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| | Zee News - New cigarette vending machines to check age of buyers (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) |
 | | Nakatane, (Japan), May 21: Experimental cigarette vending machines featuring an age-verification system that have been installed on the small southwestern Japan island of Tanegashima and have been effective in reducing the number of juvenile smokers, according to the local police. |
 | | To obtain an IC card, a person must be at least 20 years of age and has to apply to the industry bodies` operation centers in Tokyo or the island in the town of Nakatane, Kagoshima prefecture, by supplying a document proving their birth date and a photo. |
 | | Tanegashima, lying south of the main island of Kyushu and part of Kagoshima prefecture, has a population of only 35,000, but has 169 cigarette vending machines, 161 of which have been replaced by the new type. |
| www.zeenews.com /znnew/articles.asp?aid=218331&ssid=204&sid=lif (301 words) |
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