emergency care

Japan has vending machines for just about anything, including emergency care

In the case of a cardiac arrest, every second counts, which is why over the past decade Japanese health organizations have deployed a large number of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public areas, with the current count somewhere over 300,000 units.

Eventually the country would like to see that number expand to one in every building, but for the time being the first priority is AED accessibility, leaving some foreign tourists surprised to find that AEDs in places that might seem a little odd at first: like vending machines.

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Student takes mechanical pencil lead to the groin in a possible attempt to skip exam

When I was in school, it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for a classmate to claim that his dog ate his homework or ask to see the school nurse about a stomachache only moments before a big test. I myself remember having to tell one of my elementary school teachers that I couldn’t turn in my math assignment because my cat had vomited all over it. (She didn’t believe me, so the next morning I bagged it and left it on her desk.)

Nowadays, it seems like students have become even more creative with their excuses, like one male university student who recently had to visit the hospital to get some pencil lead removed from his urethra.

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