TOKYO — Japanese convenience stores are developing products and promotions with foreign consumers in mind, in an effort to attract a bigger share of the flood of overseas tourists visiting Japan.
Japan’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, began using English on product packaging in 2018, but it has recently gone further in promoting the English names of popular products. For example, “wasabi” now appears prominently in Roman letters on rice balls containing the pungent paste favored by foreign fans of Japanese cuisine in some locations. Its range of egg sandwiches, already a hit with foreign tourists, is being expanded to feature soft-boiled eggs.
