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

Fashion: Still the Biggest Japanese E-Commerce Category – and Still Growing Fast

Fashion Retailers Fight Back Against the Dominance of Zozotown

Zozo: A ¥700 Billion Business in Three Years. Really?

Yahoo Japan Delivers Solid Ad Revenue Growth in 3Q16/17. The Outlook Remains Positive.

Rakuten and Yahoo Japan: Leaving the Past Behind

Yahoo Japan - Knee Jerk Reaction to Results Looks All Wrong

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. 

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Japan Consumer discretionary / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul class=""><li>E-commerce sales grew just under 10% in 2016 at the most conservative estimate, and we expect double digit growth for at least the next five years.</li><li>E-commerce will be Japan’s largest single retail channel by 2025. It overtook convenience stores to become the second biggest after supermarkets and GMS in 2015.</li><li>While Japan lags behind other major markets like China, the US and UK in terms of e-commerce share of overall retailing, definitions differ, and for mobile shopping, Japan is by far the most advanced market – and luckily for merchants in Japan, smartphone shoppers spend as much as seven times more than average shoppers online.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li>Fashion has been the biggest driver of e-commerce in the last five years, other than digital services, but it is food that is likely to see the biggest online growth surge going forward, presaging a major upheaval in food distribution.</li><li>All this growth places a significant burden on courier firms, but solutions are being worked out, and because of the country’s dense population clusters, Japan could become, while not the biggest e-commerce market, quite possible the most efficient.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li></ul>

E-commerce sales grew just under 10% in 2016 at the most conservative estimate, and we expect double digit growth for at least the next five years.E-commerce will be Japan’s largest single retail channel by 2025. It overtook convenience stores to become the second biggest after supermarkets and GMS in 2015.While Japan lags behind other major markets like China, the US and UK in terms of e-commerce share of overall retailing, definitions differ, and for mobile shopping, Japan is by far the most advanced market – and luckily for merchants in Japan, smartphone shoppers spend as much as seven times more than average shoppers online. Fashion has been the biggest driver of e-commerce in the last five years, other than digital services, but it is food that is likely to see the biggest online growth surge going forward, presaging a major upheaval in food distribution.All this growth places a significant burden on courier firms, but solutions are being worked out, and because of the country’s dense population clusters, Japan could become, while not the biggest e-commerce market, quite possible the most efficient. 

E-Commerce in Japan 2017-2022: Relentless Expansion Means Upheaval in Consumer Goods Distribution