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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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)

JapanConsuming’s retail ranking for FY2017 has now been compiled, and the results show that the retail industry enjoyed another extremely good year in FY2017. 
There are now 79 companies with sales of ¥250 billion or more, including franchise operators and holding companies, and overall sales grew by 4.5%, way ahead of the 1.9% growth in retail sales overall, showing how much the bigger businesses are outperforming the rest of the sector, and how quickly they are eating up market share.
What follows is a comprehensive review of the major developments, focusing on the two key trends of e-commerce and greater group concentration, with an analysis of each of the major format sectors in the ranking.
It’s a long read but provides a complete and concise summary of both winners and losers, and the key trends in the retail sector at the moment.

JapanConsuming’s retail ranking for FY2017 has now been compiled, and the results show that the retail industry enjoyed another extremely good year in FY2017. 
There are now 79 companies with sales of ¥250 billion or more, including franchise operators and holding companies, and overall sales grew by 4.5%, way ahead of the 1.9% growth in retail sales overall, showing how much the bigger businesses are outperforming the rest of the sector, and how quickly they are eating up market share.
What follows is a comprehensive review of the major developments, focusing on the two key trends of e-commerce and greater group concentration, with an analysis of each of the major format sectors in the ranking.
It’s a long read but provides a complete and concise summary of both winners and losers, and the key trends in the retail sector at the moment.

Pan Pacific International Holdings (7532 JP)

Retail Ranking FY2017-18: Winners and Losers in Japanese Retailing