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 following is an in-depth review of the retail sector results for 2018-19 giving investors a quick overview of the strengths and weaknesses in the sector as well as highlighting key winners and losers by sales growth and profit. <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/japan-retail-highlights-2018-19-sector-by-sector-and-winners-in-each-sector" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In an accompanying Insight, we provide snapshot reviews of each sector to give investors quick guides to seach retail sector's strengths and weaknesses.</a>
Leading retailers grew sales and share last year and made more money too. Although savings rates rose to their highest level ever in 2018, this also meant that a lot of households had money stored up, providing better retailers and brands with an opportunity to convince them to spend some of it.
Many formats and sectors had a good year including convenience stores, discount chains, drugstores, speciality chains such as in fashion and even consumer electronics (at least for now), but some also contracted, notably GMS chains and department stores.
Retailing also became more profitable last year, up 6% on average for the top 250 retailers, and is expected to grow profits further on the back of new technologies wrought by the pressures of the labour shortage. However, profit growth is slowing as competition increases across different formats.

The following is an in-depth review of the retail sector results for 2018-19 giving investors a quick overview of the strengths and weaknesses in the sector as well as highlighting key winners and losers by sales growth and profit. In an accompanying Insight, we provide snapshot reviews of each sector to give investors quick guides to seach retail sector's strengths and weaknesses.
Leading retailers grew sales and share last year and made more money too. Although savings rates rose to their highest level ever in 2018, this also meant that a lot of households had money stored up, providing better retailers and brands with an opportunity to convince them to spend some of it.
Many formats and sectors had a good year including convenience stores, discount chains, drugstores, speciality chains such as in fashion and even consumer electronics (at least for now), but some also contracted, notably GMS chains and department stores.
Retailing also became more profitable last year, up 6% on average for the top 250 retailers, and is expected to grow profits further on the back of new technologies wrought by the pressures of the labour shortage. However, profit growth is slowing as competition increases across different formats.

Pan Pacific International Holdings (7532 JP)

Japan Retail Review and Ranking 2018-19: Profit Growth Slowing as Competition Increases