Convenience stores catering to aging Japanese

AWAJI, Japan — Pushing her stroller chair with steely determination, Sueko Inoue, 83, cut across the parking lot of the Lawson convenience store here one recent morning and homed in on the entrance.

After the automatic doors let her in, she quickly grabbed two rice balls and put in an order for a stew called oden and a cafe latte. Inoue then settled back at one of the four tables, waiting to see what the day would bring at the convenience store where everybody knows her name.

"This store's for the elderly," said Inoue, who, even if the years had not bent her back, would not have stood much taller than the umbrella affixed to her stroller. "The day before yesterday, I was here from 6 in the evening to midnight."

Since convenience stores were introduced to Japan from the United States three decades ago, they have largely served a youthful clientele, specifically men in their 20s and 30s who spend an average of three minutes in a store, while youngsters often idle out front. But in a sign of Japan's rapidly graying society, these stores associated with the young are being transformed to cater to the elderly.

Inoue has become a die-hard regular since this store in western Japan became the first in the Lawson chain to make the shift last month. Aisles were widened to accommodate wheelchairs, shelves were lowered by 6 inches for easier reach, price tags were enlarged and tables were added for lingering.

Lawson, the nation's second-largest convenience store chain, with nearly 8,400 stores, is scheduled to change 11 of them into senior-friendly stores by the end of the year. But eventually, Lawson expects to transform 20 percent of its stores, or nearly 1,700, into elderly oriented stores.

With Japan now leading the world in aging — 21 percent of all Japanese are over 65 years old, and the overall population started declining last year for the first time since World War II — Japanese companies, both low- and high-tech, are increasingly shifting their attention to older people. Researchers are developing robots that can serve as companions for the lonely elderly, carry them up stairs or act as bionic suits for enfeebled legs.

Last year, Watami, a chain of Japanese-style taverns popular among the young, also went into the business of running nursing homes. At 19 such homes, the company specializes in preparing easily digested meals for the aging: On a piece of tuna sushi, for example, the tuna is minced, then reshaped to make it look as if it were whole.