Total sales for April 2006 edged down 1.9% year on year, to 114,426 million yen. Existing store sales declined 5.5% and average daily sales per store were 466,000 yen. The average amount spent per customer was 581 yen, down 1.4%, and the average number of customers per store per day dropped 4.1% to 800.

Although there was a year-on-year decline in existing store markups, an important indicator for LAWSON, the percentage decline was significantly less than that of existing store sales.

The discontinuation of Highway Card sales brought down monthly sales by more than 1%.

By area, sales were strong in Kanto, Chubu, and some other areas, but were sluggish in Kyushu and Shikoku.

Sales of cooked noodles, soft drinks and ice cream were sluggish due to low temperatures across the country in April, but strong sales were recoded in fast food and instant noodles.

In the rice dishes category, there was no major change in the year-on-year trend, but sales in April 2006 suffered in comparison with April 2005 when Gohantei series products Kani-don no Kurozuan (crab bowl with black vinegar sauce) and Aburi Chashu-don (grilled roast pork bowl) proved extremely popular with customers.

Fast food category sales recorded strong, double-digit growth.

In the dessert category, popular items such as bouquet crepes lifted sales above last year's result.

In the daily-use items category, sales languished in the absence of the boost given to sales in April 2005 by severe hay fever-causing conditions in Japan.

As of April 30, 2006, in addition to our nationwide network of regular LAWSON stores, we had 56 NATURAL LAWSON stores and 37 LAWSON STORE100 stores.

LAWSON announced its business results for the year ended February 28, 2006, on April 12, 2006. Please refer to the flash report, supplements for financial results and presentation slides available on our website.