Outside another store, Akihito and Emi Asao, both in their 80s, just bought sukiyaki and sashimi for dinner. Emi Asao says they used to shop for food elsewhere. EMI ASAO: (Through interpreter) There used to be a vegetable shop and a meat shop, but they closed one after another because their owners had no successors. Then we got this Konbini, so we housewives all went, oh, yeah. KUHN: 7-Eleven got its start as the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas, in 1927. Its first franchised store in Japan opened in 1974. Economic journalist Tomoyuki Isoyama says that 7-Eleven succeeded in taking an American import, adapting it to Japan's culture and improving it. TOMOYUKI ISOYAMA: (Through interpreter) Originally, greengrocers and fishmongers sold goods by communicating with customers at the storefront. They took that traditional Japanese retail style and incorporated it into the systematized convenience store. KUHN: 7-Eleven Japan's first CEO was Toshifumi Suzuki.