Different cultures prioritize different things. Broadly speaking. Americans value convenience at the expense of almost everything else. Canadians values a kind of unspoken communitarianism - making life good for the maximum number of people. For the Japanese, both these instincts seem to converge in many corners of the society. Vending machines are everywhere and beyond the standard beverage options - including a wide array of canned coffee - they stock them with fresh options that are way better than food that lives on a shelf behind plexiglass has a right to be. This was the first thing I ate in Japan and it was cheap, delicious, and perfectly easy to obtain when nothing else was around. It's as if they strive to make life as easy as possible but they stretch the definition of convenience to include an aesthetic enjoyment of the things they put at arm's length. Otherwise, they seem to be saying, what would be the point?