Global pop star Lady Gaga put on a convenience store uniform. She stands behind the cash register, stocks shelves, and even mops the floor. But this commercial is not promoting a new product. It is an employee recruitment campaign launched by FamilyMart in Japan on September 25. Bringing in Lady Gaga just to hire convenience store part-timers? What is happening in Japan's convenience store industry?

01. Why Call in Lady Gaga?

The commercial starring Lady Gaga was filmed on a FamilyMart store set built inside a studio in Los Angeles. A significant portion of the scenes was improvised on the spot. FamilyMart's stated goal is to become the "convenience store where people most want to work." In this campaign, its rivals are other job openings.
Marketing, which companies once used to tell consumers to "buy our products," is now being deployed to tell workers to "choose our company." Why go as far as trying to transform the very image of working at a convenience store?

Convenience stores in Japan do far more than sell goods. They handle parcel shipping, collect utility bill payments, issue event tickets, and provide an array of daily life services. While remarkably convenient for shoppers, maintaining that convenience requires someone to watch the store around the clock.

02. "We Can't Find Workers," Even Seven Years Ago

The labor crunch in Japanese convenience stores did not emerge overnight. The struggles voiced by major convenience store franchise owners on TV Tokyo's "The Dawn of Gaia" back in 2019 were not much different from today. They suffered through grueling hours without days off, yet could not find staff.

Seven years have passed. An industry that pleaded in 2019 that "we can't find workers" is now, in 2026, fronting a global pop icon to ask: "Won't you work at FamilyMart?"

03. Business Is Thriving, but Hands Are Lacking

Japan's convenience store industry is by no means collapsing. In 2025, total sales across all outlets of Japan's major convenience store chains reached 12 trillion yen, marking an all-time high for the fourth consecutive year. Customer traffic, however, dipped 0.2% from the previous year. Higher spending per customer and purchases by foreign tourists drove the top-line growth. In short, business is strong, but there are not enough people to run it. Labor has become the new bottleneck for convenience store chains.

04. Companies Begin Adapting to People

In September, FamilyMart redesigned the uniforms across its 16,500 stores nationwide for the first time in 10 years. It introduced T-shirt style uniforms—a first in the convenience store industry—relaxed rules on hair color, and allowed workers to layer clothing under uniforms or wear hijabs.

In the service industry of the past, employees were expected to conform to the company's image, from hair color and attire to accessories and tone of speech. Now that workers are scarce, the question has flipped: "What will make people want to work for our company?" FamilyMart has also set a goal to increase its applicant pool by 1.5 times compared to 2025.

05. The People Who Keep Convenience Stores Running

One of the most noticeable changes in Japanese convenience stores is the presence of foreign workers. As of 2025, more than 110,000 foreign nationals work across 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and Lawson—roughly 1 in 7 of the total 800,000 part-time workforce. They can no longer be viewed as merely supplementary staff.

Convenience store work is far from easy. Staff must handle parcel deliveries, utility bills, digital payments, food preparation, and various neighborhood services, all while interacting with customers in Japanese. While a convenience store offers everything to shoppers, it requires employees to learn a vast range of tasks. Even so, the number of foreign workers continues to climb.
With Japan's working-age population shrinking, convenience stores, restaurants, hotels, logistics, and construction are all competing for the same labor pool. In the process, foreign workers are shifting from temporary gap-fillers into indispensable personnel required to keep current service standards intact.

The growing share of foreign workers in convenience stores signifies more than a shift in nationality demographics. It serves as an everyday window into where a depopulating Japan is searching for new labor.

Yet even with these efforts, shortages persist, prompting chains to turn to another solution: technology.

06. If There Are No Workers, Can Machines Step In?

Japanese convenience store operators are already conducting diverse experiments: AI-powered ordering, self-checkout, robotics, and remote customer service. However, adopting technology is not solely about eliminating human jobs. For several years, Lawson has been testing remote avatars that allow individuals who cannot physically visit stores to assist customers.
Technology enables those who face mobility challenges, cannot commute at fixed hours due to childcare, or live far from stores to join the workforce.

These experiments are expanding further. In June last year, Lawson opened its first futuristic flagship store in Takanawa, Tokyo. Robots assist with shelf restocking and cleaning, while remote 3D avatars guide shoppers through self-checkout machines and provide customer service. Lawson aims to reduce store operational workloads by 30% by fiscal 2030.
Relieving staff of duties machines can handle allows humans to concentrate on tasks requiring human judgment and personal interaction. At the same time, it opens up job opportunities to those who previously struggled to commute. In an era of labor shortages, automation is being embraced not merely to eliminate people, but to expand the ways in which people can work.

07. In the End, It Is Companies That Change

Relaxing hair color rules, introducing comfortable uniforms, actively welcoming foreign nationals, deploying technology, and enlisting a global pop star for recruitment ads—these may look like separate developments, but they are driven by a single underlying shift: workers are becoming precious.

For decades, businesses set the terms: "Show up at this hour, dress like this, work this way." Now that talent is scarce, the questions have flipped: "What hours would you like to work? How would you like to present yourself? What will it take for you to work with us?"

08. Is Japan's Today Korea's Tomorrow?

South Korea is also seeing its working-age population decline. But we should not assume Korea will simply follow the exact same path as Japan. The real question lies elsewhere: in a shrinking society, can we continue to sustain 24-hour operations, lightning-fast delivery, low-cost services, and consistently attentive hospitality at the same price we pay today?

Some will need to earn higher wages, others will have to pay higher prices, and certain services may be scaled back. Foreign workers or technology may fill the void.

Lady Gaga asks once again: "Won't you work at FamilyMart?" In societies with declining populations, the sight of companies actively courting workers may soon become the new normal.


Deep Dive Q&A
Q1. What are the underlying background and purpose behind Japan's FamilyMart launching a recruitment campaign featuring global pop star Lady Gaga?

A1. The primary driver is Japan's severe contraction of its working-age population, which made labor shortages a critical bottleneck threatening convenience store business continuity. Shifting away from standard marketing designed to sell products to consumers, FamilyMart rolled out a large-scale recruitment marketing drive to gain an upper hand against other sectors such as dining, logistics, and construction, establishing itself as the "convenience store where people most want to work" to be chosen by job seekers.

Q2. What major changes in welfare, technology, and workforce structure has Japan's convenience store industry introduced to address the labor shortage?

A2. In terms of welfare and work environment, chains have rewritten policies to be applicant-friendly by relaxing hair color rules, allowing hijabs, and adopting comfortable T-shirt uniforms. Regarding workforce composition, foreign nationals now account for roughly 1 in 7 part-time staff (over 110,000 workers), serving as essential core labor. On the technology front, rather than solely cutting headcounts, stores are deploying remote 3D avatars, robotics, and AI to help those who previously faced barriers to employment—such as caregivers and remote residents—participate in the workforce while lightening on-site workloads.