TOKYO -- The merger of FamilyMart and Uny Group Holdings underscores the efforts of Japanese convenience store operators to leverage scale and grow via partnerships with other industries amid limited expansion opportunities in the saturating domestic market.
There are over 55,000 convenience stores in Japan, more than double the number of post offices. Even schools from kindergarten all the way up to universities do not add up to that total. If a single store employs 20 people as a rough estimate, convenience stores in Japan have more than 1 million workers on payroll.
