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

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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)

The continuation of the ‘Great Wage Squeeze’ in Japan over the past two decades means more households have found it harder to make ends meet. The retail response in terms of value and discount retailing has been slow until recently, but Japan’s 100 Yen Shops were helping out from the start, emerging as a major feature of the retail landscape in the 1990s, and growing reasonably consistently since. With renewed pressure recently on household budgets from high prices on essentials like fresh food, combined with a growing appetite for discount retailing among even prosperous consumers, the top four 100 Yen Shop retailers are thriving today, opening a combined 500 shops last year alone. While there is some suggestion of upcoming saturation, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/12989" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:12989:1">Seria Co Ltd (2782 JP)</a> in particular looks likely to carve out a bigger market share thanks to disciplined supply chain management, effective use of data analysis, and strong brand loyalty.Expansion of private label merchandise is helping 100 Yen stores differentiate from the competition, and boosting margins, particularly Seria which has shown consistently high levels of profit growth recently.

The continuation of the ‘Great Wage Squeeze’ in Japan over the past two decades means more households have found it harder to make ends meet. The retail response in terms of value and discount retailing has been slow until recently, but Japan’s 100 Yen Shops were helping out from the start, emerging as a major feature of the retail landscape in the 1990s, and growing reasonably consistently since. With renewed pressure recently on household budgets from high prices on essentials like fresh food, combined with a growing appetite for discount retailing among even prosperous consumers, the top four 100 Yen Shop retailers are thriving today, opening a combined 500 shops last year alone. While there is some suggestion of upcoming saturation, Seria Co Ltd (2782 JP) in particular looks likely to carve out a bigger market share thanks to disciplined supply chain management, effective use of data analysis, and strong brand loyalty.Expansion of private label merchandise is helping 100 Yen stores differentiate from the competition, and boosting margins, particularly Seria which has shown consistently high levels of profit growth recently.

Pan Pacific International Holdings (7532 JP)

Fixed Price 100 Yen Shops Bask in Growing Discount Economy in Japan