Different from the USA, 7-11 in Japan and China are mainly self checkout at least, so they can technically run a store with less people since they don’t have to man cash registers to get people checked out.

I don't know about China, but I live in Japan and most konbini I have visited still have real human cashiers.

But who's going to unlock the expensive items from the plexiglass case?

This. Also there is a social backlash against Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai service workers in Japan now (the people who tend to be working the counter at a kombini, but apparently Asians all look the same to Western HNers), as well as Western tourists.

Edit: can't reply

> I doubt many Chinese youths want to work for minimum wage in Japan

Chinese are the 2nd largest nationality of foreign agricultural and food workers in Japan [0].

As long as the median household income in China [1] remains below the minimum wage in Japan [2], members of the bottom half of Chinese society will continue to emigrate there, Korea, and other countries to work, that said not at the same rate as was seen a decade ago.

[0] - https://catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/opac_download_md/4738336/...

[1] - https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202507/t202507...

[2] - https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%8E%E8%B3%83%E9...