Total number of convenience stores, based on the number of convenience stores in each prefecture listed in the Town Pages (telephone directory) under "convenience stores."

Hokkaido is ranked first. Hokkaido, the homeground of Seicomart, is known as a competitive convenience store market, which is backed by data.

A question was posted on Yahoo!'s "Chiebukuro" (Yahoo! Answers) with respect to the great number of convenience stores in Hokkaido and the following was chosen as the best answer:
"With respect to Hokkaido, it is understandable because convenience stores function as the shopping stores of each area."
It may be that convenience stores are used for different purposes compared to Honshu.

Prefectures in eastern Japan are ranked high, creating a typical "high east, low west" distribution.

While there are urban areas such as Tokyo with many convenience stores, there are urban areas such as Osaka with few convenience stores. Likewise, there are rural areas with many convenience stores and rural areas with few convenience stores. It seems that the difference in lifestyle between urban areas and rural areas is irrelevant to the number of convenience stores.

It may be that people in eastern Japan simply like convenience stores.