overtaken by convenience stores in 2024. A Tokyo resident told AFP, “Even water costs around 130 yen (about 1,100 won) at vending machines, but you can buy it for less at convenience stores or drugstores.”

Meanwhile, the cost of operating vending machines is rising. Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage, which announced the sale of its vending machine business in March 2026, cited “rising costs to maintain the machines, logistics expenses, and labor costs for employees who restock products, as well as a labor shortage” as reasons for its withdrawal. In October 2026, the company transferred its entire business, including about 40,000 vending machines, to Life Drink Company.

Other major beverage companies are also scaling back their vending machine operations despite incurring losses. Daido Group Holdings, which has relied on vending machines as a key sales channel, recorded a net loss of 30.3 billion yen (about 256.1 billion won) in the previous fiscal year, while Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan posted a net loss of 50.8 billion yen (about 429.4 billion won). Bankruptcies are also mounting among small and midsize companies that have managed and repaired vending machines.

Vending machines have traditionally served as gathering places for residents and provided water and drinks during disasters. But because they are commercial facilities operated by private companies, it is difficult for them to receive support from local or central governments. In areas where both shops and vending machines have disappeared, residents are seeking alternatives themselves. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that “residents in some areas, including Tebajima, are working on plans to install unmanned refrigerators themselves or set up their own shops.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.