Tokyo-Based Photographer to Publish Photo Book of Scenery with Vending Machines

Pictures Will Feature Happy Drink Shop Corners in Yamanashi, Nagano

By Satoshi Sugawara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

7:00 JST, January 11, 2025

A Tokyo-based photographer will publish a photo book this spring depicting landscapes featuring soft drink vending machines.

Kazutoshi Yoshimura, 57, took photos of various Happy Drink Shop corners, banks of vending machines installed in roadside parking areas, found mainly in Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures.

Yoshimura was attracted to his subject by the way the vending machines seemed to melt into the scenery of farm fields and mountain views.

Yoshimura believes that vending machines are symbols of Japan’s high level of public safety. “I want to make a concrete record of this peculiarly Japanese kind of beauty,” he said.

More than 1,000 places

One of attractive points of Happy Drink Shop corners is that some of the drinks sold there are priced lower than in other places.

The vending machine corners are operated by Floren, a Kai, Yamanashi Prefecture-based company which places and manages vending machines in more than 1,000 locations mainly in Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures.

Through a long career as a professional photographer, Yoshimura has become an expert in landscape photography. He has taken pictures in Canada, France and many other places in the world.

When taking pictures overseas became difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he came up with the idea of shooting photographs with a particularly Japanese theme. It was the Happy Drink Shop corners which had caught his attention when he had previously gone to take pictures in Yamanashi Prefecture and some other places.

Though the spots featured rows of vending machines in various colors, they naturally blended in with all kinds of background scenery. Hoping to record these images, he sent a letter to the company to obtain a permission to shoot photos of them around summer 2020.

Teruhiko Sugano, 59, managing director of the company, said, “Initially, I thought, ‘What is he talking about?’” But when he was shown books of photos by Yoshimura, he was fascinated by their beauty.

Sugano was also impressed by Yoshimura’s dedication: he said he would take all the photos and publish the books at his own expense. So Sugano handed him a list of Happy Drink Shop locations, something usually kept secret from those outside the company.

40,000 km journey

So Yoshimura’s journey to shoot photos of the vending machine corners began. But the huge number of locations was not the only thing that caused trouble for him.

Because there are Happy Drink Shop corners beside farm roads and in narrow residential areas, he bought a highly maneuverable second-hand car for about ¥200,000.

Yoshimura said, “I have the kind of personality that can’t be satisfied until I’ve completed everything I set out to do.” So he continued taking pictures until January 2024, when he finally completed his project.

During the journey, he drove a total of about 40,000 kilometers, and spent more than \2 million on gasoline.

Currently, Yoshimura is busy selecting photos to be carried in the book and choosing page layouts. He said he does not expect the book to sell many copies.

But he said “As a photographer, it will be enough if I am able to show many people the beauty which makes me think, ‘This is absolutely Japanese.’”