Kenji Yamamoto was unsure that his business would survive when he opened Japan’s first convenience store in a Tokyo neighbourhood in May 1974. The 7-Eleven outlet he ran with his wife stocked tinned food and detergents, items that most people had previously bought from supermarkets. His first sale was a pair of sunglasses.
Half a century later, it is not only the Yamamotos’ bright red and orange uniforms that have changed. Convenience stores – or konbini – are no longer a late-night alternative to early-closing supermarkets, but a retail institution that millions of Japanese people could not imagine life without.
