There’s still a lot of gloom-and-doom, finger-pointing and anxiety-spreading “news” out there (some of it on this very blog no less), but I’m getting tired of that. Aren’t you? What I find interesting these days is initiatives like this one.
Japan’s major convenience store operator Family Mart is this month launching a newly-developed fleet of mobile convenience store trucks to provide services across the northeast Tohoku region.
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With their bright neon lights and open-all-hours policy, convenience stores – known as “konbini” in Japan – have long been a key fixture in Japanese communities, both rural and urban.
In the aftermath of the March 11 disaster, a number of major Japanese convenience store operators toured the region in makeshift trucks to provide essentials to displaced victims.
However, the new Family Mart mobile trucks are a specifically designed project which the company was planning even before the March 11 disaster, with a view to gaining access to the most remote regions in the country.
via Shops-on-wheels to launch across tsunami-hit Japan – Telegraph.
Then there’s “social entrepreneurs”. Say, what? The Nikkei explains: Read the rest of this entry »
