Lawson Inc, Japan’s number two convenience store retailer, is to use the opening of up to 50 outlets in Hawaii as a springboard to expand onto the US mainland.

The retailer plans to open its first two stores in Hawaii in late June or early July and has longer-term aims for Hawaii and for the US. “We eventually aim to open between 30 and 50 outlets in Hawaii,” a spokesperson said, without providing a timetable for when more stores could be opened.

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The first two outlets in Honolulu will be tenants of the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel and the Moana Surfrider Westin Resort & Spa, and will be directly managed by a local Lawson subsidiary formed in January.

The company is aiming to gather knowledge of local consumers for a future launch onto the US mainland. The Hawaii outlets will acquaint US tourists with the chain.

The spokesperson said the US market was a priority for Lawson CEO Takeshi Niinami.

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“Niinami views the US market as second only to the Asian market in Lawson’s strategy,” the spokesperson said. 

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However, the spokesperson declined to reveal details on when and where Lawson’s first mainland US outlets will be opened. However, he confirmed the company will open a data centre in Silicon Valley to analyse data garnered from Ponta, a customer loyalty card introduced in Japan in 2010, which help assess what prospects it has in the US.

Japan’s retailers are looking at overseas expansion amid a falling and ageing domestic population. The Japanese population shrank by 259,000 people to under 128m people in the year to 1 October, according to the ministry of internal affairs and communications. Japan’s three major convenience store operators – Seven & I Holdings, Lawson and FamilyMart – say there is leeway for only 5,000 new c-stores in Japan, so overseas expansion is needed.