The Lawson Franchise System

Lawson's convenience store business is run on a franchise system. Under this system, Lawson headquarters and franchise owners share the Group Philosophy of "Creating Happiness and Harmony in Our Communities," and work as equal partners toward growth. Headquarters not only provides franchise stores with various services such as logistics and information, rights to use trademarks, and management know-how, but also offers ongoing management support. In return, as independent business operators, franchise owners seek to maximize profits by optimizing customer satisfaction while paying franchise fees and royalties. In this way, franchise owners and Lawson headquarters work in tandem, each playing their respective roles.

Building a Strong Partnership with Each Franchise Owner Through Communicating Directly with Them

Lawson sees the entrepreneurial mindset of franchise store owners and the franchise system as the two major drivers of growth and has endeavored to strengthen its relationships with franchise stores by establishing systems for providing detailed local care to support the establishment of stores loved by customers.

In addition, to strengthen our partnerships with franchise stores, we hold Lawson seminars for sharing company-wide policies and directions, as well as area meetings, where franchise store owners share success stories and sales plans.
In addition, we have established a number of direct dialog systems between franchise stores and headquarters officers, including the president, for directly listening to the most important opinions from the frontline.
Through these initiatives, franchise stores and the headquarters aim to become a group that creates happiness in our communities.

Mechanisms for Information Sharing and Direct Dialogue

1. Lawson Seminars*

Lawson Seminars are convened for every franchise store each spring and fall throughout Japan. The President and other members of management share the Company’s policies and directions with the franchise owners by providing them with detailed explanations of future business strategies, and informing them of product development planning in conformance with the policies.

2. Area Meetings*

Area meetings are regional workshops conducted monthly at Lawson branches from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Franchise stores from the same areas gather to share details of sales activities planned for the following month as well as of their past successes, or to exchange opinions with the aim of helping individual stores improve their management capabilities.

* The means of Lawson seminars and area meetings have been changed since FY 2020, such as holding online seminars and hybrid seminars with in-person seminars.

3. Direct line to the President

This original Lawson system enables franchise owners, store managers and store crew members to express their opinions, proposals, or requests for improvement directly to the President. The President checks all the messages delivered over this line and takes necessary measures.

4. Lawson Franchise Store Advisory Committee

Established in April 2019, the Lawson Franchise Store Advisory Committee is an initiative for promoting improvement and innovation in Lawson’s interactions with franchise stores by enabling them to express opinions concerning Headquarters’ management and strategies from the franchise store perspective.

5. Establishment of Internal and External Contact Points

To provide multifaceted follow-up to franchise stores, we have established internal and external contact points for inquiries.
In addition to setting up an in-house contact point for inquiries handled by specialized staff, we have also established a contact point in a law firm for inquiries that may be difficult to discuss with the headquarters. This enables franchise stores and the headquarters to face each other firmly, recognize issues and requirements, and work together to resolve them.

Lawson’s Step-Up Model for Franchise Owners

Management Owner (MO):

An MO is a type of franchise owner officially approved by the Lawson headquarters as one that is in an even stronger partnership with the headquarters. Furthermore, an MO is a business operator who runs multi-store operations in a manner befitting the local area and aims for growth hand-in-hand with the headquarters.

Store Consultant (SC):

An SC is a store manager within the MO organization who has been granted SC qualifications certified by the Lawson headquarters through undergoing a process of specified training and review, and who is charged with making a round of visits to individual Lawson stores to provide them with operational guidance.

Training System for Franchise Stores
Working to Establish a Safe and Secure Store Management Environment

Human resource development is one of the most important requirements for store management.
Lawson implements training programs for franchise store owners, dedicated staff, and store crew (part-time and temporary workers).
After gaining basic knowledge through the Basic Management Course (BMC) prior to opening a store, franchise store owners receive training that matches the growth of their stores.

▲ Basic Management Course (BMC)
With the aim of sharing and permeating the franchise philosophy, participants acquire the knowledge and know-how necessary for store management.

Franchise Store Benefit System
Lawson Owner Welfare Association

Invitation, Recruitment, Development, Retention, and Re-employment of Store Crews
We are establishing an environment where store crews gather and upgrade themselves for long-term working.

The Lawson Headquarters takes various initiatives to support the extension of an environment where franchise store crews gather and upgrade themselves for long-term working.

Store Crew Recruitment Website

For persons who want to work at Lawson stores, we have set up an official job information website.
We have expanded the functionality of the website to encourage applications, such as posting interviews with working store crews.
Persons who want to work at Lawson stores can immediately search for the best store by inputting a requested area and treatment and can file an application 24 hours a day on a PC or smartphone.
Franchise store owners who want to recruit store crews are able to prepare and modify job postings at their fingertips, as well as instantly checking and responding to applications.

Lawson Staff, a staffing company, helps alleviate job-related concerns

As part of efforts to address labor shortages at its stores, Lawson operates Lawson Staff, Inc. a staffing company jointly established with Matchbox Technologies Inc.

Amid a declining labor force due to the aging and shrinking population, Lawson Staff is proactively accepting international students from a long-term human resource perspective. Many of these students have strong goals, such as “I want to learn Japan’s hospitality culture” or “I want to return to my country and become an entrepreneur,” and numerous students from Vietnam, Taiwan, China, and other countries are already registered with Lawson Staff. Regardless of age, gender, or nationality, Lawson Staff continues to take on challenges without being bound by conventional ideas, so that people who want to work but feel a little uncertain can work within the Lawson Group with smiles, with peace of mind, and for the long term.

Since April 2021, the job-matching app “matchbox” (a short-term staffing service) has been introduced. The matchbox makes it possible to fill open shifts—such as those arising from resignations or sudden absences—that are difficult to cover with store crews alone, by widely publishing them to former crew members and general job seekers, who can then be selected and hired (matched). This enables shifts to be covered with a broader pool of human resources.
The app also features a “Friend Registration” function that allows employers to register hired former store crews and job seekers. By building a large pool of registered friends, shift operations can be managed more stably.

Enhancement of Store Crew Communication

To support the establishment of an environment that enables long-term working by store crews, we provide continuous and systematic support, such as opening Lawson Channel, a communication website for store crews, and enhancing crew benefits.

Lawson Channel

Mobile website for store crews, commonly known as the Lawson Channel:
The Channel provides plenty of content that makes working at Lawson even more enjoyable, such as notifications from Lawson, exclusive campaign information for registered users, and open chats (posts) with store crews nationwide.

In-app Glossary Explaining Frequently Used Store Terms in Nine Languages

About 13% of store crews working at Lawson stores are non-Japanese.
While it is difficult for non-Japanese crew to understand retail terms and common phrases that Japanese persons take for granted, franchise store owners, store managers, and senior store crews often face difficulties in teaching store operations.
For this reason, “Lawsonary,” a multilingual glossary of Lawson terms (available in nine languages as of the end of April 2025), has been added to Lawson Channel, a Lawson crew-only app.
The app facilitates efficient communication among store crews by making it easy to look up commonly used store terms on smartphones.