![\"Interior](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7-eleven-samezu-seaside-1024x636.jpg\")
Picture: Jay Allen \/ Unseen Japan<\/p>\nPeople around the world love Japan\u2019s convenience stores (konbini). Whether it\u2019s for Famichiki or Lawson\u2019s egg salad sandwich, many hit their favorite konbini as their first stop on any trip. <\/p>\n
But I\u2019ve noticed something odd while living here. While konbini are highly rated around the world, none receive five stars from the home crowd. <\/p>\n
I noticed this recently when I had to renew my driver\u2019s license in Tokyo\u2019s Samezu neighborhood in Shinagawa Ward and decided to grab lunch after at a 7-Eleven. The first 7 I found was rated only 2.8 stars and\u2026well, it certainly lived down to that rating. <\/p>\n
So, I found another one nearby: Samezu Seaside 7-Eleven. Ladies and gentlemen, the Samezu Seaside 7-Eleven is a perfect example of konbini done right. The fresh lunch section was ippai. The hot food case was pan-pan. It even had an L-shaped seating area with room for at least 20 hungry souls to chow down. <\/p>\n
Picture: Jay Allen \/ Unseen Japan<\/p>\n
So I was shocked to see that this 7-Eleven only managed a meager 3.9-star rating on Google. It dawned on me: I have rarely seen any konbini rated more than 3 stars. <\/p>\n
Most people whom I brought this up with waved it away as a by-product of how Japanese people assign ratings relative to the West. Japanese people just give stores lower ratings, they shrugged. <\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the full story. There are plenty of places around Japan that earn 4.8 or even higher reviews for their service from Japanese-language reviewers. (Two off-hand examples: yakiniku restaurant D29 in Hiroo<\/a> and concept cafe Diner & Bar Neon<\/a> in Kabukicho.) Additionally, konbini get ranked poorly even in highly-trafficked tourist areas, where you\u2019d expect more reviewers from foreign tourists. <\/p>\n No, konbini reviews are especially poor. Even popular, well-trafficked konbini in tourist areas get the short end of the stick. I analyzed Google Reviews from over 300 konbini across Japan to find out why, and to see which of the three major konbini chains comes out on top. <\/p>\n Businesses start in the hole and work their way out<\/p>\n One of the most striking examples of ratings tinginess is Sukiyabashi Jiro, made world-famous thanks to the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi<\/a>. It ranks as one of the top 100 sushi restaurants in all of Japan on restaurant site Tabelog\u2019s Top 100 Sushi Restaurants list. Its rating on Tabelog? A mere 3.84, tied for the lowest score of the ten restaurants on that list I sampled.<\/p>\n Why? Part of this is due to how people in Japan tend to assign ratings. Because it\u2019s deep-rooted and goes back to the way people get graded in school. <\/p>\n Members-only article<\/p>\n \t\tLog in – or unlock one for free.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tThe rest of this article is for our Insider<\/a> program members, who get one bonus article like this a week. Join our free weekly newsletter and we’ll email you this Insider article, gratis. Already used your unlock? Subscribe today<\/a> and access this article plus our entire back issue archive<\/a>. (Already a member? Login<\/a> )\n\t\t<\/p>\n \t\tKeep reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People around the world love Japan\u2019s convenience stores (konbini). Whether it\u2019s for Famichiki or Lawson\u2019s egg salad sandwich,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,12344,33,4336,628,3356,2393,18052],"class_list":["post-71153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-japan","tag-konbini","tag-nihon","tag-ramen","tag-restaurants","tag-review","tag-sushi","tag-tabelog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tabelog](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786248887_943_image-10.png\")
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