Former chairman of Seven & i Holdings Toshifumi Suzuki, credited for the global success of 7-Eleven convenience stores, has died at the age of 93, the company said Monday.
Suzuki — known as the “father of the convenience store” in Japan — died due to heart failure on May 18, the company said in a statement.
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“We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to him during his lifetime and respectfully inform you of his passing,” the statement said.
Suzuki is known for opening the first 7-Eleven in Japan in 1974 and growing the business into the world’s largest convenience store chain, including through turning the struggling US headquarters into a subsidiary of the Japanese company and rebuilding it.
He told the Asahi newspaper in an interview that he personally came up with the idea of selling rice balls, or onigiri in Japanese, at 7-Eleven stores. More than 2 billion of the snacks are now sold annually in their branches around Japan, the Asahi said.
After joining major supermarket chain operator Ito-Yokado in 1963, Suzuki brought the convenience store format to Japan from the US through 7-Eleven.
He introduced 24-hour operations, as well as a wide range of other services including ATMs and utility bill payments.
In 1978, he became president of Seven-Eleven Japan, and in 2005, when the holding company Seven & i Holdings was established to integrate the group’s supermarket and family restaurant businesses, he took over as chairman and CEO.
Suzuki quit the company in 2016 after losing a boardroom battle that critics said was aimed at putting his son in charge.
The personnel shake-up he proposed was fiercely opposed by US billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, who accused the company of slipping toward nepotism.
