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

Qoo10 Japan to Launch ¥10 Billion Fashion Mall Rival to Zozo

Platforms Add Merchant Support as Japan's Online Fashion Wars Move Offline

Rakuten Pay Tops the Japanese Cashless War

Rakuten Focuses on Rakuten Ichiba as Sales Surge Again

Rakuten Q2 19: Mixed Results and A "Small-Scale" Mobile Launch; Good News for Incumbent Mobile

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

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/z-holdings-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19603:1" rel="noopener">Z Holdings' (4689 JP)</a> (Yahoo Japan) decision to accept Yusaku Maezawa’s proposal to buy his stake in Zozo has caused major ructions in the fashion industry and e-commerce.While Amazon continues to carve its own path and is building significant share, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/rakuten-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31:1" rel="noopener">Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)</a> was quick to respond to the threat of a powerful new competitor in “Z&amp;Zozo”, with plans to build a ¥1 trillion fashion business in the next few years.If anything shows that the industry regards Z&amp;Zozo as a potential winner, it is the strength of competitors' response.  That Rakuten is, and will be, investing so heavily in the fashion e-commerce space shows just how much Z&amp;Zozo could threaten it and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/amazon-com-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1" rel="noopener">Amazon.com's  (AMZN US)</a> Japan unit going forward.<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/z-and-line-sitting-in-a-tree-m-e-r-g-i-n-g" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The potential deal between Z and LINE Corp (3938 JP)</a> will only enhance Z&amp;Zozo's capacity to reach new customers.

Z Holdings' (4689 JP) (Yahoo Japan) decision to accept Yusaku Maezawa’s proposal to buy his stake in Zozo has caused major ructions in the fashion industry and e-commerce.While Amazon continues to carve its own path and is building significant share, Rakuten Inc (4755 JP) was quick to respond to the threat of a powerful new competitor in “Z&amp;Zozo”, with plans to build a ¥1 trillion fashion business in the next few years.If anything shows that the industry regards Z&amp;Zozo as a potential winner, it is the strength of competitors' response.  That Rakuten is, and will be, investing so heavily in the fashion e-commerce space shows just how much Z&amp;Zozo could threaten it and Amazon.com's  (AMZN US) Japan unit going forward.The potential deal between Z and LINE Corp (3938 JP) will only enhance Z&amp;Zozo's capacity to reach new customers.

The Online Fashion Wars: Rakuten Takes on Z&Zozo