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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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

Seven &amp; I sent in a team of senior executives to sort out Sogo Seibu three years ago resulting in recommendations that included handing off the Kansai stores and converting others to shopping centres.The resulting restructuring is in progress, with more stores closed than any other department store chain.  Next month will also see the formal renaming of Sogo Kobe and Seibu Takatsuki as Hankyu stores. The move gives <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/h2o-retailing-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:17562:1" rel="noopener">H2O Retailing (8242 JP),</a> which owns the department stores of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hankyu-hanshin-holdings-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13058:1" rel="noopener">Hankyu Hanshin Holdings (9042 JP)</a> the opportunity to further consolidate its position as the preeminent retailer in the Kansai region.Seven &amp; I meanwhile will now focus on extracting more sales and profit from some of the remaining 15 stores but is likely to want to convert or close more stores in the near future. Already, it has decided to convert its large Seibu Tokorozawa store into a shopping centre later this year. The net result will be a much smaller chain of department stores that Seven &amp; I could well be packaging up to sell to a competitor or offload through an MBO. This could lead to an improvement in OPM.

Seven &amp; I sent in a team of senior executives to sort out Sogo Seibu three years ago resulting in recommendations that included handing off the Kansai stores and converting others to shopping centres.The resulting restructuring is in progress, with more stores closed than any other department store chain.  Next month will also see the formal renaming of Sogo Kobe and Seibu Takatsuki as Hankyu stores. The move gives H2O Retailing (8242 JP), which owns the department stores of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings (9042 JP) the opportunity to further consolidate its position as the preeminent retailer in the Kansai region.Seven &amp; I meanwhile will now focus on extracting more sales and profit from some of the remaining 15 stores but is likely to want to convert or close more stores in the near future. Already, it has decided to convert its large Seibu Tokorozawa store into a shopping centre later this year. The net result will be a much smaller chain of department stores that Seven &amp; I could well be packaging up to sell to a competitor or offload through an MBO. This could lead to an improvement in OPM.

Seven & I's Sogo Seibu Loses Kansai Branches, Converting More Stores to SCs