JANUARY 27, 2017|HISTORY & CURIOSITIES
The Real Reason Japan Has So Many Vending Machines
There are lots of listicles about all the crazy things you can find in Japanese vending machines. Those are fun for about ninety seconds.
Far more interesting is a thorough analysis of why Japan has so many vending machines in the first place, roughly one for every 23 people. That is not a quirk of national taste. It is the visible result of decisions about land, labour, currency, safety and convenience that a country made over decades without ever describing them as a vending machine policy.
The nuanced exploration in a piece like that reminds you that sometimes the strangest of things can teach you the most profound lessons about a culture, if you just look beyond the obvious.
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How It All Started
A Short Backstory Of This Blog
This is a blog about non-obvious ideas. Originally launched on the Typepad platform in 2005 as the Influential Marketing blog, the stories at first focused mainly on digital marketing while Rohit worked at Ogilvy Advertising. In 2015 Rohit officially rebranded to the Non-Obvious Insights Blog and published his WSJ bestseller Non-Obvious. For the past twenty one years, this blog has coined new terms, introduced future marketing practices and inspired the next generation of non-obvious thinkers and marketers.
