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

Adastria: Japan's “Apparel Market to Shrink by 30% in Next 6 Years”

Fast Retailing: Expensive but the Fundamentals for Long-Term Strong

Fashion E-Commerce Has Watershed Year in 2020

Japanese Step Outside: Outdoor Market Jumps 7.5% as Workman Aims for Leadership

The Winners in Japanese Fashion Retailing

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

Seven & I's Sogo Seibu Loses Kansai Branches, Converting More Stores to SCs

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 Textiles, apparel and luxury goods / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

The apparel and fashion market contracted slightly last year and no single format was immune to the tougher trading environment – even the online channel.
The large store formats suffered the worst but a number of major specialty chains also posted lower sales. In e-commerce, even <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zozo-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18379:1" rel="noopener">ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)</a> suffered its lowest sales growth in several years.
The reasons are clear: consumption of apparel fell again last year while other categories like home interiors, food and communications rose.
At the same time, the leading specialty retailers face saturation in some product categories and territories. As a result, e-commerce share continues to grow as does that of the biggest firms – the top 10 apparel retailers saw their share increase 3 points in a year to 30%.
This is Part I of a 2-part review of Japan's apparel and fashion markets. <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/winners-losers-and-key-business-trends-in-japanese-fashion-retailing-2018-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part II of our review is here</a> and has profiles of the winners in 2018-19 and key trends impacting performance now and going forward.

The apparel and fashion market contracted slightly last year and no single format was immune to the tougher trading environment – even the online channel.
The large store formats suffered the worst but a number of major specialty chains also posted lower sales. In e-commerce, even ZOZO Inc (3092 JP) suffered its lowest sales growth in several years.
The reasons are clear: consumption of apparel fell again last year while other categories like home interiors, food and communications rose.
At the same time, the leading specialty retailers face saturation in some product categories and territories. As a result, e-commerce share continues to grow as does that of the biggest firms – the top 10 apparel retailers saw their share increase 3 points in a year to 30%.
This is Part I of a 2-part review of Japan's apparel and fashion markets. Part II of our review is here and has profiles of the winners in 2018-19 and key trends impacting performance now and going forward.

Japan Fashion Market Review 2019 Part I: A Stable Market but Tougher Trading All Round