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July 20, 2025
 

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CONVENIENCE STORES

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
May 26, 2018
Stay clear away from Asahi's Clear Latte
Picture this: the milky, coffee flavor of a latte, transformed into what looks like a bottle of water. That's the driving idea behind Asahi's Clear Latte.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
May 5, 2018
Coca-Cola Frozen Lemon: What's Coke without the fizz?
It's hot out. Accordingly, everyone is seeking out cooler treats to get them through a summer that hasn't even fully settled in yet. Coca-Cola Japan is betting that people need a fix of cool in 2018, and have introduced a new product that takes their signature soda once more into uncharted territory....
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Apr 30, 2018
Let's discuss that Seven-Eleven that was forced to stay open in a blizzard
The owner of a Seven-Eleven convenience store in Fukui Prefecture was allegedly forced to work for about 50 hours without sleep in February after the chain rejected his requests to suspend business amid the heaviest snowfall in decades, a labor union has said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Apr 14, 2018
Koikeya's 'strong' potato chips scream flavor, but do they deliver?
It takes a lot to stand out in the crowded Japanese chip market in 2018. The safest ways to catch a consumer's eye is to either embrace some sort of novelty flavor, or to go flat out on the hyperbole. With its new line of "strong" (all caps, that is) potato chips that promise a "punch" of flavor with...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Taking the Lead
Mar 22, 2018
Lawson chief bets on health, tech as future of convenience
Back in 2014, Sadanobu Takemasu was asked by his boss to go to Lawson, the convenience store chain known for its white milk can logo on a blue signboard.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Mar 17, 2018
The true meaning of convenience
'Do you wear your pajamas to the convenience store sometimes?'
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2018
Convenience-store squeeze shows deflationary dilemma facing Bank of Japan
Takanori Sakai works the graveyard shift four nights a week at the FamilyMart store he owns in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, because he can't afford the higher pay employees demand these days.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 19, 2018
Ministop ends sale of porn magazines at convenience stores nationwide
Unrestricted displays of pornographic magazines at retail stores are rare overseas. With the number of inbound tourists expected to increase sharply for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, calls for the removal of porn magazines from convenience store shelves in Japan have been increasing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Dec 30, 2017
Debate grows over the plight of foreign staff at convenience stores in Japan
Launched in 1993, Japan's Technical Internship Training Program for foreign nationals hasn't had the best reputation. The program was created to help visitors from developing nations live and work in Japan for as long as three years under the protective umbrella of Japan's labor laws.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Dec 16, 2017
7-Eleven's Mint Crunky: A winning bet on mint working in winter
This take on a classic Japanese confection comprises a fluffy chocolate exterior filled with a whipped mint filling studded with chocolate chips.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2017
Lawson to offer unattended late-night checkout counters
Lawson Inc. will introduce unattended checkout counter services late at night at some of its stores, the first such step by a convenience store operator to tackle the labor shortage.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 1, 2017
Fitness to go: FamilyMart to launch 24-hour gyms at convenience stores
FamilyMart Co. will start a 24-hour fitness gym business to tap consumers' growing interest in fitness, the major convenience store chain said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2017
How Japan's service industry is trying to adapt to the worst labor crunch in 25 years
Before Hisashi Kanbe in 2013 introduced BakeryScan, the world's first image recognition checkout system designed specifically for bread, it was the job of every bakery worker in Japan to memorize the assorted prices of each baked good — from baguettes back to bagels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Oct 14, 2017
7-Eleven's Cookies and Cream Puff: A solid improvement to the sweet staple
7-Eleven Japan's cream puff is the ideal convenience store dessert. It's basic but satisfying, offering just the right amount of sweetness. Maybe most importantly, it's also affordable. Few treats balance simplicity and tastiness quite like it, and the konbini chain has wisely experimented with the filling...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 12, 2017
As domestic market contracts, Uniqlo and 7-Eleven looks to make profits overseas
Stagnant spending and soft wage growth in Japan are forcing two of Asia's biggest retailers — Fast Retailing Co. and Seven & i Holdings Co. — to court overseas consumers to drive long-term growth.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 23, 2017
Prepare for the future, at your convenience
Japan's first convenience store was not, as many suppose, 7-Eleven in Tokyo in 1974 but Mitsui in Kyoto in 1673.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 16, 2017
Konbini book sales are bound to make a difference
It should be evident to anyone who rides a commuter train or bus that Japan is a nation of people who take reading seriously. Needless to say, however, their reading habits, and readers' tastes, have been changing with the times.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Sep 2, 2017
7-Eleven's coffee cream treat: Leveraging the success of 'konbini' coffee
Convenience stores in Japan hit on a winner a few years back when they introduced fresh-brewed coffee machines. These chains realized folks want cheap and drinkable caffeine fixes before they begin their day. The next jackpot, however, has proved elusive.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2017
Convenience stores are part of Japan's 'social infrastructure,' but labor crunch threatening that role
Japan's growing labor shortage threatens the nation's ubiquitous convenience stores, whose business model relies on an army of part-timers packing bento boxed lunches, manning cash registers and delivering goods 24/7.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 6, 2017
Seven & I Holdings inks deal with Sunoco to expand U.S. market share
Seven & I Holdings Co., the world's largest convenience store operator, agreed to acquire Sunoco LP retail shops and gasoline businesses for $3.3 billion (about ¥365.9 billion) in a record deal for the Japanese company as it seeks to expand in the U.S.
Japanese markets brace for triple whammy if opposition wins big
A Sanseito campaign van in Shinjuku. The populist party is gaining ground and challenging the more centrist parties.
Sunken WWII Japanese warship Teruzuki found off Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands. A team from the U.S. nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust has discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki on the deep seabed off the Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.
Living conditions index hits lowest level in 15 years in Japan
The share of respondents to a Bank of Japan quarterly survey in June who said they have become worse off came to 61.0%, up 5.1 percentage points from the previous survey.
In Upper House race, younger voters in Tokyo turn to DPP for new direction
The Tokyo district has the highest number of candidates in the 2025 Upper House election with 32 people in the running for seven seats.
Concerns grow in Japan over possible Russian interference in Sunday’s election
A think tank researcher said anti-government propaganda by Russian bot accounts was what has made the small far-right party Sanseito so popular leading up to the Upper House election.
Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
From stalking to death threats, female candidates still face harassment
Mayu Ushida, a former NHK newscaster running for election in the Tokyo electoral district on the Democratic Party for the People ticket, signs an autograph for a voter after a public rally at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Kawaii Lab redefines idol pop for the TikTok generation
Misa Kimura is the main producer for Kawaii Lab, a project by entertainment agency Asobisystem whose groups have found success by pairing a social media-first strategy with a fresh perspective on traditional idol-pop tropes.
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.

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