Now, Japan's many automated vendors have a new product to offer virus testing kits.

A clinic has so far set up seven of the machines in the Tokyo area.

They sell kits for about $40.

This student stumbled on one outside a noodle shop.

I was surprised to find one at a restaurant, not a drug store, she says.

The machines may meet a need.

Japan's government has been conducting just 40,000 of the so called PCR tests each day.

That is a quarter of capacity, with the tests restricted to those who are most symptomatic or at high risk.

The general public has been left heavily reliant on private clinics or buying PCR tests by other means.

Hideyuki to Kimura is director of the Lake Town to Conoco Clinic, which set up the machines as a way to avoid crowded gatherings to get tests easily without appointments.

I came up with the vending machine idea and I thought it would be very useful if we could put them everywhere in a town, Takemura says.

There was huge demand at first, with some machines needing to be emptied of money twice a day.

That demand now shows signs of easing as a state of emergency helps cut cases in Tokyo.