In his 2002 book Konbiniensu sutoa no chishiki (Understanding Convenience Stores), the economic scholar Kinoshita Yasushi points to a 1976 television advertising campaign by Seven-Eleven Japan as a factor establishing the convenience store model as it is known today. However, consumer habits are changing as the country ages and people live longer-Regain, once an elixir of energy, now touts products for “the era of 100-year lives.” This begs the question of whether the 24-hour business model that long defined convenience stores is still in step with the times. Today, convenience stores are a ¥10 trillion industry in Japan. Open around the clock, convenience stores fit seamlessly into this nonstop work ethic-popular energy drink Regain summed up the zeitgeist, winning “ word of the year” honors in 1989 with its ad campaign fervently asking: “Japanese businessman! Can you fight 24 hours a day?” Konbini, as the shops are known colloquially, started to take off around the same time as Japan’s asset-price bubble shifted the economy into overdrive, turning long hours at the office into an unquestioned virtue for the nation’s corporate warriors. Twenty-four-hour service has long been the hallmark of the convenience store model-one that, according to some, parallels Japan’s work culture of excessive overtime. Of the 200-plus outlets currently testing shortened business hours, 8 will be allowed to close from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am beginning on November 1.-Ed.) (On October 21, Seven-Eleven Japan announced it would issue a new set of guidelines to its more than 20,000 outlets nationwide, clarifying procedures for halting 24-hour operations. Wanting to avoid a looming PR disaster, Seven-Eleven Japan eventually backed down, and in March started testing reduced opening hours at outlets around the country. The media quickly picked up the story, sparking a vigorous and ongoing public examination of the need for stores to stay open around the clock. Unhappy with the move, executives at Seven-Eleven Japan threatened to cancel the franchise contract unless the owner reinstated the 24-hour policy. The debate started in February 2019, when an owner of a 7-Eleven franchise in Osaka shortened his shop’s business hours after struggling to adequately staff the store. ![]() ![]() Faced with a changing demographic landscape, Japan is starting to question whether it still needs 24-hour convenience stores.
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