Pop into a convenience store and you may still find inconvenience: They don't sell medicine and you may not find cigarettes or alcohol at some shops.
The sales of these products are strictly controlled under the government's licensing system, from which local retailers -- one of the traditional support groups of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party -- have long benefited.
It was only in 1999 that convenience stores were allowed to sell pep-up drinks, a staple of exhausted salaried workers, after lawmakers ultimately cajoled pharmacists, supported by allies in the bureaucracy, to give up their decades-old exclusive right to sell the drinks.
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