I hadn’t noticed this until I read it in Tokyo by Donald Ritchie, but it certainly does seem to be true. He doesn’t bother asking why, but I’d go for:
- Electronic = modern= showing you are successful counts even more in small rural towns
- The original doors were sliding too, so it’s not such a big change
- The reason for the original and new sliding doors is that there is no room to open them either into the shop or into the street
