At a time when the giant department stores and supermarkets dominated the Japanese retail industry, two businessmen, Toshifumi Suzuki and Hideo Shimizu, discovered a new type of small retail store flourishing in America - the Seven Eleven. Called a "convenience store," it was a concept new to the Japanese. Intrigued by this new idea and convinced that it would suceed in Japan as well, the two men put together a project team of fifteen members, all virtual novices to the retail trade, to bring this venture to their land. Staking his entire livelihood, young storeowner Kenji Yamamoto volunteers to convert his family-owned liquor store into the first Seven Eleven in Japan. The hardship of negotiations, the oil shock, the struggle to cope with inadequate space - all were met with resolve and innovation, culminating in what is now called the retail revolution!

"Basically a business textbook rendered in manga form, this volume relates in copious detail the true story of how two businessmen discovered the concept of the 'convenience store' during a research trip through the United States in the late seventies. Enlisting a young storeowner who was willing to convert his family-owned liquor store into a potentially more profitable venture, the businessmen launch what becomes Japan's first 7-Eleven, the vanguard of a retail revolution. Filled with the minutiae of development, distribution, management concerns and corporate dynamics, the authors present this landmark moment in Japanese business with the histrionics and gravitas common to action and adventure manga, and the result is an earnest yet baffling attempt to give moving, operatic scale to a turgid example of the often deadly dull historical comics genre. Both scripting and artwork almost intentionally strive for flatness, which soon seems ironic. Business school students and those who appreciate Iron Chef — type over the top dramatics will receive opposite but equal forms of enjoyment from this volume." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)