YOKOHAMA -- The Kanagawa Prefectural Government plans to equip every cigarette and alcohol vending machine in the area with a sensor to confirm the buyer is an adult in a bid to prevent minors from smoking and drinking.

Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa said his prefecture planned to take the measure from 2007 after establishing an ordinance that requires cigarette and alcohol vending machines to have a sensor. The move is the first of its kind in Japan.

The Japan Tobacco Institute plans to introduce some 620,000 cigarette vending machines in 2008 that accept only adults who have an IC-equipped card.

A major association of liquor shops is now replacing vending machines.

Despite these moves, Kanagawa officials decided to take stricter measure to ban minors from buying cigarettes. The prefecture has found that one third of third-year junior high school students and 60 percent of high school students who smoked said they bought cigarettes from vending machines in the area.