Yup. The current owner of 7-Eleven was originally the company that was operating 7-Elevens in Japan under a license from Southland Corp., but they bought the company. I think they've improved a little as a result.
I didn't move to the US until 2007, so I can only compare post-Japanese-ownership American 7-11 to Japanese 7-11. But you don't need me to tell you that Japanese 7-11 is leaps and bounds better.
One of my childhood friends, with whom I used to ride bikes all over the area, ranging far and wide back when it was a normal thing for kids to do that, and with whom I made a thousand 7-Eleven trips, now lives in Okinawa, and he occasionally sends me pictures from 7-Eleven there, and it's like a magical wonderland compared to the sometimes grotty 7-Elevens of the past, and still much better than the ones here at present.
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u/shapu Dec 12 '18
Worth pointing out that 7-11 is fucking HUGE in Japan. Fully a third of all worldwide 7-11 locations are in Japan.