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

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

The Japan Retail Review: Winners and Losers in Japanese Retailing (Part I)

MonotaRO (3064 JP): COVID-19 Drives Growth, Efficiency Supports Margins

Workman: Success Attracts New Competitors but in the Long-Term Workman Still Wins

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

Workman’s Work Is Done and It Is Time to Send Him Home

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. 

Equity Bottom-Up

It hasn’t been easy selling clothing in the last six months or even in the months before, unless, that is, you are <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/workman-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8467:1" rel="noopener">Workman Co Ltd (7564 JP)</a>.
The workwear to sports retailer delivered six straight months of sales growth peaking at 44% year-on-year thanks to low price cost performance, relentless expansion of private brands and investment in new franchisees.
Workman's share price is up more than 3x since we first recommended the retailer in late 2018 but we have been fans of the company for more than a decade for its disciplined focus on low-cost operations, merchandise quality and efforts to understand and produce for its core customer target.
It also helps that Workman is a franchise operation and one that, like Benetton and McDonald's and other successful franchises over time, buys the land its franchisees operate stores on. The franchise deal keeps costs way lower than competitors and also means personnel costs are for the most part variable while its competitors face fixed staff costs – a huge advantage especially now.
These are core qualities for a retailer and in all aspects, Workman continues to improve. Sales have risen as much as 44% a month since March and as explained below, there are very strong reasons to expect both sales and profit margins to grow much, much further. The share price may have dipped in recent days but the fundamentals remain strong: more growth is to come.

It hasn’t been easy selling clothing in the last six months or even in the months before, unless, that is, you are Workman Co Ltd (7564 JP).
The workwear to sports retailer delivered six straight months of sales growth peaking at 44% year-on-year thanks to low price cost performance, relentless expansion of private brands and investment in new franchisees.
Workman's share price is up more than 3x since we first recommended the retailer in late 2018 but we have been fans of the company for more than a decade for its disciplined focus on low-cost operations, merchandise quality and efforts to understand and produce for its core customer target.
It also helps that Workman is a franchise operation and one that, like Benetton and McDonald's and other successful franchises over time, buys the land its franchisees operate stores on. The franchise deal keeps costs way lower than competitors and also means personnel costs are for the most part variable while its competitors face fixed staff costs – a huge advantage especially now.
These are core qualities for a retailer and in all aspects, Workman continues to improve. Sales have risen as much as 44% a month since March and as explained below, there are very strong reasons to expect both sales and profit margins to grow much, much further. The share price may have dipped in recent days but the fundamentals remain strong: more growth is to come.

Japan's Retail Star: Workman Thrives in Crisis