HIROKAWA, Fukuoka -- A man attached an ID card to his cigarette vending machine to win back customers who shied away because of the hassle of using their own ID cards to purchase smokes, it has emerged.

"It is an act that erodes the age-verifying system and the public's confidence in the tobacco industry," said a representative of the Tobacco Institute of Japan, referring to the man's actions.

The ID cards, dubbed "taspo," were introduced this year to combat underage smoking.

The institute had been poised to nullify the man's vending machine license, which would have been a first in Japan. The Ministry of Finance's Tobacco and Salt Industries Office also hinted at the possibility of punishment for the man if he kept up the practice.

According to the man, sales of cigarettes at the vending machine he manages dropped by about 20 percent from May, when the taspo ID card system was introduced in Fukuoka Prefecture.

In order to boost sales, the man attached a taspo ID card of a family member to the vending machine with a wire in late May. He also attached a paper to the machine, which reads, "This is a taspo ID card exclusively for this vending machine. Minors are not supposed to use the card."

Yame Police Station was alerted to the case and asked the man to remove the taspo ID card from the vending machine, saying, "It is not favorable from an educational point of view."

The man initially refused to abide by the request, saying, "It does not violate any law."

"I think it is the responsibility of parents to decide whether their kids can buy cigarettes. I'm not going to remove the ID card unless there's a law that regulates such a practice," the man told the Mainichi.

By Wednesday, however, the man had removed the card, declining to say why he had removed it.

The Tobacco Institute of Japan says there were two similar cases in Fukushima Prefecture in May, but that the operators immediately complied with a request from the institute and removed the cards.

Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.

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