Research Project: Japan's Konbini Culture (posted by Jane)

Intro

When you think of convenience stores, what do you think of? Before coming to Japan my mind immediately went to chips, soda, and even gas stations. However, Tokyo turned my views of convenience stores upside down. The convenience stores were well stocked with a wide variety of warm and cold food. There wasn’t only food, though. They had ATMs, copieres, and more. In Japan convenience stores are called konbinis. Konbinis are very popular. In total there are 55,736 convenience stores in Japan, 20,000 of which are 7-Elevens; there are only 9,000 7-Elevens in the USA (“Number of 7-Eleven stores in the United States 2025”). 

This is how I came up with my research question: Why are konbinis so successful in Japan?

Methodology

For my research, I read fifteen online articles. I also went on a konbini tour where I got to interview our guide, Rio. I also interviewed our other guides, Eiji and Aki. My sisters and I went on a konbini scavenger hunt! Anne and I also taste-tested interesting foods like smoked eggs and squid. 

Thesis

After all this research, I boiled the answer down to three main reasons why konbinis are so successful: their focus on nostalgic Japanese food, a workaholic culture in Japan, and most importantly, population density.

Reason 1

The first big difference between Japanese and American convenience stores I noticed was the traditional Japanese foods like ongiri (rice balls), oden (soup), and gyoza (dumplings). The first 7-Eleven in Tokyo was opened in 1974. I visited this store during our time in Tokyo. However, it was not super successful at first. This changed in 1978 when Ito Yokado, the corporation behind the Japanese branch of 7- Eleven, decided to introduce ongiri, a riceball wrapped in dried seaweed. They were an immediate success because they were good-on-the-go but also used traditional flavors. By the early 1980s there were 10,000 konbinis, with three main brands: 7-Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawsons (Young). This then created competition which forced the corporations behind these brands to become more innovative with how they mass produce foods to entice the customer.

Anne and I tried three types of traditional foods from the three main brands. The first food we tried was ongiri which is a rice ball wrapped in dried seaweed and there are lots of flavors like roe, salmon, and tuna. There is archeological evidence of ongiri dating back 2,000 years. These rice balls were used for court functions in the Heian period (794- 1185) before becoming part of military rations in the Kamakura period (1192- 1333). Rice balls became more mainstream in the Edo period (1603 -1867) (McNamee). We tried kelp, spicy roe, and pickled plum ongiri. We agreed the pickled plum was our favorite because it wasn’t like anything we had had before it was sweet and yet bitter at the same time. It makes sense that people are so attracted to these delicious rice balls.

The second food we tried was karaage, a style of Japanese fried chicken. In the 16th-century, Portuguese frying methods influenced karaage but spread across the country after World War II due to food shortages causing people to eat more chicken (Feinstein). The three we tried were quite similar but Family Mart’s was our favorite for its crust-to-meat ratio.

The last traditional food we tried was nikuman, a steamed bun with meat fillings. Nikuman is a variant of the Chinese baoza that was introduced to Japan in the 14th century but stayed in the Chinatowns until it gained more widespread popularity in the 1920s (Rayne). We preferred the meat nikuman over the pork. There are many more nostalgic foods in convenience stores. 

Reason 2

The second reason for the success of konbinis is the Japanese work culture. There are stereotypes of the Japanese working long work days. This stereotype is actually based in fact. If you have ever been to Tokyo you have seen hundreds of men in button down shirts, ties and trousers all heading to the same place: work. The average work week is 40 hours in Japan versus the 34 hours a week in the USA (Tokyo weekender). However, Shinto Abe passed several reforms to limit the amount of unpaid overtime in 2018.

How does this relate to konbinis? Well, konbinis are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, even when restaurants may be closed, people coming home can grab a fast bite to eat. Also convenience stores have pre-made meals that help households with two working parents who do not have time for making homemade meals.The three guides that I interviewed all agreed that Japanese “salarymen” work long hours, and that this is a cause for the konbinis.

Reason 3

The most important reason kobinis are successful is population density. Tokyo is the most populous city in the world at 38 million people (Beautiful). Because there is such a high demand for land, prices go up for apartments in Tokyo proper which leads to two things: 1) people move out of the city and have to commute or 2) they have to live in very small apartments. The average commute time for the greater Tokyo area is an hour and forty two minutes, which is about an hour each way (realestatejapan.com). Whereas, the average commute time in Atlanta is 31 minutes each way. Also the majority of people don’t have cars in Tokyo – only 28% of households do – so people take the subway and there are konbinis at almost every subway stop. The average residence in Tokyo proper is 710 square feet (Hida). For reference, the average residence in Atlanta is 1,914 square feet. The New York Times wrote an article on homes in Tokyo that were only ninety-five square feet.The New York Times mentioned how for many people it is much easier to buy a premade meal than try to cook in a kitchen so small. Also, since there is very little space for any given store, konbinis are a great fit because they take up much less space than a full grocery store.

Ultimately, I think that population density is the main cause for successful konbinis because so many things stem from the crowded cities. Sometimes the simple explanation is the right one.

Conclusion

This project feels so relevant to the average person in Japan. Even though kobinis aren’t normally considered to be part of Japanese culture, they are. It's not “exotic” like samurai or kimonos but it plays a bigger role in an average person's life. It falls into the trend of the Japanese accepting a foreign concept and then making it their own. We see a bigger example of this from the Meiji restoration – when Japan went from a feudal society to a war machine in fifty years – to the brilliance of Shohei Ohtani playing American baseball.

Works Cited

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