Japan Convenience Store Chain Bans Porn Magazines

CYBERSPACE—In Japan, chain convenience stores appear nearly everywhere and are a major component of daily life for the Japanese people. An estimated 56,000 stores, known as “konbini” and led by the familiar 7-11, are crammed onto a land mass somewhat smaller than the state of California — which has “only” about 12,000 convenience stores, still the second most of any American state.  Japanese convenience stores differ from their American cousins in their wide variety of offerings from sake and rice balls to underwear and even tickets to concerts and sports events. But perhaps most notably, Japanese convenience stores have long featured easily accessible porn magazines.  But the convenience of purchasing porn in the country is about to change. Starting last month, one large chain of “konbini,” Ministop, has pulled porn magazines from their racks, saying that that the presence of this longtime staple of the Japanese convenience store is driving away customers. “There are customers who feel reluctant to enter stores with children because of the presence of adult magazines,” Ministop President Akihiro Fujimoto explained, acording to a report in the Japan Times English-language newspaper. With a reported 2,250 stores in Japan, Ministop is not among the upper echelon of Japanese convenience store chains. The field is dominated by 7-11, the number-one chain in both Japan and the world, followed by Lawson and Family Mart, which are the world’s fourth and second-largest convenience store chains, respectively. Porn magazines are big moneymakers for the stores, which as a result have been reluctant to take the same step as Ministop and remove them entirely. The top three chains leave the decision on whether to stock and display porn up to their individual franchise holders. At 7-11, with its approximately 19,000 stores in the country, about 2,500 have stopped selling porn, as have roughly the same number of Lawson stores, though that chain has 6,000 fewer locations across Japan than 7-11. At Family Mart, which operates at approximately 17,000 Japanese locations, the exact number of stores refusing to carry porn magazines was not available, but a report in Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper noted that “some” Family Mart locations have pulled porn mags from the stores, and that the chain “will carefully weigh the matter by observing the direction of the social trend,” a spokesperson said. If other convenience stores follow Ministop’s lead and remove porn magazines completely, it would strike a serious economic blow to the adult publishing industry in Japan, with an estimated 40 percent of all magazines sold at “konibi.”