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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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

IKEA is Japan's number two furniture retailer but after 12 years in the market, it continues to lose ground as Nitori expands, diversifies and opens a host of new formats.
Earlier this month IKEA announced that it will finally open a smaller store in central Tokyo, at last delivering a store format that fits the Japanese market and its particular distribution realities.
However unless it expands the smaller store network very quickly, it will find it impossible to narrow Nitori's lead – the latter already owns more than 50% of the furniture market.
Nitori is building a power base and the necessary economies of scale to expand successfully into more overseas markets, and IKEA could well find Nitori carving out a share of its other key markets soon too, including Europe.

IKEA is Japan's number two furniture retailer but after 12 years in the market, it continues to lose ground as Nitori expands, diversifies and opens a host of new formats.
Earlier this month IKEA announced that it will finally open a smaller store in central Tokyo, at last delivering a store format that fits the Japanese market and its particular distribution realities.
However unless it expands the smaller store network very quickly, it will find it impossible to narrow Nitori's lead – the latter already owns more than 50% of the furniture market.
Nitori is building a power base and the necessary economies of scale to expand successfully into more overseas markets, and IKEA could well find Nitori carving out a share of its other key markets soon too, including Europe.

IKEA's New Small Inner City Format For Japan Won't Knock Nitori off Its Perch

Nitori Holdings

IKEA's New Small Inner City Format For Japan Won't Knock Nitori off Its Perch