Kei vehicles are exempt from most Japanese safety standards, because they’re meant for city driving with max speeds of 40-60 kph and everyone driving them knows and acknowledges that you’re just fucked if you get into an accident at speeds higher than that (and not doing great even at 40kph). It’s an explicit trade of safety for lower cost
I see people servicing vending machines in public all the time, but the ones out in the city it happens at 2-5am. The ones in my building, it’s roughly weekly at noon. Most of the ones I pass with any regularity don’t have any IC functionality, but we still keep a Waon card around for when we’re visiting nearby cities