Lawson opened 29 new convenience stores in Chengdu, Changsha, Chongqing and other Chinese cities on July 1, bringing its total in that country to over 5,000. This makes the company the largest Japanese convenience store operator in mainland China. At the invitation of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, the company launched the first Japanese convenience store in 1996. In 2010, the company began setting up local subsidiaries across China, and since 2014 has accelerated the growth in number of stores and expansion into new regions by promoting mega-franchise contracts with local retail companies. The company is promoting area license agreements that give its partners more responsibility for overall management and development in designated areas by granting them headquarters functions.