From Brian Ashcraft at WIRED:

The legal smoking age in Japan may be 20, but schoolgirls in need of a nicotine fix have always had an easy workaround: “Vending machines can’t tell if you’re 16,” says Haruka Narazaki, a student in Osaka. The ubiquitous dispensers have long sold packs of Marlboros and Mild Sevens to anyone with the yen, and they never asked for ID ‚Äî until now. Earlier this year, the Tobacco Institute of Japan began issuing “taspo” (short for “tobacco passport”) age-verification cards, which must be scanned at newly installed smart vending machines before a purchase can be made. The integrated circuit-embedded cards will also be equipped with an electronic money function that lets customers buy stuff with a simple swipe. In keitai-crazy Japan, where phones can be used like credit cards, it shouldn’t be long before taspo-capable mobiles begin to appear ‚Äî for gals 20 and over. High school girls will just have to find some other way to look cool and sophisticated.