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

Big Apparel in Trouble: Renown Finally Goes Under

Big Apparel in Trouble: Sanyo Shokai to Close 160 Stores

World Resets as Losses Mount for Apparel Firms

Sanyo Shokai Launches New Brands: Too Little Too Late with Further Decline to Come

Sanyo Shokai Signs Joint Venture with Spanish Brand Ecolaf but It Won't Stop the Rot

Hell Will Freeze over And (Some) Japanese Department Stores Will Increase OPM

Japanese Department Stores 2018-19: Taking New Risks Creates Opportunity

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

As reported in an earlier insight (<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/big-apparel-in-trouble-onward-to-close-1-400-stores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Big Apparel in Trouble: Onward to Close 1,400 stores</a>), Japan's big apparel firms were already fighting for survival before March and now even more so.
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sanyo-shokai-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:12308:1" rel="noopener">Sanyo Shokai (8011 JP)</a> is in worse shape than most because it lost the license for <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/burberry-group-plc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:21849:1" rel="noopener">Burberry (BRBY LN)</a> in 2015 and not only failed to set up replacement licenses or brands in the years leading up to that loss, but has failed spectacularly ever since.
Not surprisingly, a US shareholder, RMB Capital, has been putting pressure on the apparel firm to get its house in order after years of empty promises about profit recovery. At the shareholder's meeting in late May, Japanese shareholders closed ranks, however.
While Sanyo Shokai may have won this round, in the longer-term battle for survival, it looks worryingly vulnerable to the same fate as <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/renown-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:10158:1" rel="noopener">Renown Inc (3606 JP). </a>

As reported in an earlier insight (Big Apparel in Trouble: Onward to Close 1,400 stores), Japan's big apparel firms were already fighting for survival before March and now even more so.
Sanyo Shokai (8011 JP) is in worse shape than most because it lost the license for Burberry (BRBY LN) in 2015 and not only failed to set up replacement licenses or brands in the years leading up to that loss, but has failed spectacularly ever since.
Not surprisingly, a US shareholder, RMB Capital, has been putting pressure on the apparel firm to get its house in order after years of empty promises about profit recovery. At the shareholder's meeting in late May, Japanese shareholders closed ranks, however.
While Sanyo Shokai may have won this round, in the longer-term battle for survival, it looks worryingly vulnerable to the same fate as Renown Inc (3606 JP). 

Big Apparel in Trouble: Sanyo Shokai Slashes Stores and Fights off Shareholder Pressure