Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Michael is co-founder and partner at JapanConsuming.

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports and seminars on retail sectors and consumer trends, as well as telephone consulting/meetings with investors. 

All of JapanConsuming's team are bilingual and bi-cultural, and the company's research sources are:

Direct meetings with retailers, wholesalers, distributors, trade body staff, govt., marketing firms, academics etc.
Govt. data
Trade association data
Trade Press across all consumer sectors
Unique Network of buyers/managers/marketing staff at retail, as well as wholesalers and trading firms.
Editors/Journalists at publishing houses and PR/Ad firms.


JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Michael Causton set up and ran a consumer distribution business in Tokyo for 10 years and developed this into a business responsible for annual imports to Japan of several billion Yen, at the same time building up an inside knowledge of how Japanese distribution works and developing a network of contacts across the industry. Seeing the lack of quality market intelligence on Japanese markets, he co-founded JapanConsuming in 2000. He divides his time between Japan and Europe/US consulting for companies, governments and investors, including providing talks, seminars, and webinars as well as writing reports and books.

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Aoyama Trading: 400 Redundancies but Aims for Relevance Through Digital and Co-Working

The Suit Comes Off: Japan Suits Retail Market Collapses

FY2020 Proves Better than Expected for Japan Retail but Savings Surge

American Eagle Outfitters Enters Buyout Talks with Aoyama Shoji

Japanese Retailing: The Big Disruption – and Opportunity – in the Next 5 Years

Drug-Fuelled Marriages and Macho Shachos* in Japan

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Equity Bottom-Up

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aoyama-trading-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:4544:1" rel="noopener">Aoyama Trading (8219 JP)</a> had previously confirmed its intention to cancel the franchise for <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/american-eagle-outfitters" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:10217:1" rel="noopener">American Eagle Outfitters (AEO US)</a> early but had assumed the US firm would buy the 33-store operation itself.Unfortunately the loss-making chain doesn’t have optimal locations and nor is the chain currently profitable. As a result, all stores and online will close this month.This leaves Aoyama much more vulnerable to the decline in its core market of salaryman suits.

Aoyama Trading (8219 JP) had previously confirmed its intention to cancel the franchise for American Eagle Outfitters (AEO US) early but had assumed the US firm would buy the 33-store operation itself.Unfortunately the loss-making chain doesn’t have optimal locations and nor is the chain currently profitable. As a result, all stores and online will close this month.This leaves Aoyama much more vulnerable to the decline in its core market of salaryman suits.

Nippon Steel Trading Corporation (9810 JP)

Aoyama Trading

American Eagle Outfitters Exits Japan