Most vending machines take IC (the NFC-style top-up cards that Japan also runs on), but ALL vending machines take cash.
It should be possible to swap out the reader, but they might be built in such a way that the entire machine has to be taken away and cannot be serviced on-site for security’s sake. I have never seen anyone servicing a vending machine in public.
This could be something that causes Japan to rethink its cash dependancy.
I see people servicing vending machines in public all the time, but the ones out in the city it happens at 2-5am. The ones in my building, it’s roughly weekly at noon. Most of the ones I pass with any regularity don’t have any IC functionality, but we still keep a Waon card around for when we’re visiting nearby cities
Hey! I know it’s been a couple weeks but I figured I’d say that I went down to the lobby at 10am just now, and there’s two guys in there right now swapping out the cash reader. There’s the regular restocker doing his job and a second guy with one of the handheld firmware loader things, I’m not sure if it just needs a software change or if he needs to be there to swap the actual slot, but it does look swappable
Most vending machines take IC (the NFC-style top-up cards that Japan also runs on), but ALL vending machines take cash.
It should be possible to swap out the reader, but they might be built in such a way that the entire machine has to be taken away and cannot be serviced on-site for security’s sake. I have never seen anyone servicing a vending machine in public.
This could be something that causes Japan to rethink its cash dependancy.
I see people servicing vending machines in public all the time, but the ones out in the city it happens at 2-5am. The ones in my building, it’s roughly weekly at noon. Most of the ones I pass with any regularity don’t have any IC functionality, but we still keep a Waon card around for when we’re visiting nearby cities
Hey! I know it’s been a couple weeks but I figured I’d say that I went down to the lobby at 10am just now, and there’s two guys in there right now swapping out the cash reader. There’s the regular restocker doing his job and a second guy with one of the handheld firmware loader things, I’m not sure if it just needs a software change or if he needs to be there to swap the actual slot, but it does look swappable