Japan was transformed between 1870 and 1940 into a country more likely to invade than be invaded with military power founded on a robust industrial base and a state structure comparable to those in contemporary Europe. But how did these changes impact on local communities and what was their contribution to them? This paper looks at political and economic change from early Meiji to early Showa in the small town of Soeda in northern Kyushu.

Few retail forms are as ubiquitous—and as culturally distinctive—as the Japanese convenience store. With more than 55,000 outlets nationwide, konbini have become a dense infrastructural mesh woven into the rhythms of everyday life. How did these stores become so entrenched in Japanese life, and what are the social and environmental costs of the convenience they provide? Beginning with the spread of refrigeration and the first supermarket boom in the 1960s, the talk shows how small family retailers fought back by lobbying for legislation to block the spread of large retail outlets.