＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Just the other day, there was a shocking report that Seven-Eleven Japan’s “franchise headquarters” had informed the “owner” of a convenience store in Higashi-Osaka City, who had been pushed to the brink both physically and mentally to implement a 19-hour operation, that if the store did not return to 24-hour operations, they would demand a penalty of 17 million yen and forcibly terminate the contract.
The owner ran the convenience store with his wife, but after his wife passed away last year, he was pushed to the limit both physically and mentally, and decided to implement a 19-hour operation, closing the store between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.
Of course, he considered filling in the gaps by hiring late-night and part-time staff, but even when he raised the hourly wage and posted job openings, he couldn’t find anyone.
The convenience store industry has a wide range of work, including customer service and inventory, and the hourly wage is not high considering the hard work. As a result, part-time workers are discouraged from working there, resulting in an “employment mismatch.”
From my amateur point of view, I would admit that 19-hour operation is unavoidable under such circumstances, but the response from Seven-Eleven Japan’s “franchise headquarters” was as ruthless as described above.
１．Abuse of the dominant position of the “franchise headquarters”
Although “24-hour operation” is now the foundation of Seven-Eleven’s business, originally, as the name “Seven-Eleven” suggests, the store was open 16 hours a day, from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Is it really necessary for all stores to be open 24 hours a day?
From the headquarters’ perspective, they may be wary that once they approve this, it will cause an “avalanche” of stores everywhere to stop offering 24-hour services.
However, in this case, it can be inferred that “given the situation the owner finds himself in, operating for 19 hours is truly unavoidable.”
To me, pushing this through so forcefully seems like a tyrannical abuse of the superior position of the “franchise headquarters”…
The outbreak of this furore became widely known when the case was reported on “Lawyer.com” and subsequently covered extensively by TV and other media outlets.
In response, the Franchise Headquarters has reportedly told the Owner that they would like to support him in operating 24 hours a day, but have avoided giving an immediate reply due to the need for labor and utility costs.
２．Past similar cases
According to Lawyer.com on April 14, 2018, there was a similar case in Fukui Prefecture.
The owner of a 7-Eleven in Fukui Prefecture repeatedly appealed to the headquarters to suspend 24-hour operations from February 6 to 7, 2018, citing “record snowfall,” but the headquarters refused to comply with the request and instructed the owner to keep the store open.
His wife, who was working with him, collapsed after shoveling snow for a long time and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
However, the owner could not leave the store to continue operating the convenience store and could not attend to his wife. The staff had difficulty getting to work, and he had to work about 50 hours without sleep from February 6 to 8.
３．Convenience store owners’ worries
Recently, the store seems to be struggling financially due to “intensifying competition from other convenience stores” and “onslaughts from supermarkets.”
The current situation is that owners are suffering from a triple or quadruple hardship due to the extremely high royalties that they have to pay to the franchise headquarters, as well as the difficulty in finding employees.
By the way, royalties are calculated by multiplying gross profit by a certain rate, but if the owner provides the land and building themselves, Seven-Eleven charges 43%, Family Mart 35%, and Lawson 34%.
４．Responses of other convenience store chains
As for how to respond in cases like this one where an owner requests to discontinue 24-hour operations, other convenience store chains appear to be flexible and make decisions through discussion.