When the owner of 7-Eleven announced this week that he receive a severance pay offer by a Canadian rival, it sent shockwaves through Japan.

Never before has a Japanese company of this size been bought by a foreign company.

Historically, Japanese companies have been more likely to acquire foreign companies.

7-Eleven is the world’s largest convenience store chain with 85,000 stores in 20 countries and territories.

And it has sold particularly well as an option for a quick and cheap yet tasty meal in places where they already exist in abundance, such as Japan and Thailand.

“We have more stores than McDonald’s or Starbucks,” Seven & i Holdings Chairman Ryuichi Isaka told BBC News before the company received the takeover offer.

About a quarter of these 85,000 stores are in Japan, while there are about 10,000 in the United States.

By comparison, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates the Circle K chain, has nearly 17,000 stores in 31 countries and territories. More than half of its stores are in North America.

Seven & i was valued at over $30 billion (£23 billion) before news of the preliminary offer emerged.

7-Eleven shares rose more than 20% on Monday before giving up some of their gains the next day.

Analysts point out that the weakness of the Japanese yen against the US dollar and other major currencies helps make Seven & i affordable.

Despite the weakness of the yen, the Japanese government’s efforts to encourage mergers and acquisitions appear to be succeeding, says Manoj Jain of Hong Kong hedge fund Maso Capital.

7-Eleven wants to capitalize on the popularity of the food it sells, a wide range that includes rice balls, sandwiches, boiled noodles, chicken and dumplings, among others.

While in much of the world convenience stores are the place where people grab a bar of chocolate or a bag of chips in an emergency, in Japan stores like 7-Eleven are popular with visitors looking for culinary delights.

These 7-Eleven dishes have made the chain a social media sensation in Asia.

Visiting a 7-Eleven store has even been touted as one of the most popular things to do in Thailand, where the ham and cheese toastie it offers became a TikTok hit.

British singer Ed Sheeran is one of the celebrities who helped raise 7-Eleven’s profile – a video of him sampling snacks from a store in Thailand went viral.

Mr Isaka sought to repeat that success in the US and European markets after the company came under pressure from investors to sell parts of its businesses and focus on the 7-Eleven brand.

The company has updated its strategy to allow more stores to follow the approach of its Japanese operations.

“We have found that stores that sell fresh food attract many more shoppers,” Mr Isaka said.

“We want to grow with high quality – not just increase quantity. We want to make sure customers are satisfied and increase the sales of each individual store while increasing the number of stores,” he added.

Seven & i has also been on a shopping spree. In January, the company bought more than 200 branches in the USA from the petrol station chain Sunoco for around one billion dollars (770 million pounds).

In April, the company bought back more than 750 stores from a franchisee in Australia.

For most of its nearly century-old history, 7-Eleven was an American brand.

The company began selling ice blocks to cool refrigerators in 1927 and later expanded to include staple foods such as eggs, milk and bread.

Back then, shops were open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. – hence the name.

As the business grew, 7-Eleven began offering franchises outside the United States.

In 1974, Japanese retailer Ito-Yokado signed a deal to open the country’s first 7-Eleven, and in 1991 it bought a 70 percent stake in the chain’s U.S. parent company.

The founder of Ito-Yokado, Masatoshi Ito, who died in 2023 at the age of 98, is often credited with Transforming 7-Eleven into a global empire.

Ito-Yokado was renamed Seven & i Holdings in 2005, with the “i” in the name being a reference to Ito-Yokado and Mr. Ito, who was honorary chairman of the company at the time.

While the decision is currently being made as to whether the company will remain under Japanese ownership or return to its North American roots, experts are wondering whether other large Japanese companies could become takeover targets.

There is now a “greater willingness among Japanese boards and management teams to accept offshore capital and be open to foreign offers,” Jain said.

This could encourage more foreign investors to pursue their interest in Japanese companies, he added.