Japanese vending machines are great and they are about to get an upgrade:
The ubiquitous Japanese vending machine is keeping its place on U.S. military bases, despite a nationwide round-up of obsolete machines. Many of the 4.1 million vending machines across Japan, each worth around $13,000, will be replaced this summer when Japan rolls out a new set of bank notes featuring holograms to stop counterfeiting, according to a New York Times report June 8. Some older machines will not accept the new currency. The change-out will not affect most vending machines on U.S. military bases from Misawa Air Base in the north to Marine Corps camps in the south, according to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and the Navy Exchange. They and local contractors maintain and operate 3,800 machines.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but I wish the U.S. could have as many convenient vending machines as Japan. However, the high crime rate compared to Japan makes it impossible in the U.S.
After the U.S. Presidential debate debacle, the ROK and Japan are probably accelerating the institutionalizing of various parts of their combined cooperation:
Former U.S. President Donald Trump caused friction with both allies during his time in office by demanding greater payment for their hosting of U.S. troops while holding one-on-one meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Under Biden, Washington is seeking to solidify its system of alliances, both with increasingly sophisticated exercises and diplomatic agreements, Graham said. “It’s obviously a U.S. attempt to try and mesh their alliances as positively as possible, not just given the challenge of their adversaries, but also the uncertainty around a second Trump administration,” he said. “They’re trying to institutionalize as many of these habits of cooperation while they can.” Tensions with North Korea are at their highest point in years, with the pace of Kim Jong Un’s weapons programs intensifying, despite heavy international sanctions.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Considering how densely populated Busan is, is depopulation really a bad thing?:
Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, appears to have entered a phase of extinction due to low birthrates and superaging population, becoming the nation’s first metropolitan city to do so, said a research paper published on Friday.
The paper from the Korea Employment Information Service estimated Busan’s ratio of the population aged 65 or older at 23 percent as of March this year, making it the only metropolitan city to become a superaging society.
The southeastern port city’s extinction risk index calculated by dividing the number of female population aged 20 to 39 by the number of population aged 65 or older was 0.490, it noted. An extinction risk index of over 1.5 is classified as a low extinction risk and an index of 1.0 to 1.5 is considered normal. But regions registering an index of 0.2 to 0.5 are considered to be in danger of extinction, while a figure of less than 0.2 is classified as high extinction risk.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
