Having made no attempts to suppress our calorific cravings over the holiday/vacation season, we’re now buckling down for the second part of that plan, but it’s a tough task in Japan, where seemingly ...

Take a stroll through any Japanese city—you'll be hard-pressed to go a few blocks without passing a convenience store. The one-stop shops dot streetscapes everywhere. So ubiquitous are konbini ...

what happened when world-famous chocolatier Godiva opened a Japanese-style bakery in downtown Tokyo. If you wanted to try its baked goods on opening day in August of 2023, you’d need to wait in line ...

When Kenji Yamamoto opened the first convenience store in Japan 50 years ago, he didn't even know what to stock on the shelves. “Back then, everything was challenging,” he said. The first ...

A survey by a Japanese convenience store industry group shows that in the event of a mega quake, it would be difficult for them to resume operation for about a week in some areas. The Japan ...

(Mainichi/Haruka Ito) SAPPORO -- Japan's convenience stores are taking on tasks once handled by the dwindling number of local police boxes, instituting measures to respond to emergencies including ...

Major convenience store operator FamilyMart Co. has conventionally been franchised to teams of two, often husband and wife, ...

A Lawson convenience store sign is seen. (Mainichi/Kazuhisa Soneda) TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Sales from seven major Japanese convenience store chains hit a record high of 11.8 trillion yen ($75.5 billion ...