When the owner of 7-Eleven announced this week that it had received a buyout offer from a Canadian rival it triggered shockwaves in Japan.
A Japanese company of this size has never been bought by a foreign firm.
Historically, companies from Japan were more likely to buy overseas businesses.
7-Eleven is the world’s biggest convenience store chain, with 85,000 outlets across 20 countries and territories.
And it’s been especially successful at selling itself as an option for a quick and cheap yet tasty meal, and in places where there is already an abundance of that, such as Japan and Thailand.
“We have more stores than McDonald’s or Starbucks,” the chief executive of Seven & i Holdings, Ryuichi Isaka, told BBC News before the firm received the buyout offer.
Around a quarter of those 85,000 shops are in Japan, while there are roughly 10,000 in the US.
A big player
In comparison, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates the Circle K chain, has almost 17,000 stores in 31 countries and territories. More than half of its outlets are in North America.
The approach valued Seven & i at more than $30bn (£23bn) before news of the preliminary offer emerged.
7-Eleven’s shares jumped by over 20% on Monday, before giving up some of those gains the following day.
Analysts point to the Japanese yen’s weakness against the US dollar and other major currencies for helping to make Seven & i affordable.
Along with the weakness of the yen, efforts by the Japanese government to promote mergers and acquisitions appear to be working, said Manoj Jain from Hong Kong-based hedge fund Maso Capital.
However, the proposal is still at the preliminary stage and given the potential size of any deal it could face scrutiny from competition authorities.