KAWAGUCHI, Japan – Last week, convenience store chain Lawson Inc., opened its first outlet containing a nursing care consultation desk, in Japan’s Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture.

Nursing care provider Wisnet Co., is the franchise owner of the convenience store, where care managers and advisers are available daily for consultations and to help draw up nursing care plans. This particular Lawson location caters to an elderly clientele, selling food items aimed at the elderly, as well as common nursing care products.

“I genuinely feel a growing need for nursing care services” to meet the needs of the aging population, Lawson President Genichi Tamatsuka said at the opening ceremony, according to news reports in Japan Times. “The new outlet is ‘strategically important’ for Lawson,” he added.

The company plans to expand the number of outlets offering nursing care consultations to 30 by the end of 2017.