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

Aeon 2020: A Year of Ups and Downs but a More Profitable Future

Palette: Aeon’s New Hope for the Fast-Growing Discount Sector

Aeon's Tie with UK’s Ocado: A Chance for Online Food Leadership – but Not for a While

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

The latest Aeon Style was unveiled in June. Despite the format being around for about a decade, this is the first Aeon Style in central Tokyo and is being seen as a new model of supermarket designed for city centres.
Although all the big General Merchandise Store (GMS) retailers have been suffering from falling footfall and sales for more than a decade, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aeon-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3:1" rel="noopener">Aeon Co Ltd (8267 JP)'s</a> diligence in trying to revive the format with different models for suburban and city-centre locations may finally be paying off.
Combined with its investment in online supermarket ordering systems and BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store), Aeon may finally have a solution for all those ageing big box stores.

The latest Aeon Style was unveiled in June. Despite the format being around for about a decade, this is the first Aeon Style in central Tokyo and is being seen as a new model of supermarket designed for city centres.
Although all the big General Merchandise Store (GMS) retailers have been suffering from falling footfall and sales for more than a decade, Aeon Co Ltd (8267 JP)'s diligence in trying to revive the format with different models for suburban and city-centre locations may finally be paying off.
Combined with its investment in online supermarket ordering systems and BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store), Aeon may finally have a solution for all those ageing big box stores.

New Aeon Style Format Shows Hope for Aeon's Core Business