Convenience stores defend 24-hour operations
Facing attack from critics that want convenience stores to shut down at night as a measure to prevent global warming, the Japan Franchise Association has responded by stating that convenience stores play a crucial role as safe havens for lost children and victims of crime:
More than 13,000 cases of women finding refuge in convenience stores across the country were reported during fiscal 2007. Nearly half of them occurred after 11 p.m. and about 40 percent were due to stalkers and molesters, the association said.
In addition, there were 6,000 cases of lost children requiring assistance and 12,000 cases of elderly people found wandering the streets alone.
The 12 companies that comprise the JFA operate around 42,000 convenience stores.
Explaining the significance of convenience stores, a JFA official said they provide a “substitute for ‘koban’ (police boxes) and streetlights in the middle of the night.”
The National Police Agency says that koban and “hashutsujo” police branch offices are located at about 13,000 places across the country, but that number is down by around 1,000 from five years earlier.
In addition, the JFA has also stated that convenience stores with limited nighttime hours would still have to keep on their refrigeration systems when closed, so the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be negligible.
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Totally agree on the safety factor, seevral friends and acquaintances have been saved by taking shelter in a conbini at night. Although one gaijin who took shelter from a drunken Japanese assailant, when the cops got called in, the cops slapped the cuffs on the GAIJIN!!, luckily the conbini staff explained that the gaijin with all the blood and bruises on his face, rather than the drunken screaming Japanese dude, was the VICTIM. Thank you underpaid conbini dude, why is your salary lower than a stupid, racist Koban Keystone’s?
Also nice to see that many are now learning just how far the CO2 hysteria is going to go.
First it was Cool Biz, setting the AC at a very uncomfortbale 28C (if you have to wear a suit, as many eikaiwa teachers found out, even though Koizumi could go short sleeved and without a tie, eikaiwa dress code DEMANDS necktie and jacket!)
Telling factories and energy companies and car makers to take measures is one thing; but when the greenies start telling us to give up essential things, or telling some of us that things aren’t really necessary (although Al Gore can keep his 100foot houseboat, ’cause he NEEDS it to relieve the stress of saving the planet)
More steps like this and envirofascism is going to go out of fashion. Yahoo!
Perhaps the police need to work on the stalkers and rapists.
More importantly what if it’s 3am and I can’t get my hone-nashi fried chicken. Bollox to that, keep them open!
it’s not a simple as getting fried chicken at 3:00AM, conbini do really provide freshness relief during those devilishly hot summer night wanderings
Whatever the merits of this proposal, it still boggles my mind how many businesses leave bright neon lights on all night long, people who leave computers on all night, or cities who leave street lamps on during the day. There is a whole lot of wasted electricity there, which translates into both lost money and global warming.
Hey! If I don’t leave my compute on all night, my torrents won’t download fast enough.
I think we should be worrying more about cars exhaust, tobacco smoke, and air pollution from factories before we have to start worrying about neon lights, computers, and 24 hour convenient stores.