By Yuri Kageyama
The Associated Press

NUMAZU, Japan - The aisles are wide, the selection is huge - and Wal-Mart's first warehouse-sized supercenter store in Japan is a hit with shoppers.

Japanese consumers are not familiar with the Wal-Mart name, and the store is called Seiyu, Wal-Mart's partner in Japan. Since the store opened April 7, people have been lured by its sheer size.

"If a big store like that opens, it's really convenient for the residents," said Koichi Watanabe, a community leader. "The aisles are roomy. The whole place is made for easy shopping."

Compared to old-style Japanese stores with a mishmash of merchandise crowding the shelves, the towering aisles here are filled with rows and rows of similar products.

Bold signs that read "shoes" or "toys" hang from above to direct shoppers, and a moving walkway takes shoppers with their giant carts to a rooftop parking lot. The store is so big benches had to be placed in some spots - customers complained they needed a rest.

The opening had none of the rancor that has greeted some of Wal-Mart's recent U.S. stores.

"I've never once heard of any opposition in the community," Watanabe said.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., took a stake two years ago in Seiyu, which runs 400 stores in Japan.