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

Seven Premium: Private Label Now 22% of All Seven & I’s Group Sales

Seven & I Opens Truly New Concept Mixing Convenience and Supermarket Range

Seven & I: Sogo Seibu to Close 30% of Remaining Stores

Seven & I’s Latest Structural Reforms: More Like Forced Changes than Structural Reforms

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

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/seven-i-holdings-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1041:1" rel="noopener">Seven &amp; I Holdings (3382 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/askul-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16807:1" rel="noopener">Askul's (2678 JP)</a> Lohaco closed the IY Fresh online store on the Lohaco shopping portal last month. IY Fresh was the only fresh food supplier on Lohaco, but after launching in 2017, it never expanded beyond just two Tokyo wards.</p><p>Now Lohaco will need to add new fresh food partners and ranges of its own while Ito-Yokado will go back to the drawing board, even though it is rapidly being overtaken by the many new competitors in online food.</p>

Seven &amp; I Holdings (3382 JP) and Askul's (2678 JP) Lohaco closed the IY Fresh online store on the Lohaco shopping portal last month. IY Fresh was the only fresh food supplier on Lohaco, but after launching in 2017, it never expanded beyond just two Tokyo wards.Now Lohaco will need to add new fresh food partners and ranges of its own while Ito-Yokado will go back to the drawing board, even though it is rapidly being overtaken by the many new competitors in online food.

Seven & I Holdings

Seven & I Closes IY Fresh on Lohaco