OSAKA - Mitoshi Matsumoto, the man who has waged a David-and-Goliath campaign against the Japanese convenience store giant 7-Eleven, stood in front of a roomful of the company's franchisees on Thursday , bowed deeply and apologised.
But on Thursday afternoon, a judge ordered Mr Matsumoto to immediately hand his store in the Osaka suburbs, which he opened in 2012, over to the company and pay around 114 million yen in estimated damages for lost business. In a statement, a 7-Eleven spokesperson said that the ruling was"appropriate", adding that the company would"work even harder for the patronage of customers in the region".
It was a seemingly small act of rebellion. But standing up to one of the most powerful and ubiquitous corporations in Japan made him a celebrity and exposed the inner workings of an industry that had long been celebrated as a model of efficiency. In addition to the demands that stores always stay open, the commission cited other fundamental problems with the industry's business model, including misleading recruiting practices and forcing store owners to stock more merchandise than they could sell. The commission ordered the chains to develop a plan for improving their treatment of store owners.