What do you consider to be the reasons behind FamilyMart's healthy performance despite the tough environment that the convenience store industry faces?

One reason is our thorough commitment to the fundamental rule of the retail industry—“S&QC (Ser vice & Quality, Cleanliness).” Another, I think, is our ongoing commitment to promotion activities that are befitting of the FamilyMart brand. Here, we encourage particularly our younger, midcareer employees to each think and act in ways that they think are best suited to the FamilyMart name. These activities have led to three extremely popular core products (pasta, fast food, and desserts) that have given us an overwhelming advantage versus other companies.

Can you elaborate a bit more on the promotion activities that you refer to?

These activities invite each person to consider and take action on what they believe is necessary to build up FamilyMart's strengths, and what they can personally do to achieve this. Since the start of these activities with a gathering of our younger, mid-career employees in 2005, I have ordered managers to take part, and to provide cooperation with these activities across the board. These activities have not only grown to encompass franchise stores, but have spread to Taiwan as well.

At one time, business performance in Taiwan was flagging somewhat. Believing that the activities taking place in Japan should also be adopted in Taiwan, we sent an instructor from FamilyMart Japan there, who joined forces with local staff to launch the promotion of activities befitting the Taiwanese version of FamilyMart. The effect of this decision was seen half a year later, when business performance picked up sharply.

So in this way, I think that what makes us a winner in the industry is our dedication, even in an adverse consumer environment, to try to increase the number of customers who visit our stores because they like what FamilyMart has to offer.

What are some examples of activities at your franchise stores?

Each store has identified its own distinctive features and shaped those in ways that befit the FamilyMart brand, and in ways that will delight customers. For instance, stores that are frequented by long-distance drivers offer customers cold hand towels to refresh themselves with during summer, and hot hand towels during winter. Stores located near schools for the visually impaired have all price cards printed in Braille. We publish these and other examples of activities that customers have praised in a pamphlet called “FamilyMart Hospitality,” which we distribute to franchise stores and to all of our employees.

You suggested earlier that influences from the “FamilyMart feel” campaign befitting the FamilyMart brand have also appeared in products. What specific products were you referring to?

We launched the “Sweets+ (Sweets Plus)” series, revamping our original desserts already known for their delicious taste by starting from scratch, to create an overwhelmingly distinctive product line.

Another product line we have confidence in is our fried products, especially our fried chicken and French fries. Then there's our “Three-Star Pasta,” which I can proudly say we have raised to a level that would take any rival years to reach.

FamilyMart also has an ample line of products targeting seniors, does it not?

Men and women in their 20s and 30s and middle-aged men make up about 75% of all convenience store customers. Adding seniors to this mix would potentially make us stronger than either supermarkets or department stores. To do this, we have given thought to product lineups and store layouts that might attract seniors, creating Famima Fresh corners in stores where we sell vegetables, fruit, meat and other fresh produce as well as amberjack, fugu, and other types of sashimi. We have also created teams that are dedicated to developing products specifically for middle-aged and senior customers under what we call the “Oyaji Project.” In fiscal 2007, we divided our development framework into two teams—“Team Oyaji,” comprising members in their 40s and 50s, and “Team Baby Boomer,” consisting of members in their late 50s and early 60s—to conduct more fine-tuned product development.