Toshifumi Suzuki, the convenience store pioneer who built 7-Eleven into a fixture of daily life in Japan, died on May 18. He was 93.

将7-Eleven打造成日本日常生活中不可或缺之物的便利店先驱铃木敏文于5月18日去世，享年93岁。

Seven & i, the Japanese operator of the 7-Eleven franchise, where Mr. Suzuki served as an honorary adviser, confirmed the death and said the cause was heart failure. It did not say where he died.

铃木俊文曾任名誉顾问的7-Eleven特许经营店日本运营商——柒和伊控股证实了这一消息，并表示其死因为心力衰竭。该公司没有透露他去世的地点。

Over four decades leading 7-Eleven Japan, Mr. Suzuki transformed the business from a single store on Tokyo’s eastern bay into an empire with tens of thousands of locations. Known as a relentless innovator, he introduced many hallmarks of the modern Japanese convenience store — from in-store banking to crisp seaweed-wrapped rice balls — that are beloved by many in Japan and abroad.

在执掌日本7-Eleven的40多年里，铃木俊文把一家位于东京湾东侧的单店发展成拥有数万家门店的商业帝国。他以永不停歇的创新者闻名，引入了许多现代日本便利店的标志性元素——从店内银行服务到包着脆海苔的饭团——这些东西如今不仅深受日本人喜爱，也吸引了海外消费者。

Since Mr. Suzuki’s resignation in 2016, 7-Eleven has struggled to maintain its footing. In recent years, the company has faced stagnant profitability, a tumultuous takeover bid from a Canadian rival and the challenge of bringing in a new chief executive to revive growth. Some in the company have lamented that its culture of creativity has ebbed since Mr. Suzuki’s departure.

2016年铃木卸任后，7-Eleven开始步履维艰。近年来，公司面临利润增长停滞、加拿大竞争对手发出收购要约的惊涛骇浪，以及聘请一位新首席执行官来重振增长所面临的挑战。公司内部有人感叹，自从铃木离开后，那种充满创造力的企业文化也逐渐消退了。

Born in Nagano Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, Mr. Suzuki worked in publishing sales before he was recruited by Masatoshi Ito, the founder of Ito-Yokado, a major retail chain in Japan. Mr. Suzuki joined the company and became a director in 1971.

铃木出生于位于东京西北的长野县，曾从事出版销售工作，后被日本大型零售连锁伊藤洋华堂的创始人伊藤雅俊招入麾下。铃木加入该公司，并于1971年成为董事。

Not long after, Mr. Suzuki spotted an American convenience store chain called 7-Eleven, operated by the Dallas-based Southland Corporation, and saw an opportunity to bring it to Japan. At the time, many were skeptical that American-style convenience stores could succeed in a market dominated by small mom-and-pop shops.

不久之后，铃木注意到了一家来自美国的便利店连锁——当时由总部位于达拉斯的Southland Corporation运营，并从中看到了将其引进日本的商机。彼时，许多人对美式便利店能否在一个以夫妻小店为主导的市场中站稳脚跟普遍持怀疑态度。

Mr. Suzuki was undeterred. His longtime motto was “adapt to change,” a credo he said had emerged from his experience during World War II, when, as a junior high school student, his life was suddenly upended.

铃木却毫不动摇。他毕生奉行的信条是“顺应变化”——他说，这一信念源于二战期间的亲身经历：当时还只是初中生的他，人生突然被战争彻底打乱。

In 1973, Mr. Suzuki teamed up with Southland to bring 7-Eleven to Japan. The next year, the first one opened in Tokyo’s eastern Toyosu neighborhood. Stocked with popular American items like hamburgers, it was an immediate hit. Within two years, the chain had expanded to 100 stores.

1973年，铃木与Southland合作，把7-Eleven引入日本。第二年，第一家门店在东京东部的丰洲地区开业。店里销售汉堡等美国流行食品，一开张就大受欢迎。短短两年内，门店数量便扩张到了100家。

日本首家7-Eleven门店，摄于1988年。在铃木敏文的领导下，便利店开始重塑日本人的日常生活。

Mr. Suzuki pressed ahead, continually adapting and refining 7-Eleven’s operations. In 1975, 7-Eleven started 24-hour operations at a store in Fukushima Prefecture, a model that would become standard across Japan’s convenience store industry. He also rolled out the Japanese retail sector’s first large-scale point-of-sale system for item-by-item inventory management.

铃木乘势而上，不断对7-Eleven的经营模式加以调整和优化。1975年，7-Eleven在福岛县一家门店率先推行24小时营业，这一模式后来成为日本便利店行业的通行标准。他还在日本零售业率先推出了大规模POS销售时点信息管理系统，用于单品库存管理。

Over the next three decades, Mr. Suzuki oversaw the opening of thousands of additional stores across Japan. 7-Eleven’s Japanese operator steadily increased its stake in Southland until the chain became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005.

在接下来的30年里，铃木在日本各地又开了数千家门店。7-Eleven的日本运营商稳步增持Southland的股份，到2005年，这个原本的美国连锁品牌彻底成为日本企业所有。

Under Mr. Suzuki’s leadership, convenience stores began reshaping everyday life in Japan. They began selling staples like rice balls and bento boxes — foods traditionally prepared at home that became some of the stores’ most popular items. 7-Eleven also expanded into services ranging from package shipping to bill payment and brought in machines that brewed fresh coffee at the counter.

在铃木的领导下，便利店开始重塑日本的日常生活。他们开始售卖饭团、便当等原本通常在家里制作的食物，而这些后来都成了最受欢迎的商品。7-Eleven还扩展到从包裹寄送到账单支付的各种服务，并在柜台引入了现磨咖啡机。

By 2015, the 7-Eleven empire had grown to more than 55,000 stores globally, making it the largest convenience store chain in the world. Within the industry, Mr. Suzuki became known as the “god of retail.”

到2015年，7-Eleven全球门店数量已经超过5.5万家，成为跃居全球规模最大的便利店连锁。在业内，铃木赢得了“零售之神”的美誉。

The next year, he resigned after a failed attempt to oust Ryuichi Isaka, then the president of 7-Eleven Japan, on the grounds that Mr. Isaka had failed to meet performance expectations. After the board rejected the ouster proposal, Mr. Suzuki said the vote showed he no longer had the confidence of the company’s leadership. He remained at the company as an honorary adviser.

第二年，他试图罢免7-Eleven Japan社长井阪隆一，理由是他未能达到业绩预期。在董事会否决了这一提议后，铃木表示，这一投票结果说明他已失去公司高层的信任，遂宣告辞职，此后以名誉顾问身份留任。

Mr. Suzuki is survived by his wife and two children, according to local media. One of Mr. Suzuki’s sons, Yasuhiro Suzuki, served as an executive at Seven & i until 2016.

据日本媒体报道，铃木的遗属包括妻子与两个儿子。其中一个儿子铃木康弘曾在柒和伊控股任高管，于2016年离职。

For much of the past decade, Seven & i has been in the midst of a major overhaul. The 7-Eleven operator expanded beyond convenience stores and supermarkets, into retail outlets selling everything from stationery to baby goods. But many of those peripheral businesses have struggled.

在过去十年的大部分时间里，柒和伊控股一直在进行重大改革。它试图将触角从便利店和超市延伸至文具、婴儿用品等各类零售领域。但诸多外围业务均表现不佳。

In 2024, the Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard approached Seven & i with a $47 billion takeover offer. Seven & i rejected the bid, but internally, the offer intensified a growing sense of crisis. The company’s stock price and growth prospects had stalled, and critics argued that 7-Eleven’s last major product innovation was the freshly brewed counter coffee introduced under Mr. Suzuki in 2013.

2024年，加拿大零售商Alimentation Couche-Tard提出以470亿美元收购柒和伊控股。虽然公司拒绝了这一提议，但收购要约也加剧了内部日益严重的危机感。公司的股价和增长前景双双陷入停滞，批评人士指出，7-Eleven上一次重大产品创新还要追溯到2013年铃木任内推出的现磨咖啡。

Last year, the company gained momentum with the appointment of a new chief executive, Stephen Dacus, who quickly laid out plans to spend billions of dollars on overseas expansion. Mr. Dacus has said he hopes to revive Mr. Suzuki’s trailblazing spirit. The demanding nature of Japanese consumers, Mr. Dacus said in an interview last year, “forces you to innovate.”

在去年任命了新任首席执行官斯蒂芬·戴卡斯后，公司迎来转机。戴卡斯迅速制定了斥资数十亿美元进行海外扩张的计划。戴卡斯曾表示，他希望能重振铃木的开创精神。在去年的一次采访中，他表示，日本消费者要求很高，“迫使你去创新”。