Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

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

<ul>
<li>Itochu, Familymart, PPI (Don Quijote) and their data analytics partners have come together in the first case of cross-retailer ad platform development.</li>
<li>Itochu provides the central relationship that ties these companies together, and other deals are likely given the significant potential for retail media.</li>
<li>The opportunity for brands to market to these retailers’ customers through highly targeted ads will become ever more compelling, delivering new revenue streams for Donki and Familymart.</li>
</ul>


Itochu, Familymart, PPI (Don Quijote) and their data analytics partners have come together in the first case of cross-retailer ad platform development.
Itochu provides the central relationship that ties these companies together, and other deals are likely given the significant potential for retail media.
The opportunity for brands to market to these retailers’ customers through highly targeted ads will become ever more compelling, delivering new revenue streams for Donki and Familymart.


Itochu and Donki Tie on Retail Media to Create Major New Revenue Stream

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Global managers are at their lowest ever allocation in Asian equities.  From a peak of over 17% in 2018, average exposure has fallen to just 12.94%.</li>
<li>Declines were led by China &amp; HK Consumer Discretionary and Communication Services, whilst investors also scaled back exposure to Japan Communication Services, Industrials, Health Care and Consumer Staples</li>
<li>Among Global investors, overweight the benchmark in Asia is by far the non-consensus trade.</li>
</ul>


Global managers are at their lowest ever allocation in Asian equities.  From a peak of over 17% in 2018, average exposure has fallen to just 12.94%.
Declines were led by China &amp; HK Consumer Discretionary and Communication Services, whilst investors also scaled back exposure to Japan Communication Services, Industrials, Health Care and Consumer Staples
Among Global investors, overweight the benchmark in Asia is by far the non-consensus trade.


Telco/Internet specialist

Kirk Boodry

Redex Research

NTT (Nippon Telegraph & Telephone) / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/jtower-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31042:1" rel="noopener">JTower (4485 JP)</a> has signed a deal to buy 6,002 DoCoMo towers for ¥106bn validating its long term growth potential and its central position as Japan's infrastructure-sharing company</li>
<li>The headline numbers are maximums and could take years to realize as JTower grows to the scale required</li>
<li>Conversely it is not a large deal for DoCoMo but the first mobile tower sale/leaseback transaction in Japan highlights an industry shift towards more efficient capital deployment</li>
</ul>



JTower (4485 JP) has signed a deal to buy 6,002 DoCoMo towers for ¥106bn validating its long term growth potential and its central position as Japan's infrastructure-sharing company
The headline numbers are maximums and could take years to realize as JTower grows to the scale required
Conversely it is not a large deal for DoCoMo but the first mobile tower sale/leaseback transaction in Japan highlights an industry shift towards more efficient capital deployment


JTower Inc - DoCoMo Tower Agreement Is a Milestone

Quality-first, Business-perspective Strategy, Urbem (HK) Limited

Steven Chen

Quality-first, Business-perspective Strategy

<ul>
<li>With less than 60 employees, Tobila Systems is the absolute dominator in the space that can make a significant impact on Japan's society;</li>
<li>The valuation starts to look attractive while the fundamentals remain sound;</li>
<li>Partly benefiting from being the first entrant to this niche with a robust flywheel business model, the company now “monopolizes” both the supply side and the distribution side.</li>
</ul>


With less than 60 employees, Tobila Systems is the absolute dominator in the space that can make a significant impact on Japan's society;
The valuation starts to look attractive while the fundamentals remain sound;
Partly benefiting from being the first entrant to this niche with a robust flywheel business model, the company now “monopolizes” both the supply side and the distribution side.


Tobila Systems: The Monopoly that You Probably Never Heard Of (Even as Its Customer)

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>Analysts are expecting cashless payments in Japan for 2021 to show further accelerated growth in the use of mobile payment apps.</li>
<li>Surveys suggest consumers rapidly increased their use of mobile payments and are even expressing frustration when the service is unavailable. </li>
<li>PayPay is utterly dominant with nearly 50% share based on survey responses. We expect consolidation below from NTT, Mercari, Rakuten and KDDI.</li>
</ul>


Analysts are expecting cashless payments in Japan for 2021 to show further accelerated growth in the use of mobile payment apps.
Surveys suggest consumers rapidly increased their use of mobile payments and are even expressing frustration when the service is unavailable. 
PayPay is utterly dominant with nearly 50% share based on survey responses. We expect consolidation below from NTT, Mercari, Rakuten and KDDI.


Growth in Cashless Payments Surges in Japan – PayPay Totally Dominant

Japan

NTT DOCOMO, INC. provides various types of telecommunication services including cellular phones, satellite mobile communication, and wireless LAN Network. The Company also sells cellular phones, and other equipment.

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NTT Docomo Inc (9437 JP)

Itochu and Donki Tie on Retail Media to Create Major New Revenue Stream

Retail media is just emerging but will become a major source of new revenues for retailers in Japan thanks to their high footfall and customer...

Michael Causton

Asia: Global Investors Lose Faith

Global managers are at their lowest ever allocation in Asian equities. From a peak of over 17% in 2018, average exposure has fallen to just 12.94%.

Steven Holden

JTower Inc - DoCoMo Tower Agreement Is a Milestone

Japan is a latecomer to infrastructure sharing but DoCoMo's tower sale to JTower changes that. Considering the latter's scale, this could take a...

Kirk Boodry

Tobila Systems: The Monopoly that You Probably Never Heard Of (Even as Its Customer)

Emotional Mr. Market seems to be offering investors a precious opportunity to accumulate “partial ownerships” in this high-quality business at...

Steven Chen

Growth in Cashless Payments Surges in Japan – PayPay Totally Dominant

Japan is shifting from 80-90% cash retail transactions to 40-50% cashless in the blink of an eye. Softbank/Z HD dominates with nearly 50% share and...

Michael Causton

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