Japan has extended its preparations for natural disasters to vending machines, which will offer free food and drink in the event of a major earthquake or typhoon.
Two machines have been installed in the western coastal city of Ako, an area that seismologists say is vulnerable to a powerful earthquake that is expected to hit the country's central and south-west pacific coast in the next few decades.
The appliances, which contain about 300 bottles and cans of soft drinks and 150 emergency food items, including nutritional supplements, have been installed near buildings that have been designated as evacuation shelters.
They are designed to unlock and make their contents available free of charge in the event of a heavy rain warning, or an evacuation order after a quake of an upper five or higher on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of seven, according to Mainichi Shimbun.
The newspaper added that their contents must be paid for the rest of the time.
Earth Corp, which owns a manufacturing plant in the city, says the machines are the first of their kind in Japan, one of the most seismically active countries in the world, and where increasingly powerful typhoons have caused widespread flooding and landslides in recent times.
We would like to install the machines throughout the country, a company representative said.
We expect that the stockpile will lead to the safety and security of our residents, he said. In another first, a vending machine with a radio that will automatically issue emergency broadcasts was set up in a park in Tokyo earlier this year.
The radio will beactivated by earthquakes registering 5 or higher on the Japanese intensity scale and transmit evacuations and other vital information from a local community radio station, media sources said.
Experts recently suggested the possibility of a megaquake, which could occur along the Nankai trough in the next 20 years, from 50% to 60%, and at about 90% within the next 40 years.