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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FamilyMart Offers to Increase Its Stake in Donki: Success or Failure Will Depend on the Premium

Donki's Big Push into the US Market Led by Current CEO

FamilyMart Bought Some PPIH. Will Buy More PPIH.

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

Pan Pacific International Holdings / Equity Bottom-Up

Pan Pacific International Holdings (7532 JP)

Pan-Pacific International Holdings (PPI) has more than doubled store numbers in the last five years and become one of the elite retailers with sales approaching ¥1.5 trillion. It opened its 700th store in December.
As well as the promise of higher profits from converting Uny stores, PPI plans to expand aggressively in ASEAN countries and has sent its CEO to the USA to spearhead expansion there.
At home, more discount stores will be opened with core operations more and more like Aldi and Lidl, including in the converted Uny stores.
PPI just released its latest forecasts for the year ending June 2020. It now expects operating profit to rise 14.1% to ¥7.2 billion (although net profit will fall 2.3%) with sales up 25.7% to ¥1.67 trillion, ¥100 billion more than originally forecast. Sales in 1H2020 rose 67.3%, operating profit up 50.3% and net profit up 22.3%. PPI credited the stronger than expected performance at converted Uny stores (from both tenants and store floors) for some of the improvement. Overall same store sales, however, fell 0.7%, due to the loss of tourist traffic from South Korea, an issue that is likely to worsen this year due to the drop in Chinese visitors.
On 5 February, PPI held a press conference to announce its latest mid to long-term plan to 2030 called Passion2030. The plan now calls for sales of ¥3 trillion by 2030 and operating profit of ¥200 billion. Of this, ¥2 trillion in sales is expected from the domestic market and ¥1 trillion from overseas, i.e. much more growth is expected overseas than at home.

Pan-Pacific International Holdings (PPI) has more than doubled store numbers in the last five years and become one of the elite retailers with sales approaching ¥1.5 trillion. It opened its 700th store in December.
As well as the promise of higher profits from converting Uny stores, PPI plans to expand aggressively in ASEAN countries and has sent its CEO to the USA to spearhead expansion there.
At home, more discount stores will be opened with core operations more and more like Aldi and Lidl, including in the converted Uny stores.
PPI just released its latest forecasts for the year ending June 2020. It now expects operating profit to rise 14.1% to ¥7.2 billion (although net profit will fall 2.3%) with sales up 25.7% to ¥1.67 trillion, ¥100 billion more than originally forecast. Sales in 1H2020 rose 67.3%, operating profit up 50.3% and net profit up 22.3%. PPI credited the stronger than expected performance at converted Uny stores (from both tenants and store floors) for some of the improvement. Overall same store sales, however, fell 0.7%, due to the loss of tourist traffic from South Korea, an issue that is likely to worsen this year due to the drop in Chinese visitors.
On 5 February, PPI held a press conference to announce its latest mid to long-term plan to 2030 called Passion2030. The plan now calls for sales of ¥3 trillion by 2030 and operating profit of ¥200 billion. Of this, ¥2 trillion in sales is expected from the domestic market and ¥1 trillion from overseas, i.e. much more growth is expected overseas than at home.

Pan Pacific: Don Quijote Strong at Home and Abroad