Sometimes news like this is upvoted, because it involves Japan, towards each a lot of Western techies have an unhealthy obsession on, but the moment when those techies are advised to not use the self-service thing at the super-market they start going bananas.
I also find it odd that there’s daily top ranked Japan related articles on HN.
HN is the breeding ground of the Thing Japan meme https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thing-japan
Japan is a very interesting country for Western people (US and Canada, Western Europe) because it is by far the most developed country that is not Western. In this regard, it is unique and intriguing.