Vending Machines, A Light in a Cold Japanese Night

It is a little-known fact that Japan has the highest density of outdoor vending machines in the world. With over five million, there is one for every 23 residents. The unique role of these machines – on roadsides, dotted throughout the urban landscape, as well as in the countryside – led Eiji Ohashi to dedicate a large portion of his photographic work to them with his project Roadside Lights Seasons. 

The artist, born in 1955 in Wakkanai on the island of Hokkaido, is now releasing a new version of his series, Roadside Lights Seasons: Winter, capturing the vending machines in the snowy midwinter.

White Light

According a quasi-human dimension to these machines, a number of which end up abandoned and isolated, Ohashi hopes that this work will illustrate the feelings of compassion and encouragement that arise at the sight of these shining automatic vending machines, alone in the depths of winter.

In other projects, the photographer has previously taken an interest in questions of Uygur identity, travelling to the autonomous region in Xinjiang in China.

Roadside Lights Seasons: Winter (2020), a book by Eiji Ohashi is published by Case Publishing.