"They have a giant warehouse so they have to pay rent, pay wages for warehouse employees and carry a huge amount of inventory at their own risk, because not every book is going to get sold, " says 7-Eleven Japan Vice Chairman Masaaki Kamata.
For although remarkably few human beings are visible in the harbour itself modern technology has automated much of the process the ports directly or indirectly support about half a million jobs, from longshoremen to truckers and warehouse workers and those who sell and rent to them.