(Reuters photo)TOKYO: Japan's growing labour shortage threatens the nation's ubiquitous convenience stores, whose business model relies on an army of part-timers packing bento lunch boxes, manning cash registers and delivering goods 24/7. Japan has around 55,000 convenience stores nationwide -- roughly one for every 2,300 people -- and each store needs around 20 part-timers to run it. Part-time wages, meanwhile, have increased, and some convenience stores have to pay more overtime to fill shifts. "We want to turn this into an opportunity to boost store owners' management drive, and attract new owners," Isaka said. "The convenience store industry was built when there were plentiful workers,'' says Takayuki Suzuki, analyst at Primo Research Japan.

Source: Bangkok Post April 26, 2017 01:52 UTC