7-Eleven to stop selling pornographic magazines in Japan ahead of Rugby World Cup
Japanese convenience store giants 7-Eleven and Lawsons have pledged to remove pornographic magazines from their shelves before the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the Olympics in 2020, both of which will be held in Tokyo.
The magazines are easily accessible in both 7-Eleven and Lawsons stores as they are not packaged with plastic wraps.
Both 7-Eleven and Lawsons, which runs 70,000 stores and 14,000 stores in Japan respectively, say the move is to ‘create a proper shopping environment for all its customers’. The pornography magazines accounted for less than 1% of sales for 7-Eleven.
The magazines are easily accessible in both 7-Eleven and Lawsons stores as they are not packaged with plastic wraps and placed on the lower tier of shelves which are displayed prominently alongside hot drinks, frozen meals, cup noodles and face masks for 24 hours a day.
There are also washrooms and tables available in the stores, which means tourists often frequent these stores and could potentially mean they will see these magazines.
"In the past, 7-Eleven was mostly used by male customers to buy beverages and fast food, and our product assortment was designed accordingly," the chain told Reuters.
"However, as the role and usage of 7-Eleven stores have changed in recent years, 7-Eleven became an important shopping destination for families, children, and elder people as well."