According to statistics from the Japan Franchise Association, there have been 55,924 comfort stores working in Japan as of 2020. Many convenience stores are positioned in critical town workplace districts and near principal stations, where it isn’t always unusual with the intention to walk one minute in any direction and find a Seven-Eleven, a Lawson, and a FamilyMart.
Meanwhile, a look at the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s annual Report on Public Health Administration and Services shows that the wide variety of beauty salons is gradually growing. As of the end of 2019, there were 254,422, a upward push of 1.3% from the preceding year. That is more than four—five times the number of convenience shops. Even the range of barbershops, which is gradually declining, stood at 117,266 as of the end of 2019, more than double that of comfort stores.
Despite this large difference, there is no identical sense of an immoderate wide variety of splendid salons. This may be to do with how often the stores are frequented. People simply have their hair cut once every one to 2 months, while convenience shops, no longer restricted to a specific service, can be used day by day—or even several times a day—making them more seen.
