SUSTAINABILITY Community Relations

Supporting Safety and Security in the Community

We are leveraging our nationwide network of stores in 47 prefectures to provide essential services to our customers in their daily lives, and to create stores that offer peace of mind to a wide range of customers.

Participation in Safety Station activities

In recent years, convenience stores have been called upon to meet a variety of social needs, including crime and disaster prevention measures, safety measures, and the sound upbringing of young people.

In order to meet these needs, the Lawson Group actively participates in the Japan Franchise Association's Safety Station activities (SS activities), and we are promoting cooperation in building a safe and secure community and efforts to improve the environment for young people. We also take special measures to prevent robbery and fraud, and we respond to the rush of groups of people such as women, children and elderly guardians.

●Lawson’s Safety Station activity data for 2023*

Women's last minute rush 1,054 stores More than 1,587 times
Children's last minute rush 603 stores More than 828 times
Elderly Protection 2,441 stores More than 4,466 times
Scam (billing fraud) prevention 4,267 stores More than 6,513 times
Encouraging juveniles to go
home late at night		 5,622 stores -

* Figures are extracted from the 2023 SS questionnaire report

Safety station storefront poster
▲Safety station storefront poster
Examples of SS Activities

Prevention of a special fraud

A customer wished to purchase a 100,000-yen gift card.
Considering the large amount, an employee asked for the reason for the purchase to which the customer responded that an instruction appeared on the customer’s computer to input a code for a 100,000-yen gift card.
The employee found this suspicious and advised the customer to consult the police before purchasing the gift card, and the customer consulted the nearest police box.
As a result, the case was uncovered as fraud, and potential damage was prevented.

Watching over a child

Around 21:30, a girl entered the store alone. An employee watched over the girl, considered that she resembled a missing girl posted on the social media account of the Osaka Prefectural Police, which the employee had checked before work, called to her in the store, and protected her after confirmation.
The store manager came to the store around 22:00, received a report from the employee, and reported to the police. The police subsequently confirmed that she was the missing girl, and safely handed her over.

Rescue operation for a customer

An elderly customer living in the neighborhood fell at home and was injured badly with bleeding from the head.
Because the customer’s family was absent, the customer came to the store for help. The owner immediately called an ambulance to have the customer taken to the hospital as an appropriate response to the emergency situation.

Crime prevention efforts in stores

In-store announcements are made to ask young customers to refrain from going out late at night in accordance with the Youth Development Ordinance, and to remind customers not to drive under the influence of alcohol.
In addition, security cameras have been installed in all stores to deter crime, and in the unlikely event of an incident, we cooperate with investigations to apprehend the perpetrators. Inside our stores, we have installed a variety of security equipment, mainly near the counters, to protect the personal safety of our customers and employees.

Crime prevention at stores

We conduct education to ensure that store personnel act with the highest priority placed on personal safety and with crime prevention in mind, in ways such as greeting customers in a cheerful and spirited manner. Our headquarters is cooperating with the police and the Japan Franchise Association in efforts to prevent crimes against the convenience store industry as a whole.

Actions taken as crime prevention measures.

  • Promotion of security camera installation
    Digital security cameras are installed at every store to discourage potential perpetrators from committing crimes and to support investigations that may lead to the arrest of perpetrators in the unlikely event an incident should occur.
  • Creation of an environment for store crew education
    Reminders to raise awareness of crime prevention are distributed for display on POS cash registers and store computers, and crime prevention videos are also delivered to stores for use in educating their store crew members. Various manuals and guidebooks have also been prepared as educational tools.
  • Enhancing guidance provision during patrols
    In addition to the regular store patrols, we also provide crime prevention support for stores during late-night and crime prevention patrols to raise awareness together with franchise stores.
  • Conducting crime prevention drills
    Employees are trained under police direction in methods of responding to robberies, including throwing of anti-crime color paintballs and, more recently, training for special fraud prevention.
    Conducting crime prevention drills
    Conducting crime prevention drills

Notices Displayed on Cash Register and Loppi Screens

Using the customer screen of POS cash registers and the Loppi screen, which are frequently seen by customers, we display cautions about fraud, notify customers that the sale of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes to minors under 20 years of age is prohibited, and display messages to deter people from shoplifting.

▲Examples of notices displayed on cash register and Loppi screens



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