Kunji Shinbori, an employee at a store that sells boxed lunches, is doing a thriving business off Route 269 in Yamanoguchi, Miyazaki Prefecture, with a novel idea -- selling live beetles in a vending machine.
Packed in twos or threes inside a transparent paper case, these insects -- which are immensely popular with Japanese kids -- fetch 600 yen per case. For bigger insects, each pack goes for 800 yen.
On a good day, Shinbori, 48, says he sells about 20 packs.
Shinbori says the idea to dispense beetles during the summer months by the vending machine, which he otherwise uses to sell eggs, came to him two years ago.
Shinbori says he hunts beetles in the mountains during the summer and the novelty of seeing these insects in the vending machine has attracted a good clientele.
"Some people come to buy them as a hobby; many buy them as gifts for kids for their summer studies," Shinbori says.