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

ZOZO Launches 18 New Brands, Adds Golf Section

Mitsubishi, Backer of Uniqlo and Adastria, Launches Own Chain

Japan Retail Review 2019-20 Part II: A Sector by Sector Review of Winners and Losers

Mercari – Conditions Remain Strong and Poshmark and ThredUP Listings Could Raise Multiples

The Zozo Revival: A New Private Brand of Many Names, Category Expansion, Merchants Return

Familymart: What's Next? And Will Mitsubishi React?

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 staples / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

The latest survey of Japanese e-commerce by the Ministry of Trade, Economy &amp; Industry (METI) is now out showing that the e-commerce channel continued to grow strongly in FY2019. The current health crisis is further fuelling the speed of growth beyond everyone’s expectations.Online sales of goods alone rose to over ¥10 trillion and total e-commerce transactions hit ¥19.3 trillion.Apparel and food remain the two largest categories online, but publishing saw the biggest growth in 2019 as suppliers finally accepted the inevitable consumer shift to electronic versions.At 6.2%, EC penetration in Japan remains much lower than either the USA or UK, where the channel reportedly accounts for 9.9% and 20.7% of retail respectively. This is in part because Japan has as many stores as the US, a market with three times the population, making stores that much more accessible. The current crisis however has accelerated the shift to online, a worry for physical retailers of all kinds.EC remains on track to break 10% of merchandise sales by 2025 at the latest and, especially with the shift online over the past nine months, could even hit that target in the next three years.

The latest survey of Japanese e-commerce by the Ministry of Trade, Economy &amp; Industry (METI) is now out showing that the e-commerce channel continued to grow strongly in FY2019. The current health crisis is further fuelling the speed of growth beyond everyone’s expectations.Online sales of goods alone rose to over ¥10 trillion and total e-commerce transactions hit ¥19.3 trillion.Apparel and food remain the two largest categories online, but publishing saw the biggest growth in 2019 as suppliers finally accepted the inevitable consumer shift to electronic versions.At 6.2%, EC penetration in Japan remains much lower than either the USA or UK, where the channel reportedly accounts for 9.9% and 20.7% of retail respectively. This is in part because Japan has as many stores as the US, a market with three times the population, making stores that much more accessible. The current crisis however has accelerated the shift to online, a worry for physical retailers of all kinds.EC remains on track to break 10% of merchandise sales by 2025 at the latest and, especially with the shift online over the past nine months, could even hit that target in the next three years.

Japan E-Commerce Breaks ¥10 Trillion, Set for Major Boost This Year