Coffee sales at convenience stores surged 48 percent last year, the fastest-growing part of the domestic beverage market, as cups costing just over JPY100 each boosted consumption to a record. Japan is the world’s biggest coffee importer after the US and Germany. Demand per person will eventually be comparable to the US and Europe, said Kazuyuki Kajiwara, general manager at the beverage department of trading company Marubeni Corp.
7-Eleven, which operates 17,600 convenience stores nationwide, plans to boost sales by 21 percent to 850 million cups for the year through February, according to Yasushi Kamata, a company director. FamilyMart Co., the third-biggest operator of convenience stores in the country, aims to bolster brewed coffee sales 11 percent, said Natsu Takaoka, a spokeswoman.
Starbucks opened in Japan in 1996, its first market outside North America, and now operates 1,100 stores across the country, James Olson, a spokesman for the Seattle-based company, said in an e-mail. Japanese stores are among its most profitable, he said.
(Source: The Japan Times Online)