Japanese companies struggling to fill jobs are looking for alternative – and, they hope, cheap – ways to supplement their workforces. Japanese convenience store (combini) chain Lawson is expanding on one such solution: self-checkout counters manned by workers who don’t even live in Japan.
Combini have been especially hard hit by Japan’s ongoing labor shortage. Population decline has made it harder to find help. Many (hello, I’m many) would also argue that the country’s piss-poor wages don’t incentivize people to work.
One workaround that combini employ is hiring overseas workers here on student visas. Part-time convenience store work doesn’t qualify one for a visa – but people here for other reasons, such as education, can work so long as they stay within their visa’s specific restrictions.
Lawson, however, thinks it’s found a better solution: the Internet.
In 2022, Japan’s third-largest combini chain announced it was looking for remote operators to help power its new self-checkout avatars, Aoi and Sorato. The avatars, developed by AVITA, enable a remote worker to help people who might have issues operating Lawson’s self-registers.
Using avatar-assisted self-registers means the company can reduce staff – possibly to zero – during certain times of the day, such as late-night shifts. Combinis in Japan operate 24 hours a day – a schedule that’s sometimes proved hard to sustain for some combini franchise owners. Using avatars may mean that, outside of having someone to restock, some stores can go unstaffed – a rising trend among Japanese retail outlets.
Lawson had installed avatar screens at 17 stores in Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, Osaka, and Fukuoka Prefecture stores by November 2024. It now supports around 28 stores, with approximately 70 employees trained to use the avatar system.
Now, Nikkei reports that Lawson has hired its first overseas operator. The company is employing a Japanese citizen in Sweden who can support Japanese shoppers during the evening in Japan while it’s still normal working hours in their local time zone.
There’s an eight-hour time zone difference between the two countries. Lawson’s CEO, Takemasu Sadanobu, says the company also plans to hire workers in Brazil and New York to better support late-night and early morning shifts
Lawson is hoping it can use the new tech – and its new worldwide workforce – to keep stores up and running. 24-hour combini are an essential part of Japan’s daily life and domestic infrastructure. However, 62.5% of convenience store operators say they can’t hire enough workers to keep their businesses running.
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