Western Stores in Tokyo

Many overseas companies want to open shops in Japan.
The Japanese market is very lucrative…for companies that prove to be popular here. But the Japanese consumer is very finicky. Companies that don’t meet Japanese expectations are doomed to fail.

For example, the American donut company, Dunkin’ Donuts, is popular in America. But when they opened stores in Japan, the Japanese people found their donuts too sweet…and Dunkin’ Donuts was  unable to stay in Japan.

On the other hand, the less-sweet American donut chain Mister Donuts is very popular in Japan. (Ironically, Mister Donuts isn’t very popular in America).

Krispy Kreme Donuts set up shops in Tokyo recently, too.

Some American chains have been bought by a Japanese company and were brought here by their new Japanese owners. For example, the convenience store chain 7-Eleven was bought by the Japanese department store Ito-Yokado. (A couple years ago Ito-Yokado changed the signs on their department stores to reflect their connection with the popular convenience store they own…their signs now say “Seven & i Holdings” on the Ito-Yokado stores.)

7-Eleven (and other convenience stores) are very popular in Japan. Japan is a small country, but there are almost twice as many 7-Eleven stores here than in all of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico combined!

Convenience stores in Japan are very different from their counterparts in America. Japanese convenience stores are great!

7 & i Holdings, the Japanese company that owns 7-Eleven also owns the restaurant chain Denny’s. Denny’s in Japan have a different menu than Denny’s in America. I like Denny’s Japan better (but that may be because I’ve been in Japan for awhile now, and I’m more used to Japanese style food).

デニーズ・レストラン「セブン＆アイ HLDGS」 (Denny

The American bakery Vie de France is in Japan, too. But it’s not American anymore either…Yamazaki Bread owns this company. I like Vie de France. Their bread is excellent.

Of course, American fast-food chains are here…

ケンタッキー (KFC) in Japan.

I have wrote a post about Domino’s Pizza in Japan. Click here to see it.

I like Subway sandwich shop, alot. The Japanese Subway sandwich shop. The menu is much better at Subway Japan than the U.S. branches.

There are Japanese fast-food restaurants, too.  These include MOS Burger, First Kitchen, and Freshness Burger (which has beer on the menu! 🙂 ). Occasionally you can still find a  Dom-Dom Burger, and there used to be a chain called Love Hamburger. Love Hamburger went out-of -business about 12 years ago and the U.S. chain Burger King bought all of the Love Burger shops and opened Burger King in Japan in the late ’90s…but they made the ill-fated decision to offer only a limited menu to test the Japanese market. That didn’t go over well and soon they went out-of-business in Japan, too.

But recently, Burger King decided to re-try the Japanese market…and I guess they learned from their past mistakes—they seem to be doing well in Japan now.

There are also branches of Sizzler, Outback, and Tony Romas in Japan.

All of these foreign companies that have stores in Tokyo (How many of these have stores in your town? Do you shop at any of these?):

"The Body Shop" in Tokyo	"Godiva Chocolate" in Tokyo
	Toys "Я" Us

There are other foreign companies here, too…but you get the idea.

All of these foreign companies have to keep on their toes and provide the service and products that the Japanese expect…and for each of these foreign stores in Japan, there are Japanese companies that provide similar products that they have to compete with.  But if the effort is worth it…Japan is the most profitable market for most of these companies.

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Anyways, today is Valentine’s Day.
My wife and daughters made delicious chocolate for me. ♥
(Click here to read a post I wrote about Valentines Day in Japan).

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Random

Just some random thoughts and observations, and some photos of various places around Tokyo.

First, when we visited Florida a few years ago, I went to the 7-11 convenience store to buy a six-pack of beer late one evening. But when I went to open the beer cooler, it was locked. The cashier told me that it’s illegal to sell alcohol in Florida after 1:00AM!

I was surprised by that. In Japan, alcohol can be bought at anytime day or night at 7-11 and elsewhere. There are even beer vending machines in Japan.

I looked at the internet and it seems that Florida’s laws are fairly liberal when compared to other states in America (In America, states make their own laws. Unlike other countries, like Japan, that have only federal laws).

For example, in Mississippi, not only are there hours of the day that you can’t buy alcohol…it also isn’t to be sold on Sundays and Christmas!

Missouri seems to be one of the strictest. In that state, alcohol isn’t sold after midnight or 1AM (depending on the day), public intoxication is illegal, and drinking outdoors is, as well.

I guess I have been living in Japan for a long time, because that all seems medieval to me.

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Speaking of 7-11 in America, they are quite different from the ones in Japan.

In Japan’s 7-11 stores, there are no “Slurpees” or “Big Gulp” drinks, nor nachos or aspirin or gasoline (there’s no “Slurpee”, “Big Gulps” or nachos because those don’t appeal to Japanese tastes…but 7-11 Japan doesn’t sell medicine or gas because, in Japan, medicine can only sold by licensed pharmacists and gasoline at petrol stands).

But at Japanese convenience stores, you can pay your bills, mail packages, buy DVDs, toothpastes, underwear, boxed lunches, ice cream, spaghetti, おにぎり (rice balls), squid, beer, whiskey, おでん (Japanese boiled “hot-pot” food), and more.

7-11, by the way, has over 34,000 stores worldwide. 6,200 of them are in America…but Japan has the most—over 12,000 Seven-Eleven stores are in Japan!

The Japanese department stores chain, Ito-Yokado bought the controlling shares of 7-11 stocks years ago.

Ito-Yokado‘s logo is a white dove and it used to be used above all of their stores. But since most of their profits come from the 7-11 stores, they decided to emphasize the 7-11 name. So now all of their department stores have a “7 & i Holdings” sign above the stores (“7” for “7-11” and “i” for “Ito-Yokado”).

Not only does Ito-Yokado own the 7-11 worldwide chain, they also own the “Denny’s” family restaurant chain.

Here’s the “old” Ito-Yokado sign (I took a photo of it a few years ago when I heard that they were changing the signs nationwide):

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Mariah Carey was on TV here recently because she came to Tokyo to promote a new CD.

I’m not a fan of her music so I don’t know much about her, but she seems right weird!

She was doing an interview on a popular morning talk show that I like to watch…and her young husband tagged along and they were snuggling the whole time.

Then the next day, she threw the opening pitch at the Tokyo Dome for a Tokyo Giants baseball game.

She wore stiletto heels on the field and rather than throw the ball…she dropped it right it front of herself.

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Did you hear about the homeless woman in 福岡 (Fukuoka, Japan) who was living in a single man’s closet for a year?

In Japanese homes, there’s a small storage space above closets that many people seldom open, and that’s where this woman was living.

She got into his house and stayed in the closet when the homeowner was home, but whenever he’d leave, she’d get out and take a shower and eat his food.

He found her because he installed a security camera in his house when he noticed food missing.

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Anyways…

here are a few pictures I took around Tokyo: