ArrowArtboardCreated with Sketch.Title ChevronTitle ChevronIcon FacebookIcon LinkedinIcon Mail ContactPath LayerIcon MailPositive ArrowIcon Print
A Taiwanese student, right, practices serving customers at a Lawson convenience store in Tokyo. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)
The Big Story

Part-time saviors: Foreign students help plug Japan's labor gap

Convenience stores and delivery companies are among the biggest beneficiaries

MITSURU OBE, Nikkei staff writer | China

TOKYO -- If you shop at any one of Tokyo's 7,000 or so convenience stores, chances are you will be served by foreign students -- most likely from China, Vietnam or Nepal.

In a Lawson store in the downtown Tokyo district of Shinjuku, Vietnamese clerks were serving customers in the front of the store while four students -- two each from China and Taiwan -- were practicing how to interact with Japanese customers in the back room.

Sponsored Content

About Sponsored Content This content was commissioned by Nikkei's Global Business Bureau.

Nikkei Asian Review, now known as Nikkei Asia, will be the voice of the Asian Century.

Celebrate our next chapter
Free access for everyone - Sep. 30

Find out more